Church Women

The girls of St John the Divine, an elite English boarding school, were notorious for flipping their hair, harassing teachers, chasing boys, and chain-smoking cigarettes. They were fiercely loyal, sharp-tongued, and cuttingly humorous in the way that only teenage girls can be. For Josephine, now in her 30s, the years at St John were a lifetime ago. She hasn’t spoken to another Divine in 15 years, not since the day the school shuttered its doors in disgrace. Yet now Josephine inexplicably finds herself returning to her old stomping grounds.

When Jess and Rupert parted ways, it was the end of a great love story that might have been. Now, 10 years later, the very different paths they have taken in life will bring them back together for a chance meeting. But with so much left unsaid about the break-up neither ever recovered from and with each keeping their own devastating secrets, will they finally be able to make the fractured pieces of their love for one another whole again?

Sophie, Emily, Amy, and Melissa have been best friends since they were girls. They have seen each other through everything - from Sophie's private fear that she doesn't actually want to be a mother despite having two kids, to Amy's perfect-on-the-outside marriage that starts to reveal troubling warning signs, to Melissa's spiraling alcoholism, to questions that are suddenly bubbling up around the paternity of Emily's son. But could a lie that spans just as long as their friendship be the thing that tears them apart?

When Catherine learns that she is dying, she remembers the words her husband once jokingly uttered and decides to leave him the ultimate posthumous gift: a time capsule containing photographs of their life together along with tape recordings in which she recounts every secret she ever kept, every unspoken thought whether loving or treacherous - the things they never said.

Abby Archer, a smart and savvy woman who refuses to be taken in by celebrity culture, becomes fascinated with it girl and media darling Brooke Simmons after she falls into a coma following a car crash. Her loyal security-guard-turned-lover Nick Lawson is implicated in the accident - someone Abby met just days before. One day Abby begins to feel unwell and is shocked to see the face looking back at her in the mirror is no longer her own but that of Brooke Simmons.

Having recently split up from the father of her baby, Lilly is not in a happy place, matters being complicated further by the arrival of her ex-husband, needing a sofa to crash out on, having been thrown out by his girlfriend. In the midst of all this Lilly is asked by a child psychologist if she will help one of her patients: a girl currently sectioned having stolen a car while extremely drunk. While Lilly visits her she is introduced to Chloe, another unstable teenager who slips Lilly a note saying: "Help us". And then Lilly's client is killed and Chloe accused of her murder. Her case is not helped by the fact that the words "Help us" have been carved on the dead girl's stomach....

Alice has been lying to herself for years, holding fast to the belief that the needs of her family far outweigh her own. But her outwardly successful marriage hides dark secrets, and for much of her life the children were the only reason she stuck around. These days, though her successful banker son lives nearby, his young wife seems to do everything she can to keep Alice at bay. As for Alice's other son, he has always been something of a stranger and has been traveling for so long that Alice isn't even sure what continent he is on anymore.

The amazing life story of Britain's world conquering triathlete, Chrissie Wellington. Chrissie Wellington is the world's No 1 female Ironman triathlete, the current quadruple World Champion and World Record holder. In 2009 she was voted 'Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year' and in 2010 was awarded the MBE. She is the undefeated champion of Triathlon, having won nine Ironman titles from nine races.

In peaceful Dulwich Village, a group of elderly residents meet every week for Bridge Club. Green cloths are laid over square tables, the deck is carefully dealt, and every beady eye is on the lookout for cheating. Amateur sleuth Beth Haldane has never understood the rules, but she’s drawn into the drama when her mother’s bridge partner Alfie Poole is found dead. He was last seen heading out for a breath of fresh air after a particularly tricky hand. Beth knows poor Alfie was a sweet old man, but when she learns he was poisoned it’s clear someone wanted him gone.

Beth Haldane is gazing at enchanting paintings of the rolling English countryside when her daydream is rudely interrupted—by the discovery of a teenage girl unconscious on a marble bench. Shocked, Beth realizes this is no snoozing schoolchild. Someone dastardly has carefully crossed the girls’ hands across her white dress, as if she’s in a painting herself. And the girl’s discarded red backpack, found in a corner of the museum, is totally empty. Is someone suspicious hiding evidence? And who would want to harm this innocent soul?

