Esther Freud

Acclaimed novelist Esther Freud's first picture book – a timeless tale about the magic of spending time together at the seaside. “A beautiful, magical book that captures childhood at the seaside.” Emma Chichester Clark From treasure hunts in spring, summer days spent playing on the beach, flying kites in autumn and walking through buffeting winter storms, the magic of the beach is that it changes with the seasons and we change with it. A timeless story from acclaimed novelist Esther Freud about the importance of spending time together - from tiny moments playing in the sand to bigger milestones of birthdays and New Year Day swims - together in a very special place.

A captivating coming-of-age novel about love, sisterhood, secrets and betrayal ‘A subtle, clever, evocative book’ Joanna Quinn, Guardian Book of the Day From the author of Hideous Kinky comes a captivating novel about sisterhood, secrets, betrayal and love. For as long as Lucy can remember, she’s been caught between loyalty to her rootless, idealistic mother and devotion to her fierce and exacting sister, Bea. From her unsettled childhood to her turbulent teenage years, she’s been forced to make a choice. But as the sisters come of age and embark on their own experiments – in love, drugs, work, motherhood – they find their lives, and their relationships, increasingly in turmoil. Can the love they have for each other transcend the damage of the past? Or is the past too dangerous to examine?

A hundred years. Thousands of women. One extraordinary pond. I have learned about peacocks and terrapins, giant cobras and booming widgeons; I have heard about celebrity spottings and al-fresco lovemaking and digestive biscuits. These things make up the history of the Ladies’ Pond, but they also give us an insight into a hundred years of women’s lives. From code breakers to cake bakers, I have learned that there is no such thing as a ‘normal woman’; and over the last hundred years the Pond has played host to thousands of remarkable people. For a century, the Ladies’ Pond on Hampstead Heath has welcomed women from every walk of life: artists and activists, swimmers and sunbathers, friends and free spirits. As Britain’s most famous female open-air swimming spot, a pocket of wildness tucked away in the middle of the city, it has long attracted adventurous swimmers from all over the UK and the wider world. Brave and Bold celebrates one hundred years of this beloved London landmark through the rhythm of a single swimming year, from frozen Januarys to sun-drenched midsummers; through friendships, feminist activism and the joy of open water. Created in official partnership with the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond Association and rich with previously unseen archive material and new interviews – from Dolly Alderton and Amy Liptrot to lifelong swimmers of every era – this is far more than the story of one pond. It’s a story of community, women and wild water across a century of social and political change, from suffragettes to soap stars, war to liberation, and shared flasks of tea to acts of quiet rebellion. Brave and Bold is both a love letter to Hampstead Heath and to every woman who has ever felt most at home bobbing about in open water.

A stirring novel from the author of I Couldn't Love You More and Hideous Kinky: the story of two sisters who couldn't be more different and the great love that holds them together throughout a tumultuous youthFor as long as Lucy can remember, she's been caught between love for her rootless mother and devotion to her fierce and exacting sister, Bea. From their peripatetic childhood to their restless teenage years--hitching through rural Ireland, the move to a communal house--she's been forced to make a choice between these two very different ways of approaching life. But as the girls come of age and embark on their own experiments--in love, drugs, work, motherhood--Bea is at risk of drifting further and further away. Can their loyalty to each other transcend the damages of a past that feels almost too dangerous to examine? With scalpel-sharp insight, Esther Freud excavates the most intimate relationships of our lives, laying bare the fear and longing, the secrets and mistrust. My Sister and Other Lovers is an irresistible exploration of love, family, and freedom in all its forms.

A captivating coming-of-age novel about love, sisterhood, secrets and betrayal

A lyrical picture book celebrating the changing seasons and living at the seaside with a gentle environmental message by an award-winning author and an exciting new illustration talent. From summer days spent playing on the beach, to flying kites in autumn, to buffeting winter storms and treasure hunts in spring, this is a magnificent celebration of the seaside throughout the changing year. This joyful story charts family life by the sea and celebrates many milestones such as birthdays and New Years. Esther’s lively poetic and lyrical text combines perfectly with Emma’s classic illustrations to captivate and enchant young readers.

