Catriona McCloud's Books

Straight Up

By: Catriona McCloud

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Verity Drummond is a florist by trade and a fantasist by nature. When her husband, Kim, leaves her, she deals with the pain by writing Straight Up, a novel in which a man on a mountaineering expedition (bearing a striking resemblance to her former husband) dies all alone in a hole in the ice, starving, wretched and with his broken bones poking through his skin. Verity goes to LA to meet Jasmine and Patrice who want to adapt Straight Up for the screen and somehow, between the dead man up the mountain and Verity's inability to admit that she's just another divorcee like the rest of California, she becomes The Widow and the buzz around the script, now based on a true story (natch), begins to grow. Enter Phil, an old friend of Kim's, who Verity meets by chance in California. Phil inadvertently sets off the biggest rolling snowball of lies in Verity's life. It starts ordinarily enough: Verity must stop Phil from letting slip that her dearly departed husband is very much alive and kicking. She tells Phil not to mention Kim because the others are reeling from their divorces. And she tells the others not to mention Kim to Phil because Phil was supposedly with Kim when he died. So far, so harmless, but soon Phil, Patrice and Jasmine are bound together in an ever-tighter tangle, with Verity holding on for dear life to the ends of all the threads. STRAIGHT UP is a book about honesty and all the other options: stories, spin, delusions, blinkers, evasions and lies. It's a hilarious, fast-paced and brilliantly executed comedy that moves from LA to NYC to Bodmin - and while the voice is as sharp as it is dark, there's a top-note of poignancy - and a hundred laughs along the way.

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Page Count

287

Publisher

Orion

Published Date

ISBN 10

1409106063

ISBN 13

9781409106067

Growing Up Again

By: Catriona McCloud

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Growing Up Again

By: Catriona McCloud

What would you do if you had another shot at life - if you could turn back the clock and return to being, say, fifteen? Janie Lawson's life hasn't turned out quite the way she'd hoped. Nearly forty, she's in a marriage that's frozen over with a mother-in-law she despises. Before Janie can make the final step toward divorce, though, her fate is taken out of her hands. Janie wakes up in her old bedroom and finds it just as it was in her teens. She stumbles downstairs to the kitchen where her mother greets her, looking radiantly young. But it isn't until Janie looks in the mirror, to be confronted by her fifteen-year-old self sporting the most diabolical 80s perm, that the reality of her situation sinks in. For a woman who scoffs at anything science can't prove, being swept back decades in time is a particularly ironic twist. She's gone back to 1981 and all the signs suggest that it's a one-way trip. But there's an upside - Janie has the chance to make her life turn out the way she wanted it. She's determined to help her parents, make her fortune and do some good in the world, starting with saving Lady Diana Spencer from her fate. But things don't quite go to plan and pretty soon Janie realises that even second time around, nothing is guaranteed ... GROWING UP AGAIN is a hilarious, laugh-out-loud novel about second chances - it's clever, compassionate and hugely entertaining.

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Page Count

246

Publisher

Orion

Published Date

ISBN 10

1409105776

ISBN 13

9781409105770

Growing Up Again

By: Catriona McCloud

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Growing Up Again

By: Catriona McCloud

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

246

Publisher

Orion

Published Date

ISBN 10

1409105776

ISBN 13

9781409105770

Straight Up

By: Catriona McCloud

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Straight Up

By: Catriona McCloud

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

287

Publisher

Orion

Published Date

ISBN 10

1409106063

ISBN 13

9781409106067

Book's by Catriona McCloud

Straight Up

Straight Up

Growing Up Again

Growing Up Again

Growing Up Again

Growing Up Again

Straight Up

Straight Up

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