Kirjahaku

Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for FictionWinner of the McKitterick Prize 2011Runner up, Mind Book of the Year 2011 Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' First Book Award, the Waverton Good Read Award, the Authors Club First Novel Awardthe Wellcome Trust Book PrizeThe doctors said no more could be done and advised Grace's parents to put her away.On her first day at the Briar Mental Institute, Grace, aged eleven, meets Daniel.Debonair Daniel, an epileptic who can type with his feet, sees a different Grace: someone to share secrets and canoodle with, someone to fight for.A deeply affecting, spirit-soaring story of love against the odds.

From the Orange Prize shortlisted author of GRACE WILLIAMS SAYS IT LOUD, an entrancing novel about a young French girl and the English family who invade her Alpine village and her life.

'Henderson's Grace Williams Says It Loud was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and this more than matches it.'Elizabeth Buchan, Daily MailIn June 1914, Sir Anthony Valentine, a keen mountaineer, arrives with his family to spend the summer in their chalet, high in the French Alps. There, for the first time, fourteen-year-old foundling Mathilde starts work as one of the 'uglies' - village girls employed as servants and picked, it is believed, to ensure they don't catch Sir Anthony's roving eye. For Mathilde it is the start of a life-long entanglement with les anglais - strange, exciting people, far removed from the hard grind of farming. Except she soon finds the Valentines are less carefree than they appear, with a curiously absent daughter no one talks about. It will be decades - disrupted by war, accidents and a cruel betrayal - before Mathilde discovers the key to the mystery. And in 1976, the year Sir Anthony's great-great grandson comes to visit, she must decide whether to use it. Vividly evoking the dramatic landscape that so enthrals the Valentines, this deeply involving, intriguing novel tells the story of an English family through the generations and a memorable French woman, whose lives seem worlds apart yet which become inextricably connected.

There was something else in the air that night which made us feel that the flight we had just operated was somehow significant. Whether it was anticipation of our impending doom or just a realisation that a tidal wave was rushing towards us and we were trapped on the beach, unable to escape its inevitability, I will never know, but ultimately, although I did not know it at the time, this was a very significant flight for me because it turned out to be the last flight in eleven years at my airline, in a career spanning more than thirty years and five different bases. The fact that there are still fewer than 500 female airline captains in the world today is part of the reason that I wanted to tell my story. I have a voice, it is my responsibility to use it to benefit other people, I may be grounded, at the moment, but this isn’t necessarily the end of my flying story, it never is when you fly, because flying is not something you do, flying is something you are. “Emma’s journey will resonate with so many in and outside of the airline industry… A brilliant read.” Mandy Hickson First woman to fly the Tornado GR4 on the front line, leading TedX speaker and bestselling author