A captivating coming-of-age novel about love, sisterhood, secrets and betrayal'Slender, perfect and sparkling ... I'm stricken with love for this book' Meg Mason'Details the profound and complex nature of love and family ... Spare, moving and beautifully written' Jojo Moyes‘Freud brings us directly inside the beating hearts of her characters. I loved this’ Miranda Cowley Heller‘Both delicate and profound – about how relationships bind us together and pull us apart’ Tracy Chevalier____________________________________________________From the author of Hideous Kinky comes a captivating novel about sisterhood, secrets, betrayal and love. For as long as Lucy can remember, she’s been caught between loyalty to her rootless, idealistic mother and devotion to her fierce and exacting sister, Bea. From her unsettled childhood to her turbulent teenage years, she’s been forced to make a choice. But as the sisters come of age and embark on their own experiments – in love, drugs, work, motherhood – they find their lives, and their relationships, increasingly in turmoil. Can the love they have for each other transcend the damage of the past? Or is the past too dangerous to examine?

In her first picture book, a renowned novelist weaves a gentle environmental message into a lyrical ode to family life at the seaside through the changing seasons. It's stormy and the beach is whipped. Ridged and raked, the dune's a cliff. Swept and battered, littered, cluttered. Calm descends; we're left with gifts. Camping on the beach in summer, flying kites in autumn, combing storm-whipped sands in winter, treasure hunts in spring--here is a magnificent tribute to life by the ocean throughout the year. In a joyful story charting a family's adventures and celebrations--from New Year's to birthdays--Esther Freud's poetic text melds with Emma Chinnery's sprightly, atmospheric illustrations to captivate little ocean lovers and budding conservationists.

The great arc or arc de cercle (Arch of Hysteria) with its ambivalence of loss of control and domination, is a seductive motif that has a long tradition in the history of art and culture. It can be found in representations of dance and acrobatics, though it also describes physical or psychological illnesses: the overextended (female) body expresses ecstatic rapture or even a psychotic disorder, yet in dance it stands for virtuoso body control and expressiveness. With Arch of Hysteria , the Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, centers an exhibition entirely on this powerful visual motif. Works of art from the last one hundred years and various contexts, are on display, tracing the variety of expressive possibilities inherent in the pose - to the point of transforming it into abstract, yet expressive and therefore unmistakable forms. The book and the exhibition illuminate the (art) historical roots of the motif as well as current adaptations in painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and video and performance art. Among the protagonists are Denis Darzacq, Max Ernst, Gustav Klimt, Alfred Kubin, Auguste Rodin, Alexandra Bircken, Louise Bourgeois, Valie Export and many others.

An unforgettable novel of mothers and daughters, wives and muses, secrets and outright lies‘Freud is a modern literary rarity: a born storyteller’ THE TIMES'Such a powerful book' RICHARD CURTIS'Delivers an emotional punch that left me in tears' RACHEL JOYCE'Utterly compelling' HANNAH ROTHSCHILD'I couldn't love it more' POLLY SAMSON'I loved this book' AMANDA CRAIG'Completely, inspiringly wonderful' BARBARA TRAPIDO'Breathtakingly beautiful' JULIET NICOLSONAN EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF 2021Rosaleen is still a teenager, in the early Sixties, when she meets the famous sculptor Felix Lichtman. Felix is dangerous, bohemian, everything she dreamed of in the cold nights at her Catholic boarding school. And at first their life together is glitteringly romantic – drinking in Soho, journeying to Marseilles. But it’s not long before Rosaleen finds herself fearfully, unexpectedly alone. Desperate, she seeks help from the only source she knows, the local priest, and is directed across the sea to Ireland on a journey that will seal her fate. Kate lives in Nineties London, stumbling through her unhappy marriage. But something has begun to stir in her. Close to breaking point, she sets off on a journey of her own, not knowing what she hopes to find. Aoife sits at her husband’s bedside as he lies dying, and tells him the story of their marriage. But there is a crucial part of the story missing and time is running out. Aoife needs to know: what became of Rosaleen? Spanning three generations of women, I Couldn’t Love You More is an unforgettable novel about love, motherhood, secrets and betrayal – and how only the truth can set us free.

A sweeping story of three generations of women, crossing from London to Ireland and back again, and the enduring effort to retrieve the secrets of the past It's London, 1960, and Aoife Kelly--once the sparkling object of young men's affections--runs pubs with her brusque, barking husband, Cash. Their courtship began in wartime London, before they returned to Ireland with their daughters in tow. One of these daughters--fiery, independent-minded Rosaleen--moves back to London, where she meets and begins an affair with the famous sculptor Felix Lehmann, a German-Jewish refugee artist over twice her tender eighteen years. When Rosaleen finds herself pregnant with Felix's child, she is evicted from her flat, dismissed from her job, and desperate to hide the secret from her family. Where, and to whom, can she turn? Meanwhile, Kate, another generation down, lives in present-day London with her young daughter and husband, an unsuccessful musician and destructive alcoholic. Adopted and floundering to find a sense of herself in the midst of her unhappy marriage, Kate sets out to track down her birth mother, a search that leads her to a Magdalene Laundry in Ireland and the harrowing history that it holds. Stirring and nostalgic at moments, visceral and propulsive at others, I Couldn't Love You More is a tender, candid portrait of love, sex, motherhood, and the enduring ties of family. It is impossible not to fall under the spell of this tale of mothers and daughters, wives and muses, secrets and outright lies. From Soho to London to Ireland, I Couldn't Love You More is a captivating novel that delves into the complexities of womanhood and feminism, earning it a spot among the best novels about women.

