We have updated our Privacy Policy Please take a moment to review it. By continuing to use this site, you agree to the terms of our updated Privacy Policy.
Libby Purves
By the Author
How Not to Raise a Perfect Child
A perfect child: * Dresses neatly and practises the violin before breakfast * Comes top of the class and is captain of everything * Is…
Acting Up
The Andersons are a military family with honours and traditions stretching back two hundred years. When the second Iraq war breaks out, it is only…
Continental Drift
Sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to see yourselves clearly . . . Henry is a young, hip, radio DJ; Philip is an…
Mother Country
Even her closest friend agreed that Shark Grayson wasn't fit to keep her baby. A heroin addict, living in a sordid London squat, she was…
How Not to be A Perfect Family
Perfect Families: * Tick off museums in the guidebook* Tidy everything away neatly* Work hard and play fair* Show respect for one anotherReal Families: *…
One Summer's Grace
In the summer of 1988, Libby Purves set sail with her family on a voyage round the entire coastline of Britain, from the soft, sandy…
A Free Woman
Sarah Penn and Maggie Reave are sisters, as different as a tabby and a tiger. Sarah has married kind, reliable Leo and settled contentedly into…
Shadow Child
A powerful novel from Radio 4 presenter and Times columnist Libby Purves, inspired by the loss of her own son. 'Family love is one of…
Love Songs and Lies
A story about coming of age in 1970s Oxford. Politics and the Pill. Pot and poetry. Glamrock and groupies. The way we were. Love isn't…
Radio: A True Love Story
Libby Purves has had an ongoing love affair with the radio since her childhood, when she saved her pocket money to buy a d-i-y transistor…
Home Leave
A perceptive novel from our favourite chronicler of the dilemmas of modern family life. Catherine and Caroline, Toby and Mark were globetrotting siblings: British 'diplo-brats',…
Regatta
Sheila Harrison always looks forward to the descent of the summer visitors onto 'Seafret', her tall brick house right on the front at Blythney, in…
Casting Off
What makes a wife and mother, pillar of the community and partner in a cosy tea-shop (The Bun in the Oven) suddenly run away to…
A Long Walk in Wintertime
Alice McDonald has escaped all the obvious traps that lie in wait for women. She loves her job but enjoys her clever, spirited children too;…
Passing Go
A funny, startling but ultimately hopeful novel of twenty-first century city lives. On the high ground above the great city, Roy and Helen live in…
Nature's Masterpiece
The family is nature's masterpiece' - George Santayana A compendium of practical advice and reflections on modern family life in the age of computer gaming,…
More Lives than One
Kit Milcourt - impatient, quirky, idealistic and brilliant - has been a climber, diver in exotic waters and affluent young city banker. Now, because of…