Not All Tarts Are Apple

Pip Granger

Scottsdale, AZ, U.S.A.: Poisoned Pen Press

<p>It is 1945, and all over England people are looking forward to being at peace again. Except for one woman. For recently married Zelda, peace means the return of her husband, and this is bad news indeed. Zelda has had to marry Charlie Fluck because she was pregnant by him. And the Fluck clan are backed by the unsavoury Holes, at the centre of whose criminal empire sits Ma Hole like a large malevolent toad. Not only is Zelda frightened of her husband - and she has reason to be, having lost her baby due to a bad 'fall' when Charlie pushed her down the stairs - but so is her good friend, Zinnia Makepeace, local midwife, herbalist, wise woman and layer out of bodies. Her house fronts Paradise Gardens, and she has the choicest of garden allotments - both of which Ma Hole is determined to have at any cost. Meanwhile young Tony, Zelda's nephew, is going off the rails. His dad's missing, presumed dead, his mum is in a state, and he's running wild with Bung 'Ole, or Brian Hole as his police records call him. But Tony can sing. He has, in fact, the voice of an angel. So Zelda arranges for Tony to have singing lessons to straighten him out - and this takes her to Soho, where she meets Maggie and Bert Fetherby who run a cheerful and very busy cafe in Old Compton Street. When Zelda reads Maggie's cards, and tells her that she can see a baby, she is unprepared for the tears that follow. For Maggie has always wanted a baby, and it seems that this is the one thing that she and Bert cannot have. Zelda knows there's a solution - but she has reckoned without the trouble now raging back in Paradise Gardens...</p>

Trouble in Paradise

Corgi

A rags-to-riches story with a deeply original spin, NOT ALL TARTS ARE APPLE is narrated by seven-year-old Rosie who grows up in a cafe in 1950s Soho, watched over by her eagle-eyed Auntie Maggie and Uncle Bert, and visited on occasions by her mother, the mysterious, and often drunk, Perfumed Lady. But it soon transpires that the Perfumed Lady's family - landed gentry who hail from a country estate near Bath - are desperate to get their hands on Rosie, and will stop at nothing - even kidnap - to acquire her. Peopled with a wonderful cast of eccentric subsidiary characters - Great Aunt Dodie, Madame Zelda and Paulette, Sharky, the Campini Family who run an Italian delicatessan in Old Compton Street, and Maltese Joe - all of whom live in a Soho so atmospherically evoked that you can smell and taste it, this is a novel made to be published by Transworld.

Not all tarts are apple

Romance

Contemporary

BANTAM PRESS

THE WIDOW GINGER.

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Poisoned Pen Press

No Peace for the Wicked

Brave, funny and authentic, Alone is a heartbreaking memoir of growing up in 1950s London in a world of poverty, alcohol abuse, parental neglect — and the courage of a little girl to find her way through the trouble-filled maze.

Alone

Biographies & Memoirs

Magna Large Print Books

In 1953, the dark alleyways of Soho, London, teem with crooks, fortunetellers, cardsharks, and ladies of the night. But even the toughest racketeer has a soft spot for Rosie, the adopted daughter of the whole neighborhood and resident ray of sunshine in the local café. A doorstop orphan, her world is filled with a menagerie of neighbors come to nosh and gossip. But as her Uncle Bert and pillowy-plump Aunt Maggie work to make Rosie's adoption legal, she learns that the woman she has always known as "The Perfumed Lady" is not only a professional tart, she's also a gin addict and Rosie's mum. As the real story unfolds and Rosie becomes the target of a plot, the neighborhood's response will delight readers and leave them hungry for the future titles in this charming new series, which "Maeve Binchy fans will enjoy" (Booklist).

Not All Tarts are Apple

Magna Story Sound

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Books by Pip Granger