Böcker av Kelly Matthews

When Brian Friel died in 2015, the New York Times described him as ' the Irish Chekhov', and the Guardian called him ' the father of modern Irish drama' . He had long been acclaimed as Ireland's leading contemporary playwright, with 24 plays for Broadway and West End theatres, including the iconic Faith Healer, Translations and Dancing at Lughnasa. But Friel's beginnings are more elusive, as was the playwright in his later years. He stopped giving interviews and cultivated a reclusive mystique that grew in proportion to his theatrical success. Based on newly discovered documents in the BBC and New Yorker archives, Brian Friel: beginnings reveals Friel's youthful personality and his struggles to get noticed as a young writer. Friel's correspondence with his first mentors - Belfast BBC radio producer Ronald Mason, New Yorker editor Roger Angell, and theatre director Tyrone Guthrie - shows how he shaped his early work, how he chose to write for the theatre, and how the patterns that became so memorable in his later plays were set in motion by his beginnings.

When Zoe lost her business, she didn't think it would mean she would have to move back home to take care of her parent's crystal shop, The Broom, Spell, and Candlewick in Tenby. While her parents are away, magic is in the air as fated events play out that enables her to put a lock on the past. Will Zoe have the best Christmas yet?

Holly Green has lost her Christmas spirit ever since losing her soldier fiance. As an aspiring journalist at The World newspaper, a surprising job offer to the write the prestigious Christmas article sets her off on an adventure of a lifetime. But will Holly heal from the past and find happiness again this Christmas?

When Darcy inherited her grandmother's pub, The Churchill in Paddington, London, she wasn't aware of its WW2 history. Upon discovering love letters to her gran from a mysterious man called Walter, Darcy decided to investigate, but in the process finds a love of her own. Will Darcy meet her love at Piccadilly Circus on Christmas Eve? Or will she be subjected to the same fate as that of her gran?

Lisa is not the most enthusiastic person when it comes to Christmas but she has her reasons. When she inherits her grandfather's farm in New York, she takes off from London to work at her dream job in a publishing firm. But little does she know how quickly her life will turn around when weird, synchronistic events and a guy she meets on Twitter steer her towards her life's true purpose. Will Lisa find her love for Christmas in more ways than one?