Meet Balthazar Jones, Beefeater at the Tower of London. Married to Hebe, he lives & works in the Tower, as he struggles to cope with the death of his son Milo. NOw the Queen's exotic animals are to be moved from London Zoo to the Tower's grounds.

By day, Judith Rashleigh is a put-upon assistant at a London auction house. By night she?s a hostess in one of the capital?s unsavoury bars. Desperate to make something of herself, Judith knows she has to play the game. She?s learned to dress, speak and act in the interests of men. She's trying to be a good girl. But after uncovering a dark secret at the heart of the art world, Judith is fired and her dreams of a better life are torn apart. So she...

A picture hides a thousand words... On a hot July day in 1967, Odelle Bastien climbs the stone steps of the Skelton gallery in London, knowing that her life is about to change forever. Having struggled to find her place in the city since she arrived from Trinidad five years ago, she has been offered a job as a typist under the tutelage of the glamorous and enigmatic Marjorie Quick. But though Quick takes Odelle into her confidence, and unlocks a potential...

A family at war. A mother who comes out fighting? Maureen Hutton?s life has never been easy. Married to an alcoholic and stuck on a council estate in East London, she scrimps and saves to bring up her three children alone. Murder, the underworld, drug addiction - over four decades, Maureen sticks by her blood through thick and thin. But then the unforgivable happens. Maureen is told a terrible secret which threatens to rip her family apart. She can?t...

Annie McDee, alone after the disintegration of her long-term relationship and trapped in a dead-end job, is searching for a present for her unsuitable lover in a neglected second-hand shop. Within the jumble of junk and tack, a grimy painting catches her eye. Leaving the store with the picture after spending her meagre savings, she prepares an elab