Jo Baker

Riveting and moving, The Midnight News is a tour de force from acclaimed and bestselling author Jo Baker - a love story, a war story, and an unforgettable journey into the fragile mind and fierce heart of an extraordinary young woman

Riveting and unforgettable, The Midnight News is a tour de force from acclaimed and bestselling author Jo Baker - a love story, a war story, and an unforgettable journey into the fragile mind and fierce heart of an extraordinary young woman.

Going through a divorce is one of the most difficult things you will do, and it affects every aspect of your life, even if it was your choice to leave. Suddenly, you're wholly and solely responsible for 'it all' and your husband or partner is no longer there to bounce ideas off of. Maybe you feel like you need to re-learn how to live life as a single woman and you're getting the feeling you need to do it quickly. One of the scariest things about being on your own after you've separated or divorced can be managing your finances. If you don't regain control of your money, you're in danger of losing more than just your relationship. In this book, Jo will gently guide you through the process of creating a solid money plan and will help you create a working budget that meets your unique needs and circumstances, not some cookie cutter, one size fits all approach, that will leave you confused and unlikely to see results. She will show you how to demolish your bad debt and make sure that you always have money put aside for when you need it most. But she doesn't stop there, because Jo knows that money is not just about the numbers-it's also about mindset and behaviours. Jo bookends your money plan by helping you create the positive habits you need to really make this work. This isn't your regular money management book, this is a book about feminine financial empowerment. This is about taking you by the hand and showing you there's a new way to live life after divorce.

I don’t recall if I saw my first gunman in my childhood nightmares or on my childhood streets. There were plenty in both and they looked very much like each other. So begins Reggie Chamberlain-King’s introduction to The Black Dreams, a thrilling and compelling collection of specially commissioned stories that explore the emotional geography of growing up and living in Northern Ireland. The fourteen stories gathered here criss-cross coast, border and city as they map a ‘strange’ territory of in-between states and unstable realities in which understanding is unreliable. Obsessions, death and rebirth, violence, sexuality, retribution and apocalypse are all part of the rich fabric of The Black Dreams. Bringing together some of Northern Ireland’s finest writers, along with some of the best new talents, The Black Dreams celebrates and extends the rich tradition of the weird, surreal and dream-like in Northern Irish writing. It is also a powerful act of imagining and storytelling – a vibrant, vivid and exhilarating exploration of a world we cannot, or choose not, to see. Contributors: Jo Baker, Jan Carson, Reggie Chamberlain-King, Aislínn Clarke, Emma Devlin, Moyra Donaldson, Michelle Gallen, Carlo Gébler, John Patrick Higgins, Ian McDonald, Gerard McKeown, Bernie McGill, Ian Sansom, Sam Thompson

From the bestselling author of Longbourn a work of riveting psychological suspense that grapples with how to live as a woman in the world--or in the pages of a book--when the stakes are dangerously high. "Gripping...the perfect marriage of risky literary fiction and full-on thriller." --Maria Semple, bestselling author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette When a young writer accepts a job at a university in the remote English countryside, it's meant to be a fresh start, away from the bustle of London and the scene of a violent assault she is desperate to forget. But despite the distractions of her new life and the demands of single motherhood, her nerves continue to jangle. To make matters worse, a vicious debate about violence against women inflames the tensions and mounting rivalries in her creative-writing class. When a troubled student starts turning in chapters that blur the lines between fiction and reality, the professor recognizes herself as the main character in his book--and he has written her a horrific fate. Will she be able to stop life imitating art before it's too late? At once a breathless cat-and-mouse game and a layered interrogation of the fetishization of the female body, The Body Lies gives us an essential story for our time that will have you checking the locks on your doors.

The American debut by the bestselling author of Longbourn--a vivid, indelibly told novel that follows four generations of a family against the backdrop of a century of turmoil. - "Gripping.... Emotionally powerful.... You can't walk away from her book." --The New York Times Book ReviewThe Undertow traces the lives of the Hastings family, from the eve of the First World War to the present day: William, a young factory worker preparing to join the navy; his son Billy, who cycles into the D-Day landings; his grandson Will, an Oxford professor in the 1960s; and his great-granddaughter, Billie, an artist in contemporary London. Here Jo Baker reveals the Hastings' legacy of choices made, chances lost, and truths long buried in what is an enthralling story of inheritance, fate, passion, and what it means to truly break free of the past.

Set against the rolling backdrop of a century of British history from WWI to the 'War on Terror', this is an intimate family portrait captured in snapshots. First there is William, the factory lad who loses his life in Gallipoli, then his son Billy, a champion cyclist who survives the D-Day Landings on a military bicycle, followed by his crippled son Will who becomes an Oxford academic in the 1960s, and finally his daughter Billie, an artist in contemporary London. Just as the names - William, Billy, Will, Billie - echo down through the family, so too the legacy of choices made, chances lost, and secrets kept. Rich in drama and sensuous in detail, The Picture Book is a beautifully crafted story about parents and children, about fate and repetition, and about the possibility of breaking free.

When Rachel sets off alone for her mother's isolated country house, she promises herself that the business of packing up and selling will only take a couple of weeks, and then she'll be home again, and back to normal. But from the moment she steps through the front door, Rachel feels that the house contains more than she had expected: along with the memories of her mother, there is something else, a presence - not quite tangible - trying to make itself felt. As Rachel struggles to put her mother's affairs in order, she grows ever more convinced that the house holds a message for her. Can the ghosts of the past be forcing their way into the present, or is Rachel really beginning to lose her mind?