When Kate Lock first met Tim Franklin she was a naive undergraduate, and he was a charismatic mature student. One night in the pub he casually revealed that he was a 'lifer'. A domestic dispute had taken a tragic turn, an accidental death, he said. It was the start of an explosive relationship which began in passionate union and ended in emotional cruelty. But it was only when Kate tried to leave him that she discovered how potentially dangerous he really was. And only when he died, leavin...

Hilda is blind, lives alone, and is visited by a carer once a week. Camelia is a young offender looking for her next mark.A surprising and curious relationship sparks into life between the two very different women, both of them searching for connection and purpose.Kate Lock's charming and insightful play traces the line between friendship and family, between a culture of entitlement and a culture of blame, and between two generations of women, both equally determined to get...

Anna Karenina is beautiful, married to a successful man, and has a son whom she adores. But a chance meeting at a train station in Moscow sets her passionate heart alight, and she is defenceless in the face of Count Vronsky’s adoration. Having defied the rules of nineteenth-century Russian society, Anna is forced to pay a heavy price. Human nature, with all its failings, is the fabric of which this great and intense work is composed. Anna Karenina has been described as the perfect Russian ...

A luminous, powerful novel that establishes Rachel Cusk as one of the finest writers in the English language.A man and a woman are seated next to each other on a plane. They get to talking—about their destination, their careers, their families. Grievances are aired, family tragedies discussed, marriages and divorces analyzed. An intimacy is established as two strangers contrast their own fictions about their lives.Outline is a novel in ten conversations. Spare and ...

Daniel just wants someone he can rely on…With his parents in and out of prison, Daniel has spent the last three years in a children’s home, feeling forgotten and with nowhere to truly belong.When he arrives at Casey and Mike’s, his challenging and unpredictable behaviour soon reveals a much darker past than anyone had imagined.Can Casey find a way to reach Daniel and help him build a brighter future before it’s too late?Perf...

Outline is a novel in ten conversations. Spare and lucid, it follows a novelist teaching a course in creative writing over an oppressively hot summer in Athens. She leads her student in storytelling exercises. She meets other writers for dinner. She goes swimming in the Ionian Sea with her seatmate from the place. The people she encounters speak volubly about themselves, their fantasies, anxieties, pet theories, regrets, and longings. And through these disclosures, a portrait of t...

Amelie just wants a home she feels safe in…Six-year-old Amelie lives with her mother, Kelly, who suffers from bipolar disorder. After Kelly attempts to burn down their family house, it becomes clear that her daughter is in grave danger. Amelie is quickly taken into care.When she arrives with foster carer Casey Watson, Amelie acts much younger than her age. Casey must get to the root of Amelie’s behaviour, while doing what she can to keep the family together...

Let Me Go is the powerful new memoir from foster carer and Sunday Times bestselling author Casey Watson.Harley, 13, has been sectioned under the mental health act after attempting suicide. She was spotted climbing the railings on a footbridge that crossed a busy motorway and pulled to safety by a member of the public. After six weeks in hospital, social services are looking for a short-term placement so she can be kept safe while family therapy takes place. Harley...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Riot Days by Maria Alyokhina, read by Kate Lock.**From activist, Pussy Riot member and freedom fighter Maria Alyokhina, a raw, hallucinatory, passionate account of her arrest, trial and imprisonment in a penal colony in the Urals for standing up for what she believed in.'One of the most brilliant and inspiring things I've read in years. Couldn't put it down. This book is freedom' Chris Kraus, author of ...

A heartbreaking true story of a broken family and the foster carer who wants to keep them together…The Watsons are no strangers to sibling placements but when Casey takes the call from her supervising social worker one frosty January morning, she can instantly tell from the tone of her colleague’s voice that there’s a complicated case ahead.And she’s right. A four-day-old baby boy called Tommy – born in prison – plus his four-year-old half-brother, the lively Seth. A month ...

It’s late on Friday night when Casey’s mobile starts to ring. She is expecting it to be her daughter Riley. But it isn’t Riley. It’s a woman from the Emergency Duty Team. So begins Casey and Mike’s latest fostering challenge – a fifteen-year-old girl called Keeley who’s run away from her long-term foster home 25 miles away.The Jonathan Ross Show has just started when Casey gets the call. She thinks it will be Riley – telling her that her favourite actor is going to be on TV. But it...

After taking a few weeks off work, Casey is presented with a new foster child: 14-year-old Elise, whose Mum left her at just five years old.At first, she’s no trouble at all, that is until she falsely accuses another carer, Jan, of acting inappropriately towards her. It turns out this isn’t the first lie Elise has told – her previous carer was constantly following up allegations Elise had made of people bullying her, trying to have sex with her, or hurting her physically. With some...