Ann Baker

Considered by many the world's greatest composer, Ludwig van Beethoven achieved his ambitions against the difficulties of a bullying and drunken father, growing deafness and mounting ill-health. Here, Anne Pimlott Baker tells the story of the German composer's life and work, from his birth in Bonn in 1770 and his early employment as a court musician, to his death in Vienna in 1827. She describes his studies with Haydn in Vienna and his work during...

When Dorothy Mortimer, the daughter of a wealthy Merseyside family, becomes pregnant, she is sent away to the Benders, family friends in Wales. Dorothy wants nothing to do with her daughter Lizzie, so Clarissa Bender arranges for the child to be brought up by the O'Malleys, a feckless family living on the estate. Lizzie is unaware of her parentage, but her brother Joey becomes suspicious of the special attention she receives from the Benders and eventually...