Secrets of the Sewing Bee tells the story of the defiant and courageous women on the home front, from Kate Thompson, author of Secrets of the Singer Girls. Orphan Flossy Brown arrives at Trout's garment factory in Bethnal Green amidst the uncertainty of the Second World War. In 1940s London, each cobbled street is strewn with ghosts of soldiers past, all struggling to make ends meet. For the women of the East End, their battles are on the home front. Flossy is quickly embraced by the colourful mix of characters working at Trout's, who have turned their sewing expertise to vital war work. They fast become the family that Flossy has always longed for. Things aren't so easy for Peggy Piper, another new recruit at the factory. She's used to the high life working as a nippie in the West End, and is not best pleased to find herself bent over a sewing machine. Dolly Doolaney, darling of the East End, sets up a sewing circle and the ladies at Trout's play their part in defending the frontline as they arm themselves with their needles and set about stitching their way to victory. But as the full force of the Blitz hits London, the sewing bee are forced to shelter in the underground tube stations on a nightly basis. In such close quarters, can Dolly manage to contain the secret that binds them all? And how will Peggy and Flossy cope as their lives are shaped and moved by forces outside of their control?

Secrets of the Sewing Bee

À Dublin, durant l'été, une troupe de théâtre répète une pièce de Shakespeare. Deirdre, jeune actrice débutante, vient de décrocher son premier rôle important et tente d'éblouir David, le metteur en scène dont elle est follement amoureuse. Mais David n'a d'yeux que pour la star de la compagnie, l'incandescente Eva Lavery. Sur qui, alors, jeter son dévolu ? Sebastian ou Rory ? Entre ces deux séduisants acteurs, le coeur de Deirdre balance. Dans les coulisses, espoirs et déceptions se succèdent... Comment, dans ces conditions, garder la tête froide et ne pas compromettre sa carrière ? Désorientée, Deirdre voit ses illusions s'évanouir l'une après l'autre. Avant de comprendre, enfin, qu'il y a une différence entre le désir et l'amour...

A contre-emploi

The Allotment Girls is an inspiring and heartwarming novel of wartime hardship, friendship and fortitude from Kate Thompson, author of the Secrets of the Sewing Bee. During the Second World War, life in the iconic Bryant & May match factory is grimy and tough. Annie, Rose, Pearl and Millie carry on making matches for the British Army, with bombs raining down around them. Inspired by the Dig for Victory campaign, Annie persuades the owners to start Bryant & May allotment in the factory grounds. With plenty of sweat and toil, the girls eventually carve out a corner of the yard into a green plot full of life and colour. In the darkest of times, the girls find their allotment a tranquil, happy escape. Using pierced dustbin lids to sieve through the shrapnel and debris, they bring about a powerful change, not just in the factory, but their own lives. As the war rages on, the garden becomes a place of community, friendship - and deceit. As the garden thrives and grows, so do the girls' secrets .

The Allotment Girls

Traveling to the land of eternal youth was the only way J. J. Liddy could stop time from leaking from his world to T'ir na n'Og. But fifteen years after returning from the land of the faeries, J. J. wonders if that long-ago visit is responsible for the strange things now happening to those around him. Why does his daughter Jenny roam barefoot through the wilds, when she should be in school? When did the mysterious white goat begin to patrol the hillside? What is the secret project that J. J.'s son Donal is attempting? And who is the ghost guarding the stone beacon at the top of the mountain-and why has Jenny befriended him?Finding answers to these questions will take J. J. and his family on the most important and dangerous journey of their lives. If they fail, it will undo all the good that J. J. accomplished fifteen years ago. But if they succeed, they will defeat the forces that are gathering to destroy all of mankind, and finally secure the future of the last of the high kings.

The Last of the High Kings

I could hear Dennis talking to my ma. 'She was little,' he said. 'Little like me. But old. Older than you.' Those words gave me a cold shock. I could see Dennis imagining fairies, but old ones?When Bobby's mother moves the family into a rented house in the country, a neighbour tells him that a child was once murdered there. Bobby doesn't care. All he wants is to get back to Dublin and to resume his wild life there, stealing from the crowded shopping streets and racing stolen cars at night. But getting his old life back doesn't turn out to be so easy, and the longer he spends in the old cottage, the more convinced he becomes that something very strange is going on there. Was there really a murder? And if so, was it the one he has been told about?

Créature de la nuit

The first time Laurie and her dad see the white rider watching them from the shadows of the trees, he is alone. Is the rider somehow linked to the genetic research into squirrels that Laurie is helping her dad with in the lab? She discovers what the riders mean but will it be too late to stop the inevitable events that has been set in motion?

The Fourth Horseman

À Londres, en 1944, la guerre fait des ravages. Les bombardements sont incessants, et entre le black-out et les évacuations quotidiennes, les habitants vivent l'enfer dans un monde de plus en plus incertain et dangereux. C'est pourtant dans ce contexte que Clara a décidé d'ouvrir une petite bibliothèque qui ne ressemble à aucune autre. Au coeur d'une station de métro servant d'abri anti-aérien, des rayonnages s'offrent aux amateurs. Chaque nuit, lorsque les bombes pleuvent sur Londres, les habitants qui s'y réfugient trouvent aussi un peu de réconfort dans la littérature. Peu à peu, cette bibliothèque de fortune où l'on peut aussi boire un thé ou un gin, devient le coeur vivant de cette vie souterrraines où Clara se bat pour offrir des livres et, avec eux, un peu de liberté, un répit au coeur du chaos et le courage de braver l'horreur du monde...

La petite bibliothèque de l'espoir

Secrets of the Singer Girls is Kate Thompson's heartwarming and moving novel about the brave, hardworking women who kept the homefires burning in the East End of London during World War Two.1942. Sixteen-year-old Poppy Percival turns up at the gates of Trout's clothing factory in Bethnal Green with no idea what her new life might have in store. There to start work as a seamstress and struggling to get to grips with the noise, dirt and devastation of East London, Poppy can't help but miss the quiet countryside of home. But Poppy harbours a dark secret - one that wrenched her away from all she knew and from which she is still suffering .

Secrets of the Singer Girls

Le narrateur est un orphelin qui survit dans la rue depuis sa plus tendre enfance. Mais voilà que la chance lui sourit ! Un grand cavalier lui confie la garde de sa fougueuse jument noire jusqu’à son retour, moyennant une pièce d’or. Une telle aubaine ne se produit pas deux fois dans la vie, et il accepte avec joie ! A peine le cavalier parti, le garçon voit arriver une foule de gens. Tous s’intéressent de très près à la superbe monture, et lui proposent de la lui racheter à prix d’or. Mais quand il finit par apprendre qu’elle appartient à un célèbre bandit de grand chemin, Dick Turpin, l’orphelin avoue, à un interlocuteur invisible auquel il raconte toute son histoire, qu’il a dû lutter pour ne pas céder à la tentation...

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