Instead of entering the world crying, like other babies, Jubilo was born with a smile on his face. He had a gift for hearing what was in people's hearts. When he grew up, he put his gift to good use in his job as a telegraph operator. But now the telegraph lies abandoned, and and Jubilo is on his deathbed, mute and estranged from his beloved wife.

Giving a frank account of his life, the author reveals what turned a once optimistic young man into this grumpy middle-aged git. It's a journey that takes him from a first gig as a ventriloquist's dummy, to working in an artificial leg factory and delivering incontinence pads for the NHS, before he finally ends up on stage at the Comedy Store.

If there is any solace in growing older, it is that you will find yourself guffawing in hysterical recognition at the situations the author describes, from the impossibility of trying to remember people's names at parties, to struggling with the new technology. This title focuses on what we all struggle with as we journey into our later years.

Offers a funny insight into the hearts, minds and inboxes of one of the world's most engagingly dysfunctional ad agencies.

When Samuel Godwin, a young and naive art tutor, accepts a job with the Farrow family at their majestic home, little does he expect to come across such a web of secrets and lies. His two tutees are as different as chalk and cheese.

Lulu has always been intolerable. Jobs, lovers, fashionable clothes: Lulu picks them up at whim and drops them with equal ease, confident that Geraldine and her faithfully supportive husband, Robert, will bail her out of every passing problem.

Thirty-somethings Nick and Laura have been married for 10 years and things aren't going well. She senses her biological clock ticking away and wants children while he doesn't. Not because he doesn't like children but because he feels a child would be just one responsibility too many.

Gabriel Noone, whose late night radio stories have brought him into the homes of millions, gets the proofs of a memoir of a sickly thirteen-year-old boy who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of his parents. When Noone phones the boy, it becomes clear that Pete sees in this heartsick, middle-aged storyteller, the loving father he's always wanted.

A chance encounter with a friend from the past sparks a desire to unearth a deep and long buried secret of adoption - one that proves to have resounding and far reaching effects upon all the families concerned.

A social comedy by the author of Just for the Summer . The illegal activities of unemployed teenagers on a London suburban council estate are giving cause for concern. There is also illegal activity among the residents of the desirable street nearby - but these crimes are more socially-acceptable.

Tells the story of James Boyle's close friendship, in his teens, with James Lafferty, who joined his class at the local grammar school. This friendship allowed John and Laff to escape from the harshness of their lives in the worst housing scheme in the West of Scotland - as well as from the pariah status this conferred on them at school.

To make matters worse, Beth has insisted on bringing along their sixteen-year-old daughter Delilah, who's been ill and needs some rest and sunshine. Not so ill, however, that she can't look around for some entertainment.

Badra is a young Berber girl from a North African village who is married off to an old man, and brutally raped on her wedding night. She thinks sexual pleasure exists only for men, until she escapes from her cruel husband to the city. Then she meets a handsome doctor who introduces her to a new world of sexual passion.

Explains how the author became a writer. This title also contains six stories, including The Pension Grillparzer .

Shows the vivid and vigorous culture of the Cape Coloured community at the time when apartheid threatened its destruction, as seen through the sharp yet loving eyes of eleven-year-old Lily. As Lily's beautiful but angry mother returns to Cape Town, determined to fight for justice for her family, so the story of Lily's past - and future - erupts.