The beloved Hollywood star and New York Times bestselling author of Unsinkable continues her intimate chat with fans in this entertaining collection of anecdotes, stories, jokes, and random musings from a woman who has seen it all—and done most of it. From her acclaimed performances to her headline-making divorce from Eddie Fisher, raising a famous daughter to hitting the road with a successful one-woman show, Debbie Reynolds has been in the spotlight for decades. She’s met presidents, performed for the Queen of England, and partied with kings. A show business icon, she continues to sing and dance—and can drop more names than Andy Cohen. In this fabulous personal tour, she recalls wonderful moments with the greats of the entertainment world—Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra, Bette Davis, Phyllis Diller, and many, many more—sharing stories that shed new light on her life and career and the glittering world of Hollywood then and now. Debbie has plenty to tell—and in Make ’Em Laugh, she dishes it in the warm, down-to-earth voice her fans adore. Debbie shares memories of late night pals and some of the greatest comedians of all time, stories from the big screen and small, and tales of marriage, motherhood, and children. Combining her wicked sense of humor and appealing charm, she reveals the personal side of show business and fame in funny, poignant, and delightful reminiscences. Nothing is off limits: Debbie talks about her sex life, her family drama—and even shares a few secret recipes. As irresistible as the woman at its heart, this collection shows the consummate skill of a beloved entertainer who truly knows how to Make ’Em Laugh.

Today we all face more impossible challenges than ever before. But flash foresight lets you transform the impossible into the possible, revealing hidden opportunities and allowing you to solve your biggest problems before they happen. Daniel Burrus is one of the world's leading forecasters, corporate strategists, and visionaries. Over the past quarter century, he has established a reputation worldwide for his exceptional record of accurately predicting the future of technological change and its direct impact on the business world."Wouldn't it be amazing if you could predict the future and be right?" writes Burrus. "You can: all you have to do is leave out the parts you could be wrong about! And the amazing thing is, when you know where to look, there's more than enough you can be right about to make all the difference."From small businesses to multinationals, individual careers to entire industries, Flash Foresight looks at how Burrus's seven radical flash foresight "triggers" have transformed dozens of careers, fortunes, and lives. Both engaging and enlightening, Flash Foresight provides an easy-to-implement blueprint for applying the same strategies to your own business, enabling you to see the invisible and do the impossible.In the past, flash foresight was useful. Today, as the pace of technological change accelerates almost beyond the point of comprehension, it's an imperative.

The media coach and Emmy Award-winning correspondent Bill McGowan shares his secrets of pitch-perfect communications, showing readers how to communicate with confidence.During the pivotal moments of our lives, results are often determined not only by our actions but by our words as well. Saying the right thing the right way can make the difference between sealing the deal or losing the account, advancing your career or suffering a demotion. During these moments, it's important to be pitch perfect to use precisely the right tone to convey the right message to the right person at the right time. Such pitch-perfect moments are crucial in our personal and professional journeys. In Pitch Perfect, the renowned media coach Bill McGowan shows you how to craft just the right message. Along the way, McGowan lays out his Seven Principles of Persuasion, including: The Scorsese Principle: Hold your audience's attention with visual images. Direct the film that plays in your listener's mind. The No-Tailgating Principle: Avoid verbal fender-benders and career-wrecking moments by maintaining a safe talking distance. When in doubt, stop talking and listen. The Pasta-Sauce Principle: Cure boredom by boiling down your message, making it as rich and brief as possible. In Pitch Perfect, you'll learn how to overcome all these communication pitfalls. The Seven Principles of Persuasion are as easy to learn, implement, and master as they are effective. The right language both verbal and nonverbal can make you more confident, persuasive, and certain. It can stir people to listen closely to your every word and to remember you long after you've left the room.

Thirty-nine of America's most successful business leaders share the most important decisions of their careers and the life and career lessons they hold for us all. When former CEO Harlan Steinbaum decided to buy back his retail drug chain with his partners, his life changed dramatically. The personal impact that this one business decision this "tough call" had on Steinbaum made him wonder if others had experienced similar kinds of defining moments in their own careers. To find out, he reached out to some of the most successful people in the country leaders from companies such as Verizon, Chrysler, ESPN, Ogilvy & Mather, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, WellPoint, and Panera Bread Company to pinpoint the career-defining decisions that were integral to their success. The result is Tough Calls from the Corner Office, a treasure trove of rich business wisdom, stories of tough decisions and hard-won victories, and lessons from a lifetime of achievement in the world of business.Tough Calls from the Corner Office offers inspiring stories, lessons, principles, strategies, ideas, and solutions drawn from every stage in a successful career, from early key choices to the final leave-taking from the world of work. Given unprecedented access to such visionaries as Union Square Hospitality Group's Danny Meyer, ESPN's Bill Rasmussen, Build-A-Bear's Maxine Clark, and Let's Make a Deal's Monty Hall, Steinbaum shares their experiences, told in their own words, so that others may learn from them. In a time when many people are at professional crossroads, Tough Calls from the Corner Office offers inspiration and the confidence to believe that tough decisions can be the first step to extraordinary success.

