Simon Thomas

She knew now, with a sense of deep tranquil certainty, that terror and injury could not spring from love of this kind, no matter what Nurse said. But she could not put all this into words. Set over the course of a summer, The Spring Begins follows the autonomous awakenings of three women at various stages of life and at different levels of employment within households. There's the young orphan Lottie, employed as a nursemaid to the wealthy Kellaway children and terrified by the world of men; the scullery maid Maggie, 19, and unafraid of seeking out pleasure where it is offered to her; and Hessy Price the older governess to a local clerical family whose worldview shatters when her younger sister becomes engaged. As each woman tries to navigate their physical desires alongside social propriety, the currency of beauty and youth alongside the toll domestic work and poverty takes on their bodies, each comes to find happiness in their own unique way. This human drama is set against the Kellayway's beautiful country house, though the house is often little more than the anchor to the vast garden and the wild stretch of coast owned by the family. It is against the bloom of flowers and the crash of waves that these springs of attraction and longing play out.

The Real Charles Dickens is an insightful look into the world of the life and work of the great 19th-century writer. Dickens led one of the most colourful and interesting lives of any author and this book delves into his difficult early life, his emergence as a major novelist, his troubled marriage and suspected relationship with another woman, his trips abroad to Italy and the United States, his late blossoming as a theatrical performer and his work as a social reformer. The book takes a detailed look at each of his major works, tracing the development of his fiction through one of the most productive periods of world literature. To complement this are original photographs of locations associated with Dickens and the opportunity to follow in his footsteps with some expertly crafted walks around the parts of London most associated with him. There are sections on Dickens’ enduring relationship with the theatre and one detailing the ten children that he and his wife Catherine had together. From his first foray into serialised novels, The Pickwick Papers, to his last, great, unfinished work, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, each of his books is given special attention. Full of biographical detail and analytical insight, The Real Charles Dickens takes the reader on a journey into the heart of the world that nurtured some of the greatest stories ever written.

In 2011, the National Theatre in London produced a version of The Servant of Two Masters under the title One Man, Two Guvnors. It became a smash hit on both sides of the Atlantic and introduced a whole new audience to the work of Carlo Goldoni. Goldoni (1707-1793) was one of the most prolific playwrights who ever lived, having written over 250 works during a career of nearly 50 years. He's best-known outside Italy for some of his earliest comedies, including The Servant of Two Masters and The Venetian Twins, farces based on the traditions of commedia dell'arte but we have to look to his mature works for the truly Goldonian comedy. There's a wealth of subtlety and insight in these beautifully constructed and astutely observed studies of everyday life in 18th Century Italy (and, at the end of his career, France). The Game of Chess is a translation of Carlo Goldoni's penultimate play, Le Bourru bienfaisant, written in French in 1771, when he was living in exile in Paris. Goldoni (1707-1793) idolized Moli re and desperately wanted to have a success at the Com die-Fran aise, the so-called maison de Moli re. With Le Bourru bienfaisant, he fulfilled his wish, although he was not so lucky with his final comedy, L'avare fastueux, a poorer piece, which got a less positive reception. What he did with both these two final plays was build the plot around an oxymoronic central character. The original title of the play translates as "The Beneficent Boor." The boor of the title is Monsieur G ronte, an ill-tempered old gentleman with a heart of gold, whose greatest pleasure in life is to manipulate the pieces in his chess game.

A collection of in-depth interviews, many of which have never been seen in print before, looking back on the careers of 26 of Welsh rugby's finest players. Includes Graham Price, Jonathan Davies, Andy Powell, Lou Reed, Gareth Llywelyn, Glenn Webbe, Jamie Roberts, Dan Biggar and many more.

She didn't want men to be in love with her. She wanted power and a dangerous gamble and the fun of winning and putting herself over as a sweet saviour, till at last she came to believe it herself. Lorna Blake is a woman able to create her own reality a pathological liar, narcissist conman, and devoted single mother to two daughters, Jay and Molly. When her eldest needs lifesaving treatment that they cannot afford, Lorna takes up the risky but thrilling activity of taking her young daughters to the halls of wealthy strangers to beg, with tales of husbands dead, deserted, and insane. But as her daughters grow up struggling to differentiate between fact and fiction, it ultimately becomes harder for them to cleave themselves from their mother's web of lies and justifications. Acted out in the hallways of London mansions and across several continents, The Woman in the Hall is part psychological drama, part cat-and-mouse chase, as well as a darkly comic portrait of how the figure of a single mother could wring pity from 1930s society.

