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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',…
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…
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…
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…