They say kids don't come with a set of instructions the AstroTwins beg to differ!Are you a Cancer mom trying to understand your Sagittarius daughterAre you a Virgo mother with a Pisces son who seems to be your polar oppositeWondering why your little Taurus was such an easy baby, but your Aquarius was anything butEven if you've only ever read your horoscope in the back of a magazine for fun or never given astrology a second thought, you'll be amazed at the insights you'll get from Momstrology, a guide to parenting by the stars.From choosing a preschool, to picking hobbies and activities, to understanding what it means when your toddler gets clingy, or your big kid wants to quit soccer, or your tween talks back, Momstrology is a unique guide through all of the phases of your child's life. Offering charts for every astrological sign to decipher your child's good days and bad days, likes and dislikes, and how your child deals with authority, limits, separation, and siblings, the AstroTwins offer real-world advice, from a cosmic perspective, that is always supportive and never overwhelming. With a section devoted to understanding your strengths and challenges as a mom based on your sign and another section that matches you with your children to see how you all mesh together, Momstrology is a parenting guide like no other.Let Momstrology be your go-to guide in the trenches of parenthood...through tears and triumphs and meltdowns and milestones, for every age and stage.

When journalist and fatherhood columnist Josh Levs was denied fair parental leave by his employer after his child was born, he fought back -- and corporate America responded. He became a leading advocate for modern families. In All In, he shows how fatherhood today is far different from previous generations and what it means for our individual lives, families, workplaces, and society. An investigative journalist, expert on modern fatherhood and dad of three, Levs spent years reporting for CNN on air and online and serving as the network's "dad columnist". Prior to CNN, he was a reporter for NPR. His many prizes include six Peabody awards, two Edward R. Murrow awards, and a designation as a Journalist of the Year from the Atlanta Press Club. Levs is also a motivational and keynote speaker. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife and children. Visit his website: www.joshlevs.com

This old man, he played one . He played knick knack on my thumb .

After living in the Midwest most of my fifty-plus years, I moved to the beautiful northwest state of Washington. My son and his wife lived in the Seattle area, and they were expecting my first grandchild. Despite the fact that I left my friends in Colorado by choice, it was no less difficult making new friends in the town in which I was residing.

"Hello. How are you?" "I am fine. How are you?"

Papa Cardinal and his chicks huddled in a rose bush. Raindrops splish-sploshed all around them.

Design, build, and publish an iOS game from scratch using the stunning features of iOS 9 About This Book Create storyboards in Xcode from concept to code and designChalk out your game’s overall navigation and structureWork with 2D and 3D game development toolsWho This Book Is ForThis book is intended for game developers who wish to develop 2D and 3D games for iPhone and iPad. If you are a developer from another platform, or game engine such as Android or Unity, a current iOS developer wishing to learn more about Swift and the latest features of iOS 9, or even if you are new to game development, then this book is for you. Some prior programming knowledge is recommended, but not required.What You Will LearnFamiliarise yourself with both basic and advanced Swift game development codeUnderstand the structure and flow of a typical iOS appWork with the SpriteKit framework to make 2D games, sprites, and overlaysDiscover 3D game development with SceneKitVisually design levels and game assets with XCode 7’s latest featuresExplore the concept of component-based structuring with iOS 9’s GameplaykitBeta test and publish your game with iTunes ConnectIn DetailGame development has always been a combination of programming and art, and mobile game development is no exception to this rule. The iOS platform has been both a staple in the ever-growing mobile game market, as well as a launching point for many game developers (hobby and career-wise). The features and frameworks available in iOS 9 continue to cater to the synergy of design and computer engineering, using tools that allow developers to take a game idea from concept to application in record time.Whether you are new to iOS and game development as a whole, or are an experienced programmer wanting to learn the latest features of the platform, iOS 9 Game Development Essentials will provide you with crucial insight into this widely used platform.Starting with the Swift programming language, this book gets the ball rolling with code concepts and game-centric code samples right from the get-go, giving you get a solid understanding of Apple’s cutting-edge programming language. The book takes you through iOS game development concepts and introduces the various frameworks that allow you to develop robust, reusable, and intelligent game components in both 2D and 3D game environments.Style and approachThis book is a step-by-step guide into the code and concepts of iOS apps. Each chapter contains diagrams that showcase the features of the platform, along with code samples from Apple and code samples exclusive to this book.