Invited to accompany her father on a summer trip to a Tuscan villa, seventeen-year-old Lara finds herself attracted to their nearest neighbors, the glamorous Willoughbys, the teenaged children of a British millionaire, especially the flirtatious Kip Willoughby, who draws her into a summertime confrontation with danger, first love, and unexpected consequences. Original. 25,000 first printing.

Fifty years after the death of an esteemed architect, a young woman researches his life and work, experiencing through a series of letters the relationship between the architect and the beloved wife from whom he was separated by his work numerous times throughout their marriage. By the author of Hideous Kinky. Reader's Guide available. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.

An unforgettable novel of mothers and daughters, wives and muses, secrets and outright lies ‘Freud is a modern literary rarity: a born storyteller’ THE TIMES 'Such a powerful book' RICHARD CURTIS 'Delivers an emotional punch that left me in tears' RACHEL JOYCE 'Utterly compelling' HANNAH ROTHSCHILD 'I couldn't love it more' POLLY SAMSON 'I loved this book' AMANDA CRAIG 'Completely, inspiringly wonderful' BARBARA TRAPIDO 'Breathtakingly beautiful' JULIET NICOLSON AN EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF 2021 Rosaleen is still a teenager, in the early Sixties, when she meets the famous sculptor Felix Lichtman. Felix is dangerous, bohemian, everything she dreamed of in the cold nights at her Catholic boarding school. And at first their life together is glitteringly romantic – drinking in Soho, journeying to Marseilles. But it’s not long before Rosaleen finds herself fearfully, unexpectedly alone. Desperate, she seeks help from the only source she knows, the local priest, and is directed across the sea to Ireland on a journey that will seal her fate. Kate lives in Nineties London, stumbling through her unhappy marriage. But something has begun to stir in her. Close to breaking point, she sets off on a journey of her own, not knowing what she hopes to find. Aoife sits at her husband’s bedside as he lies dying, and tells him the story of their marriage. But there is a crucial part of the story missing and time is running out. Aoife needs to know: what became of Rosaleen? Spanning three generations of women, I Couldn’t Love You More is an unforgettable novel about love, motherhood, secrets and betrayal – and how only the truth can set us free.

Writing From the Hampstead Ladies' Pond. A collection of writing on the much-loved Ladies' Pond by the women who swims there. Big name contributors include Margaret Drabble, Esther Freud, and Leanne Shapton and newer voices such as Sophie Mackintosh. Tucked away along a shadt path towards the north east edge of hampstead Heath is a sign: Women Only - Men Not Allowed Beyond This Point. This is the Kenwood Ladies Bathing Pond, the only wild swimming spot in the UK just for women.

"Nothing can go missing. No wool, no kits. Especially no needles" Lady Anne Tree - one of the most aristocratic women in England - spent her life in prisons. As a visitor, she saw first-hand the aggression, low self-esteem, and high reoffending rates among the most hardened criminals. Lady Anne thought she had the answer. She would teach them needlecraft. Based on a true story, this is an inspiring and heart-warming debut play by best-selling novelist Esther Freud, directed by BAFTA-winning filmmaker Gaby Dellal. Praise for Esther Freud. "A superbly gifted writer" NEW YORK TIMES "Fresh, witty, involving and touching" INDEPENDENT Esther Freud's first novel Hideous Kinky was made into a film starring Kate Winslet. Granta named her one of the Best Young Novelists under 40. She has since written seven novels, including The Sea House, Love Falls, Lucky Break and most recently Mr Mac & Me.

'A compelling tale beautifully told, Mr Mac & Me is as close to a perfect novel as anything I’ve read in a long time. I loved every page of it' Ann PatchettSet on the Suffolk coastline in 1914, a compelling story of an unlikely friendship from the Granta Best of Young British author of Hideous Kinky and The Sea HouseThomas 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.

It is 1914, and Thomas Maggs lives with his parents on the Suffolk coast. Life is quiet - shaped by the seasons. Then one day a mysterious Scotsman arrives, looking for all the world like Sherlock Holmes. Mac is what the locals call him as they whisper. 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.