Amanda Prowse maakte de overstap van een tienjarige carrière in managementconsultancy om haar roeping als schrijver te omarmen. Haar verhalen duiken in de complexiteit van menselijke relaties en de onverwachte wendingen die het leven kan nemen. Lezers voelen zich aangesproken door haar empathische portrettering van personages en haar talent om hun innerlijke leven met scherpe observatie te onthullen. Haar proza is zowel toegankelijk als tot nadenken stemmend.
Als de achttienjarige Dot haar Sol ontmoet, heeft ze het gevoel dat ze eindelijk de ware liefde heeft gevonden... Solomon Arbutnott is een knappe soldaat van Saint Lucia. Dot is een verkoopster uit een arme buurt van Londen. Samen dromen ze van een gedeelde toekomst: leven onder een blauwe hemel met zonneschijn, vreugde en liefde. Maar in 1961 is het niet gepast dat een East Endse meid verkering heeft met een jongen uit West-Indië, laat staan dat ze met hem het land verlaat. Ze gehoorzamen hun ouders en laten hun leven door hen bepalen. Ook al breekt het hun hart.
A bestselling author and her son, who presents an honest account of what it is like to live with depression, give a voice to those suffering from mental illness and show them that help can be found - and that they are not alone.
Amanda Prowse has built a bestselling career on the lives of fictional women. Now she turns the pen on her own life. I guess the first question to ask is, what kind of woman am I? Well, you know those women who saunter into a room, immaculately coiffed and primped from head to toe? If you look behind her, you'll see me. From her childhood, where there was no blueprint for success, to building a career as a bestselling novelist against all odds, Amanda Prowse explores what it means to be a woman in a world where popularity, slimness, beauty and youth are currency--and how she overcame all of that to forge her own path to happiness. Sometimes heartbreaking, often hilarious and always entirely relatable, Prowse details her early struggles with self-esteem and how she coped with the frustrating expectations others had of how she should live. Most poignantly, she delves into her toxic relationship with food, the hardest addiction she has ever known, and how she journeyed out the other side. One of the most candid memoirs you're ever likely to read, Women Like Us provides welcome insight into how it is possible--against the odds--to overcome insecurity, body consciousness and the ubiquitous imposter syndrome to find happiness and success, from a woman who's done it all, and then some.
From the bestselling author of The Girl in the Corner comes a tale of love, loss―and one last extraordinary dance. Christmas Eve, 2019. Ninety-four-year-old Molly lies in her hospital bed. A stroke and a fall may have broken her body―but her mind is alive with memories. London, 1940s. Molly is a bright young woman, determined to help the war effort and keep her head up despite it all. Life becomes brighter when she meets and falls in love with a man who makes her forget everything with one dance. But then war forces her to make an unforgettable sacrifice, and when she’s brought to her knees by a daring undercover mission with the French Resistance, only her sister knows the secret weighing heavily on Molly’s heart. Now, lying in her hospital bed, Molly can’t escape the memories of what she lost all those years ago. But she is not as alone as she thinks. Will she be able to find peace―and finally understand that what seemed to be an ordinary life was anything but?
In this heart-warming story from million copy bestselling author Amanda Prowse, Nora has given up on finding happiness. But has it been waiting for her all along? As Nora and her British Army officer husband, Gordy, pack up yet another home and leave the sun of Cyprus for the drizzle of England, she can't shake a feeling of regret--at her failure to follow her own dreams, but also, if she's honest, at having ended up an officer's wife at all, drifting through a life of temporary homes and temporary relationships. Since losing her parents at a young age, Nora's life has been lacking an anchor: someone or something to make her feel secure. Her marriage has been her only permanent relationship, and just as even that appears to be fizzling out, a tragedy forces Nora into the role of legal guardian to her seven-year-old nephew, Ted. Faced suddenly with a responsibility she never dreamed of, how can Nora possibly offer the boy the kind of unconditional love he deserves, when she's never experienced it for herself? But as she navigates the precarious and unfamiliar world of parenthood, Nora begins to see herself through Ted's eyes, as someone worthy of love and even joy. When she's welcomed into the previously intimidating huddle of mums at the school gate, she has to wonder: is it too late to smash down the other barriers she's built--and to have a second chance at a happy marriage with Gordy?
From the bestselling author of The Girl in the Corner comes a story that asks: what would you risk for a shot at happiness?1984. Bessie is a confident sixteen-year-old girl with the world at her feet, dreaming of what life will bring and what she’ll bring to this life. Then everything comes crashing down. Her bright and trusting smile is lost, banished by shame—and a secret she’ll carry with her for the rest of her life.2021. The last thirty-seven years have not been easy for Bess. At fifty-three she is visibly weary, and her marriage to Mario is in tatters. Watching her son in newlywed bliss—the hope, the trust, the joy—Bess knows it is time to face her own demons, and try to save her relationship. But she’ll have to throw off the burden of shame if she is to honour that sixteen-year-old girl whose dreams lie frozen in time.Can Bess face her past, finally come clean to Mario, and claim the love she has longed to fully experience all these years?
How do you say goodbye to your family for the last time? Poppy Day is thirty-two and married to her childhood sweetheart. She's a full-time mum of two gorgeous children and loves her homely little cottage in the countryside. It's the life she aways wanted. But Poppy is so busy caring for others she hasn't noticed how tired she is, or the menacing lump growing on her breast. It's unthinkable that cancer could defeat such a strong and amazing woman. But life doesn't always give you what you deserve...
I deserve all this because I did the worst thing a woman can do. The very worst. Jessica's wedding was like a fairytale. Her dress strewn with crystals. Her dad made a tearful speech. Her husband Matthew declared himself the luckiest man alive. But when their beautiful baby girl is born, Jessica is gripped by panic. She can't tell anyone how she feels. Even when her life starts to spiral out of control... This is her story. A mother's story.
