Needles and Pearls (42 page)

IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS

‘A joy: a laugh-out-loud account of Annie Baker’s
life and loves … a heartbreaking, funny look
at parenting and passion’ –
Elle

Life just keeps getting more complicated for Annie Baker. Her sister Lizzie’s pregnant and wants Annie to be her birth-partner, while Kate from the village has somehow ended up having an affair with her own ex-husband. As for the men in Annie’s own life, it just gets worse. Her seven-year-old son Charlie is now officially Pagan, and desperate for a pet pheasant. Boss Barney’s taken up TV commercials involving stunts that aren’t exactly safe. Then there’s Uncle Monty to keep an eye on, eighty-three and threatening the Meals on Wheels lady with a shotgun. And then Mack comes back from New York, just when Annie was beginning to think she might be able to cope without him …

STAND BY YOUR MAN

‘A funny and touching novel. I wish I’d
written it’ – Arabella Weir

Alice Mayhew, part-time architect and full-time mother to Alfie, is to gardening what Alan Titchmarsh is to deep-sea fishing. So finding she’s been volunteered to design a new garden for the village comes as a bit of a shock, because apart from anything else she’s far too busy trying to convince Alfie that wearing green trousers doesn’t make you Peter Pan, and that flying is best left to experts. Molly O’Brien is finding it hard enough coping with Lily (aged four and likes washing-up) and Matt (aged thirty-two and doesn’t) before she discovers she’s pregnant. And then there’s Lola Barker, who causes havoc wherever she goes, and brings a whole new meaning to ‘high-maintenance’.

DIVAS DON’T KNIT

‘Warm and wonderful’ –
Cosmopolitan

Jo Mackenzie, recently widowed, with two young sons and a perilous bank balance, leaves London to take over her grandmother’s wool shop in the Kentish seaside town of Broadgate Bay. Marmalade mohair instead of peach four-ply, an A-list actress and a Stitch and Bitch group addicted to cake all help, but it’s not going to be easy. Very big dogs, small-town intrigue, packed lunches and the joys of knitting, not to mention romance, loom large in this funny and uplifting novel.

First published in Great Britain 2008
Copyright   Gil McNeil 2008

This electronic edition published 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

The right of Gil McNeil to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise
make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means
(including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying,
printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the
publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages

Bloomsbury Publishing      London     New York     Berlin     Sydney

49-51 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9 7814 088 21282

www.bloomsbury.com/gilmcneil

Visit
www.bloomsbury.com
to find out more about our authors and their books.
You will find extracts, authors interviews, author events and you can
sign up for
newsletters
to be the first to hear about our latest releases and special offers