'the chamomile, the more it is trodden on, the faster is grows.'Shakespeare, Henry IV part 1The opening quote of The Camomile provides an insight into the book's title. The narrative highlights the tensions for a woman in the early twentieth century between the desire to explore her creativity and the duties expected of her as a prospective wife. Through a series of journal entries, which form an extended letter to her best friend, we follow the protagonist, Ellen, who rents out a room away from her family to provide a quiet space in which to focus on her music and her writing. Ellen is a lively soul who wants the freedom to express herself and she finds a champion of her endeavours at the Mitchell Library. But as she falls in love and becomes betrothed to a doctor who is soon to return to India, she finds herself increasingly conflicted and has to eventually make a choice.

'Far below, through the moonlit wood, the lake was visible again and the Island in it. Dim, like a phantom ship, it lay in the silver waters and from the nearer end of it shone a narrow rectangle of light... so dull and red and smoky looking that it seemed sinister in the bodiless and blanched moonshine.' A novel rich in the period culture of the Lake District, Forest Silver unfolds a story of village life unsettled with the arrival of evacuees during the Second World War. Wing-Commander Richard Blunt, recovering from a life-changing injury, comes into the orbit of the enigmatic and headstrong Corys de Bainrigg in a tale of love, longing and facing up to reality, with the ghost of wartime trauma ever an unwelcome guest. First published in 1941, Forest Silver is an important work of Lake District fiction, in which E M Ward evokes her environment with pitch-perfect authenticity.

A Pygmalion-style story told with von Arnim’s characteristic wit and charm, this novel introduces us to Salvatia (known as Sally), a much longed-for child to humble shopkeepers. Sally grows up to be an extremely beautiful girl, attracting the attentions of every man who sees her. When her mother dies, her father decides it is just too difficult to defend her virtue and marries her to the first man who proposes. But Jocelyn is about to learn a lesson in marrying for looks alone. The two are from very different classes and have nothing in common: beauty can only bridge the gap so far. Meanwhile, his mother is being pursued by her own unsuitable suitor – debating if she can tolerate his crass personality in return for the security of his wealth. Von Arnim turns her ironic humour to great effect in showing us the follies of her cast of characters, whom we can’t help wishing the best for, despite everything.

'She got up, without meeting his eyes, and went into the bedroom to dress. That was life all over; you wanted to make a good exit, and you remembered you were still in your housecoat.' Single girl Liza leaps into an exciting new sexual relationship with Walter after the couple meet at a New Year's party. Written by Angela Milne, the niece of A. A. Milne, and originally published in 1942, the story shines a light on subtly changing societal attitudes and deftly captures Liza's euphoria and frustrations as she navigates a relationship outside of marriage. Warm, witty and surprising, it leaves you wondering why Milne only wrote one novel.

Miss Cullen finds herself in a dreadful predicament. Four years from retirement, she can no longer meet the educational standards expected nor control her pupils at Besley High School for girls. She knows that no other school will hire her now, but if she is sacked or doesn't work until she's 60, she will lose her pension. Her only hope is to hang on. But her poor exam results affect the standing of the whole school. Her colleagues embark on a campaign against her to save their own positions and she retaliates by involving the school inspector. Into this hostile environment comes Viola Kennedy, a young new teacher full of optimism and ideas, who instead gets caught up in the conspiracies and swirling resentments. A quietly devastating novel about the realities of life for single working women in the 1920s and the systems that failed them.

'Oh God, one should not go to parties, Daisy sighed, sinking in wan defeat in the melancholy dawn. One should not mingle with others; one should keep oneself to oneself...' Lying awake after a hotel party on holiday in the Mediterranean, Daisy Simpson reflects on her lacklustre social performance and muses on the impression her confident and graceful half-sister Daphne may have made on the other guests. What is it that makes Daphne, Daphne and Daisy, Daisy? And which of the two will attract the attentions of one of their hosts, Raymond, whom they have both fallen for? Returning to London, Daisy's life is strained by the efforts of presenting the right elements of her personality to the right people, resulting in embarrassments, difficulties and deceits as she navigates her relationships and social standing. Rose Macaulay's novel, first published in 1928, offers a sharp and witty commentary on how we twist our identities to fit, delivered in an intelligent and innovative style.