Expand your knowledge of computer vision by building amazing projects with OpenCV 3About This BookBuild computer vision projects to capture high-quality image data, detect and track objects, process the actions of humans or animals, and much moreDiscover practical and interesting innovations in computer vision while building atop a mature open-source library, OpenCV 3Familiarize yourself with multiple approaches and theories wherever critical decisions need to be madeWho This Book Is ForThis book is ideal for you if you aspire to build computer vision systems that are smarter, faster, more complex, and more practical than the competition. This is an advanced book intended for those who already have some experience in setting up an OpenCV development environment and building applications with OpenCV. You should be comfortable with computer vision concepts, object-oriented programming, graphics programming, IDEs, and the command line.What You Will LearnSelect and configure camera systems to see invisible light, fast motion, and distant objectsBuild a “camera trap”, as used by nature photographers, and process photos to create beautiful effectsDevelop a facial expression recognition system with various feature extraction techniques and machine learning methodsBuild a panorama Android application using the OpenCV stitching module in C++ with NDK supportOptimize your object detection model, make it rotation invariant, and apply scene-specific constraints to make it faster and more robustCreate a person identification and registration system based on biometric properties of that person, such as their fingerprint, iris, and faceFuse data from videos and gyroscopes to stabilize videos shot from your mobile phone and create hyperlapse style videosIn DetailComputer vision is becoming accessible to a large audience of software developers who can leverage mature libraries such as OpenCV. However, as they move beyond their first experiments in computer vision, developers may struggle to ensure that their solutions are sufficiently well optimized, well trained, robust, and adaptive in real-world conditions. With sufficient knowledge of OpenCV, these developers will have enough confidence to go about creating projects in the field of computer vision.This book will help you tackle increasingly challenging computer vision problems that you may face in your careers. It makes use of OpenCV 3 to work around some interesting projects. Inside these pages, you will find practical and innovative approaches that are battle-tested in the authors’ industry experience and research. Each chapter covers the theory and practice of multiple complementary approaches so that you will be able to choose wisely in your future projects. You will also gain insights into the architecture and algorithms that underpin OpenCV’s functionality.We begin by taking a critical look at inputs in order to decide which kinds of light, cameras, lenses, and image formats are best suited to a given purpose. We proceed to consider the finer aspects of computational photography as we build an automated camera to assist nature photographers. You will gain a deep understanding of some of the most widely applicable and reliable techniques in object detection, feature selection, tracking, and even biometric recognition. We will also build Android projects in which we explore the complexities of camera motion: first in panoramic image stitching and then in video stabilization.By the end of the book, you will have a much richer understanding of imaging, motion, machine learning, and the architecture of computer vision libraries and applications!Style and approachThis book covers a combination of theory and practice. We examine blueprints for specific projects and discuss the principles behind these blueprints, in detail.

