ESTHER FREUD

It is their first day at Drama Arts, and the huddled circle of students- Dan, serious and driven, Nell, already convinced that she is going to fail, well-meaning Hettie and careless, glamorous Charlie- is told in no uncertain terms that here, unlike at any other drama school, they will be taught to Act.

It is 1914, and Thomas Maggs, the son of the local publican, lives with his parents and sister in a village on the Suffolk coast. He is the youngest child, and the only son surviving. Life is quiet - shaped by the seasons, fishing and farming, the summer visitors, and the girls who come down from the Highlands every year to gut and pack the herring. Then one day a mysterious Scotsman arrives. To Thomas he looks for all the world like a detective, in his black cape and hat of felted wool, and the way he puffs on his pipe as if he's Sherlock Holmes. Mac is what the locals call him when they whisper about him in the Inn. And whisper they do, for he sets off on his walks at unlikely hours, and stops to examine the humblest flowers. He is seen on the beach, staring out across the waves as if he's searching for clues. But Mac isn't a detective, he's the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and together with his red haired artist wife, they soon become a source of fascination and wonder to Thomas Yet just as Thomas and Mac's friendship begins to blossom, war with Germany is declared. The summer guests flee and are replaced by regiments of soldiers on their way to Belgium, and as the brutality of war weighs increasingly heavily on this coastal community, they become more suspicious of Mac and his curious behaviour. In this tender and compelling story of an unlikely friendship, Esther Freud paints a vivid portrait of a home front community during the First World War, and of a man who was one of the most brilliant and misunderstood artists of his generation. It is her most beautiful and masterful work.

MR. MAC AND ME

It is July, three months after Lara''s seventeenth birthday and a week before Charles and Diana''s Royal Wedding, when Lara''s father, a man she barely knows, invites her to accompany him on a holiday to Italy. Soon Lara has exchanged the exhaust fumes of London''s Holloway Road for the sun scorched hillsides of Tuscany, for evenings spent listening to her father and his old friend Caroline exchanging cool, sardonic banter about a past Lara knows nothing about. But as Lara''s skin turns golden, she begins to relax, seduced by the limpid beauty of the place, the rustle of the crickets and the lure of the pool. And then one night Lara is taken for dinner at the Willoughbys, their nearest neighbours, and finds herself irresistibly drawn to the carelessly beautiful only son of the family - A boy with five older sisters, who seems, fleetingly, unbelievably, to be interested in her too. But the Willoughbys are a family rife with conspiracies and vendettas, and the more embroiled Lara becomes with them the more consumed she is with doubt, curiosity and dread. Love Falls is an unforgettable story about families, secrets, and new love - about adolescence in all its awkwardness and excitement.It is a beautiful, troubling novel from the acclaimed author of Hideous Kinky.

homas Maggs, the son of the local publican, lives with his parents and sister in a village on the Suffolk coast in 1914. He is the youngest child, and the only son surviving. Life is quiet - shaped by the seasons, fishing and farming and the summer visitors.Then one day a mysterious Scotsman arrives. To Thomas he looks for all the world like a detective, in his black cape and hat of felted wool, and the way he puffs on his pipe as if he''s Sherlock Holmes. Mac is what the locals call him when they whisper about him in the inn. And whisper they do, for he sets off on his walks at unlikely hours, and stops to examine the humblest flowers. He is seen on the beach, staring out across the waves as if he''s searching for clues. But Mac isn''t a detective, he''s the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and together with his red-haired artist wife, they soon become a source of fascination and wonder to Thomas.Yet just as Thomas and Mac''s friendship begins to blossom, war with Germany is declared. The summer guests flee and are replaced by regiments of soldiers on their way to Belgium, and as the brutality of war weighs increasingly heavily on this coastal community, they become more suspicious of Mac and his curious behaviour.In this tender and compelling story of an unlikely friendship, Esther Freud paints a vivid portrait of a home front community during the First World War, and of a man who was one of the most brilliant and misunderstood artists of his generation

Esther Freud''s best-known novel, which inspired the Kate Winslet film, published as Penguin Essential for the first time. Two little girls are taken by their mother to Morocco on a 1960s pilgrimage of self-discovery. For Mum it is not just an escape from the grinding conventions of English life but a quest for personal fulfilment; her children, however, seek something more solid and stable amidst the shifting desert sands. "Just open the book and begin, and instantly you will be first of all charmed, then intrigued and finally moved by this fascinating story." (Spectator).

After Klaus Lehmanns death in the village of Steerborough, a young woman, Lily, arrives to research his life and work. Poring over Klaus letters to his wife Elsa, Lily pieces together the story of their lives. And alone in her rented cottage by the sea, she begins to sense an absence in her own life that may not be filled by simply going home.

Sixteen-year-old Lisa has high hopes for her first year in London. But she is squeezed into a flat with her bohemian mother and a little brother obsessed with foxes. Lisa trails through the city, dabbling with drugs and romance, and refusing to lose faith in her belief that something fantastic will happen to mark the rest of her life.

This novel interweaves the story of Sarah, a pregnant, out-of-work actress, with that of her ancestors in Germany at the time of World War I. For it is only now, as long-since confiscated estate of Gaglow is about to be returned, that the generations can be brought together across the decades.

On a holiday with her father, Lara meets the Willoughby family, rife with illicit alliances and vendettas. The more embroiled Lara becomes with them, and with the beautiful Kip, the more consumed she is with doubt, curiosity and dread. And so begins her journey into self discovery and across the fine line between childhood and what lies beyond.

Crónica de las aventuras de una familia hippie por las tierras de Marruecos, allá en los años sesenta, a través de la mirada de una niña de cinco años. Novela autobiográfica con la que debutó su autora, hija de Lucien Freud, bisnieta de Sigmud Freud, y una de las mas prometedoras novelistas inglesas

Sarah es actriz y madre soltera. Vive en un pequeño apartamento en el barrio londinense de Candem Town y allí tiene noticia de que Gaglow, la antigua hacienda de la familia en Alemania -incautada antes de la guerra- les ha sido finalmente restituida

It is July, three months after Lara''s seventeenth birthday, and one week before the much-anticipated Royal Wedding between the Prince of Wales and his teenage bride. Lara is about to leave for Italy, for a summer holiday with her distant, charismatic father. At Via Campanelli they are greeted by the cool, elegant Caroline whose sardonic composure leaves Lara tongue-tied and awkward. But as Lara''s skin begins to turn golden, she begins to find herself relaxing, seduced by the limpid beauty of the place. When she is taken for dinner at the villa of the neighbouring Willoughbys, she finds herself suddenly under new scrutiny. Though thrown and embarrassed by the glamour and noisy ebullience of the family, Lara is drawn to Kip, a carelessly beautiful boy a couple of years older than her. But a summer spent under the spell of the Willoughbys will leave her changed forever. Full of heady, hot afternoons and shady, cool palazzos, Love Falls is an unforgettable story about families, and about adolescence in all its desperate awkwardness and breathless excitement. It is a beautiful, lyrical and troubling novel from the acclaimed author of Hideous Kinky.