In this body swap comedy from the 1930s, the minds of two strangers, aristocrat Lady Elizabeth and middle-class Polly Wilkinson, switch places with baffling and hilarious results. With wry observations on class, behaviour and relationships, as both attempt to navigate the different social settings and awkward situations they suddenly find themselves thrust into - the switches taking place randomly with very little warning - the two women are eventually able to contrive a meeting and learn to control their 'gift' and effect positive changes in each others' lives.

Julia Almond believes she is special and dreams of a more exciting and glamorous life away from the drab suburbia of her upbringing. Her work in a fashionable boutique in the West End gives her the personal freedom that she craves but escape from her parental home into marriage soon leads to boredom and frustration. She begins a passionate affair with a younger man, which has deadly consequences. Based on the events of a sensational murder trial in the 1920s - the Thompson/Bywaters case - Julia becomes trapped by her sex and class in a criminal justice system in which she has no control. Julia finds herself the victim of society's expectations of lower-middle-class female behaviour and incriminated by her own words. Tennyson Jesse creates a flawed, doomed heroine in a novel of creeping unease that continues to haunt long after the last page is turned.

'In this incredibly moving must-read, Simon shares his journey through immense grief and pain, and shows us how hope can spring from the darkest of times' Fearne CottonIn November 2017, Simon Thomas's life was thrown into turmoil. His wife, Gemma, died suddenly from acute myleloid leukaemia. Left to care for their young son, Ethan, on his own, he resigned from Sky Sports, and put all his efforts into helping them both through the most difficult year of their lives. In 2019 he published the first edition of this book, in which – with searing honesty – he recounted that first year of loss and grief that he felt not only for himself, but also for his son Ethan. But grief evolves; its rawness becomes less brutal and time offers space to reflect, to consider what has passed and to recognize that our experience with grief itself changes. In 2020 Simon launched a new podcast, Life, Interrupted, in which he interviews both celebrities and those not well-known, whose lives have been radically changed by a traumatic event. The podcast was the inspiration to revisit this book; and with the benefit of time, to reflect on what he has learned since Gemma's death. This is not an A-Z on how to cope with grief: it is a father and son's journey down grief's bumpy road as they begin to find a reason to live again. Love, Interrupted shows that however much the darkness closes in, however bereft of hope life can sometimes feel, there is always light, love and life to be found. This updated and revised edition includes Simon's Reflections from a Distance, written four years after the original edition was published; he contemplates hope, recovery and happiness.

'There was no one in the room. Blinds and curtains were closed; the light of the skies, if any, was shut out. ... Only the fire was alive, consuming its life-for what? Then the door opened and as Claudia came with hurried steps into the fire's glow, two open letters in her hand, the telephone began ringing. She shut the door and turned up the lights.' Claudia Heseltine returns to this moment three times in a series of parallel narratives. As the novel presses the re-set button, she accepts each invitation, one by telephone, two by letter, to a specific social event, and in doing so her life goes down a different path with its own possibilities and achievements, sorrows and disappointments. This is an inventive novel, published in 1931, which contemplates the consequences of a single decision.

'She had saved her. But at what a cost! Her position, her name, her character - she had given them all, but Clarissa was hers.' Upon the death of her mother, Agatha Bodenham finds herself alone for the first time in her life. Solitary and socially awkward by nature, she starts to dream about her imaginary childhood friend - the only friend she ever had. Much to her surprise, Clarissa starts to appear, fleetingly at first, and engage with her, and eventually becomes visible to everyone else. Agatha, a 32-year- old spinster, must explain the child's 'sudden' appearance. In a moment of panic, she pretends that Clarissa is her own daughter, her love child. Olivier constructs a mother/daughter relationship which is both poignant and playful. As the years roll by and Clarissa grows into a beautiful young woman, Agatha's love becomes increasingly obsessive as she senses Clarissa slipping away, attracted by new interests and people her own age.