1944: Texas Ranger Jim Strong investigates a triple murder inside a Nazi POW camp in Texas. The present: His daughter, fifth generation Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong, finds herself pursuing the killer her father never caught in the most personal case of her career - a conspiracy stretching from that Nazi POW camp to a modern-day neo-Nazi gang.

1818: In the Gulf waters off the Texas coast, the pirate Jean Lefitte and his partner Jim Bowie launch an attack on the Mother Mary, a slave ship carrying an invaluable treasure. The Present: Fifth-generation Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong finds herself investigating the murder of the oil-rig crew that had found the long-lost wreckage of the Mother Mary. The crew also uncovered something else beneath the surface of the sea - something connected to a terrorist attack about to be launched by a mad American-born cleric who has recruited an army of homegrown terrorists.

There are three women who made their marks upon the Church with the work they did among the Native Americans and with the children of Canada. They are Saint Marguerite Bougeoys, foundress of Sisters of Notre Dame, Saint Marie Marguerite D’Youville, the first Canadian-born saint and foundress of the Sisters of Charity in Canada, also known as the Grey Nuns, and Blessed Marie de l’Incarnation, Foundress of the Ursuline Sisters in Canada.

Beth Haldane cradles a warm cup of tea and admires the view of crisp, red autumn leaves scattering the lawn of her little garden. But the peace and quiet is interrupted when her loyal pet pooch sniffs out something suspicious. At the bottom of a freshly dug hole is a bone: and it looks worryingly human.

Best friends Lily and Inga do everything together—they even meet their future loves at the same bar. After one serendipitous night, it seems like it’s going to be Lily and Alex and Inga and Matt forever. But life gets more complicated. A job offer moves Inga and Matt from Norwich to London. Lily, who craves stability after a traumatic childhood, is already struggling with the change when Inga confides in her a secret that could tear the group apart for good. At the same time, Lily’s friendship with Matt deepens, and she wonders if she was always meant to be with him instead of Alex.

Rebecca is 42, has a beautiful child and a wonderful husband. But she just hasn’t been feeling herself recently.... Rebecca thinks a great night out should involve a packet of Marlboros, six double vodkas and snogging a colleague. Not gormlessly drinking a zero-alcohol No-hito while Instagramming a vegan chicken wing. Rebecca wants to ride on a Harley-Davidson, crowd surf till dawn, then collapse in a heap after swigging from a bottle of Jack Daniels...not sit in a soul-destroying meeting surrounded by 'blue sky thinking' and men half her age who interrupt all the time.

Hannah is 38 and the happily married mother of 11-year-old Luke. Her marriage is reassuringly stable and after 15 years she has managed to push the wild dreams of youth from her mind and concentrate on the everyday satisfactions of here and now. The first half of her life hasn’t been as exciting as she had hoped, but then, she reckons, whose has? When she succeeds in convincing husband Cliff to rent a villa in the south of France for a summer vacation with her sister Jill and gay friend Tristan, she’s expecting little more than a pleasant few weeks with her family.

Sam Wylde has fought off Albanian gangsters and vindictive old friends to make it to Bali, hot on the heels of her ex-husband, Matt, and Jess, their daughter, whom he took without Sam’s permission. But a nasty surprise awaits her in paradise: Bojan. A Serbian thug she thought was dead, back to make her life a misery.

So I’m knocked up again. Preggers. Up the duff. Or to put it another way...whoops. And while Alex and I get our heads around unexpected parenthood, I’m having all the usual pregnancy symptoms: throwing up, indigestion, sciatica, constipation, migraines and brain-fuddling tiredness. Mother Nature is a psychopathic old hag. Luckily, modern science offers some lovely distractions in the form of cruise ships and European air travel.

Eighteen years ago Martha said good-bye to best friend Juliet on a moonlit London towpath. The next morning Juliet's bike was found abandoned. She was never seen again. Nearly two decades later Martha is a TV celebrity, preparing to host a new crime show...and the first case will be that of missing student Juliet Sherman. After all these years Martha must reach out to old friends and try to piece together the final moments of Juliet's life. But what happens when your perfect friends turn out to be perfect strangers?