Implement state-of-the-art techniques to visualize solutions to challenging problems in scientific computing, with the use of the SciPy stackAbout This BookMaster the theory and algorithms behind numerical recipes and how they can be applied to real-world problemsLearn to combine the most appropriate built-in functions from the SciPy stack by understanding the connection between the sources of your problem, volume of data, or computer architectureA comprehensive coverage of all the mathematical techniques needed to solve the presented topics, with a discussion of the relevant algorithms built in the SciPy stackWho This Book Is ForIf you are a mathematician, engineer, or computer scientist with a proficiency in Python and familiarity with IPython, this is the book for you. Some basic knowledge of numerical methods in scientific computing would be helpful.What You Will LearnMaster relevant algorithms used in symbolic or numerical mathematics to address approximation, interpolation, differentiation, integration, root-finding, and optimization of scalar or multi-variate functionsDevelop different algorithms and strategies to efficiently store and manipulate large matrices of data, in particular to solve systems of linear equations, or compute their eigenvalues/eigenvectorsUnderstand how to model physical problems with systems of differential equations and distinguish the factors that dictate the strategies to solve themPerform statistical analysis, hypothesis test design and resolution, or data mining at a higher level, and apply them to real-life problems in the field of data analysisGain insights on the power of distances, Delaunay triangulations and Voronoi diagrams for Computational Geometry, and apply them to various engineering problemsFamiliarize yourself with different techniques in signal/image processing, including filtering audio, images, or video to extract information, features, or remove componentsIn DetailThe SciPy stack is a collection of open source libraries of the powerful *ing language Python, together with its interactive shells. This environment offers a cutting-edge platform for numerical computation, programming, visualization and publishing, and is used by some of the world’s leading mathematicians, scientists, and engineers. It works on any operating system that supports Python and is very easy to install, and completely free of charge! It can effectively transform into a data-processing and system-prototyping environment, directly rivalling MATLAB and Octave.This book goes beyond a mere de*ion of the different built-in functions coded in the libraries from the SciPy stack. It presents you with a solid mathematical and computational background to help you identify the right tools for each problem in scientific computing and visualization. You will gain an insight into the best practices with numerical methods depending on the amount or type of data, properties of the mathematical tools employed, or computer architecture, among other factors.The book kicks off with a concise exploration of the basics of numerical linear algebra and graph theory for the treatment of problems that handle large data sets or matrices. In the subsequent chapters, you will delve into the depths of algorithms in symbolic algebra and numerical analysis to address modeling/simulation of various real-world problems with functions (through interpolation, approximation, or creation of systems of differential equations), and extract their representing features (zeros, extrema, integration or differentiation).Lastly, you will move on to advanced concepts of data analysis, image/signal processing, and computational geometry.Style and approachPacked with real-world examples, this book explores the mathematical techniques needed to solve the presented topics, and focuses on the algorithms built in the SciPy stack.

Install, configure, and support your XenApp systems with the power of Citrix XenAppAbout This BookFamiliarize yourself with Citrix applications and desktop virtualizationMaintain and troubleshoot your XenApp environment to minimize system downtimeA hands-on, step-by-step guide with a practical approach and real-world examples to get you up and running with XenApp systemsWho This Book Is ForThis book is intended for IT administrators and consultants who want to build application and desktop virtualization solutions for their employers and customers. No prior knowledge of Citrix technologies is required.What You Will LearnMake the use case for Citrix XenApp and design your first systemPrepare your existing IT infrastructure for XenApp and learn what licenses you needInstall and configure the XenApp infrastructureEnable access with StoreFront and NetScaler GatewayEnable load balancing with NetScalerMaintain servers and publish applications and desktopsManage printing in a Citrix environmentTroubleshoot your environment using advanced tools and methodologies employed by Citrix Escalation TeamsIn DetailIf you want to effectively deploy the various components of Citrix XenApp to create an enterprise environment for application and desktop delivery, this hands-on guide is perfect for you. You start off by understanding the need and benefits of Citrix XenApp with respect to Virtualization technology. After this, you will get to grips with the requirement analysis and designing aspect of building XenApp systems and all the necessary installation and configuration procedures for Citrix XenApp, StoreFront and NetScalar Gateway are explained one by one in detail.Step-by-step, you will learn to deploy your first XenApp with the Machine Creation Services method and Provisioning Services method. After this, you will explore the administering part of applications and systems, followed by printing in the XenApp environment. Next, you will learn all the trips and tricks required to troubleshoot and support the XenApp environment. By the end of this book, you will be ready to go live with your new XenApp environment.Style and approachThis is a step-by-step guide to technical implementations in a conversational and easy-to-follow style. Each component is deployed sequentially until a full solution is built. Basic as well as advanced features of the product are explored to appeal to the widest possible audience interested in the topic.

Improve the performance of your PHP application to ensure the application users aren't left waiting About This Book · Make the optimum use of PHP coding to improve your programming productivity · Leverage the potential of PHP for server-side programming, memory management, and object-oriented programming · Packed with real-life examples to help the readers implement concepts as they learn Who This Book Is For This book is for those who have basic experience in PHP programming. If you are developing performance-critical applications, then this book is for you. What You Will Learn · Setup high performance development and production environment for PHP 7 · Discover new OOP features in PHP 7 to achieve high performance · Improve your PHP applications' performance · Attain improved database performance · Benchmark PHP applications to optimize them · Write quality code by learning to improve code reusability, simplicity, and expressiveness · Get rid of the bottlenecks in your PHP 7 applications by writing PHP code optimally · Tackle issues related to web applications, such as high user dependency and large datasets In Detail PHP is a great language for building web applications. It is essentially a server-side *ing language that is also used for general-purpose programming. PHP 7 is the latest version, providing major backward-compatibility breaks and focusing on high performance and speed. This fast-paced introduction to PHP 7 will improve your productivity and coding skills. The concepts covered will allow you, as a PHP programmer, to improve the performance standards of your applications. We will introduce you to the new features in PHP 7 and then will run through the concepts of object-oriented programming (OOP) in PHP 7. Next, we will shed some light on how to improve your PHP 7 applications' performance and database performance. Through this book, you will be able to improve the performance of your programs using the various benchmarking tools discussed. At the end, the book discusses some best practices in PHP programming to help you improve the quality of your code. Style and approach The book is a step-by-step guide to improve the quality of your code in PHP through real-time examples. The book takes a practical approach to improving the quality of your code.

