From Smuggling to Cotton Kings is the story of the Greg Family, who helped to shape the economic fortunes of Britain for more than two centuries. It tells of their rise to power and prominence in the fields of textiles, shipping, banking and marine insurance, their role in the industrial revolution and how their fortunes declined in the 20th century. In 1715 John Greg, a descendant of the McGregor clan, sailed from the family home in Ayrshire to seek his fortune in Ulster. He soon built a successful business as a merchant, his own sons becoming successful businessmen. Half a century later two...

The Butterfly's Cage, is the heart wrenching, inspiring true story of a young Pakistani woman's flight to freedom. Suffering familial abuse, tyranny and disownment as a result of refusing to submit to the abuse received by not one but two violent husbands, Shahnaz* opens the doors to a hidden world, illustrating how cultural values can allow human rights violations to prosper and the cost of reputation is integrity, respect and love. Born into a wealthy family with homes in both Britain and Pakistan, she was forced to give up school at the age of 12 in order to care for her younger brothers....

Suzanne Haslam endured such oppression and psychological torture at the hands of her domineering, control-freak husband that it drove her to a full-scale nervous breakdown. When she turned to her family for help, they accused her of imagining her problems - and even sided with her husband. In despair, she eventually managed to pluck up the courage to walk away from the marital home with nothing but her dog and a suitcase full of clothes. In an attempt to heal her psychological scars, Suzanne sought sanctuary in a remote Spanish monastery, where she discovered an extraordinary gift for second...

New York lawyer Paul Anfield can't take his eyes off the mysterious beauty who appears at his Uncle Lenny's funeral, complete with a bodyguard escort. Then Paul's new boss shows him a top-secret file Lenny left for his colleagues, and he begins to realise that there was more to his uncle, mentor and former boss than anyone realised. The file is pure dynamite. It reveals links at the highest level between big business, the international drugs trade and the US Government. But Paul's attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery quickly draw the attention of some very powerful and dangerous...

'Four Poplars' is about Clifford Davies' childhood when he was brought up in the village of Wroxham in the Norfolk Broads in the early years of the last century, the youngest child of the village schoolmaster. He enjoyed a childhood of extraordinary happiness and security. There was boating and swimming in the River Bure, which still ran crystal clear (the Broads had not yet become a holiday mecca). There were summer picnics on the river, messing about in (and with) boats and games of pirates and explorers. At home there was a great deal of music, singing and amateur dramatics. But life was...

In 1816 the author's great-great grandfather, Thomas Kearey, arrived in England to seek his fortune. He was the latest - but by no means the last - in a line of strong and resourceful men. This book is the story of the Keareys, and of their place in history through the centuries. It relates how the Ciardha ('Ciar's people') in the Ireland of the Dark Ages evolved into the modern Keareys, how holders of that name laboured, loved and fought through the centuries, and how in more recent times they were proud to fight with honour for their adopted country of Britain in two world wars. Terence...

Sniff Street was the dirtiest, scruffiest street in Bogsley, and Miss Potts' house was the most disgusting and revolting of all the disgusting and revolting houses in it. She seemed to take delight in surrounding the place with rubbish, bottles of rancid milk and maggot-infested garbage. And why did one of her eyes stick out like a glassy golf ball? No wonder eleven year-old Charlie Mace did his best to keep away from the place. But one day Charlie finds himself cornered by Miss Potts, and is roughly transported into a strange woodland world, a world in which he encounters a very odd...

When Steve Phillips started as a 15-year-old apprentice with a Birmingham engineering company in 1961, the Beatles were still the Quarrymen and a pint of mild cost one shilling and threepence. Five years of dirt and grind, legpulls, laughter and sheer hard graft later, Steve was a skilled turner and fitter, schooled the old-fashioned way by senior craftsmen who knew how to turn a screw, mill a die or grind a component to half a thousandth of an inch using manually-controlled machine tools, a micrometer and the skill in their fingers. He had also found the time - and saved the money - to marry...

The evil thugs of Idi Amin's Uganda and the fanatical bombers and machine-gun-toting terrorists of Mumbai make The Crocodile's Teeth a gripping tale of one man's survival and resourcefulness set against a background of tyranny, terror and hardship on two continents. Sam Thaker was born to Indian immigrant parents in Uganda in the days when it was one of the most beautiful, fertile and contented countries in the world. Then Idi Amin swept to power, and under his tyranny Sam's paradise became a hell on Earth. Having been forced by Amin's thugs to give up their home, Sam's thriving airline cargo...

Sanni Kruger was once so short of money that all she could afford to eat was baked beans and potatoes. Now an accountant, she has published a book designed to help people who don't have enough cash - or simply think they don't - to live more fulfilled lives by changing their attitude to money. Sanni learned about money management as a young girl by helping out at her father's accountancy practice in her home city of Hamburg, Germany. Now living and working in Bristol, she owns and runs Holistic Money Manager, a financial coaching service for people who need help managing their money. She...