Over 120 practical and easy-to-understand recipes that explain how to use Sass and Compass to write efficient, maintainable, and reusable CSS code for your web development projects About This Book Leverage Sass to make your CSS code maintainable, reusable and prevent code duplications Shorten debug time with Sass when creating complex CSS code for different browsers and devices Write easy and bullet-proof CSS with Compass using this step-by-step and detailed guide Who This Book Is For This book is mainly intended for web developers and designers who are comfortable with CSS and HTML. If you are someone with some experience with CSS, you will find the learning curve of learning Sass syntax to be less steep. Basic knowledge of web development is helpful but you don't have to be a programmer to understand Sass. What You Will Learn Spend less time debugging code Compile Sass code into readable and maintainable CSS Integrate Sass in your own projects Reuse your code to prevent code duplications Write reusable and portable CSS code Make use of pre-built and established code written by other developers Reduce development and maintenance time of your projects Set up a development environment with Gulp In Detail Sass and Compass Designer's Cookbook helps you to get most out of CSS3 and harness its benefits to create engaging and receptive applications. This book will help you develop faster and reduce the maintenance time for your web development projects by using Sass and Compass. You will learn how to use with CSS frameworks such as Bootstrap and Foundation and understand how to use other libraries of pre-built mixins. You will also learn setting up a development environment with Gulp. This book guides you through all the concepts and gives you practical examples for full understanding. Style and approach This book is the perfect mix of essential theory combined with real-life examples and problems, with clear explanations of the more sophisticated Sass concepts. Learn Sass and Compass with practical and well-explained example code. This book follows a problem and solution approach that is convenient to understand and follow.

Build websites and applications using the latest techniques in modern web development About This Book Create amazing modern day applications that run seamlessly across multiple platforms Implement multiple methodologies by creating different apps with dynamic features This unique project-based guide will help you build your own websites efficiently Who This Book Is For This book is a must-have for web developers who want to stay on top of the latest trends in web app and site development. If you are a web developer who is already familiar with HTML, CSS, and functional JavaScript, and you want to learn the latest trends in web development, this is the book for you. What You Will Learn Find out how to create responsive websites Create websites using the principals of Flat design Create deep-dive sites using parallax scrolling Discover how to use Ajax in single-page applications Create responsive navigation with CSS and JavaScript Create responsive padding with the box model property In Detail The book delivers simple instructions on how to design and build modern Web using the latest trends in web development. You will learn how to design responsive websites, created with modern Flat User Interface design patterns, build deep-scrolling websites with parallax 3D effects, and roll-your-own single-page applications. Finally, you'll work through an awesome chapter that combines them all. Each chapter features actual lines of code that you can apply right away. Style and Approach Using real-world examples, Web Design Blueprints presents practical how-to projects for site enhancements, with a light-hearted, easy-to-understand tone. This book has individual projects that cumulate until you finally build a super-project at the end, using all the skills learned

Over 70 incredibly effective and practical recipes to get you up and running with Sitecore development About This Book Build enterprise-level rich websites quickly and deliver the best possible content management to your website Get maximum usage of functionalities like different user interfaces, workflow, publishing, search, analytics, etc and learn different rendering techniques using presentation components for data bindings, events, handlers, schedulers, media, etc. Add a surprising amount of functionality just by customizing the Sitecore architecture through the best practices contained in this book Who This Book Is For If you are a Sitecore developer or a programmer who wants to expand your Sitecore development skills, this book is ideal for you. You will need working knowledge of ASP.NET WebForms or MVC, as well as HTML, and a basic knowledge of Sitecore installation. What You Will Learn Create, access, and personalize your website content using different Sitecore presentation components Learn how to extend the presentation components to fulfill some real-life requiremnts such as improving the site’s performance, generating Rss feeds and so on Work with multiple websites on a single Sitecore instance and create multilingual websites Customize the Sitecore interfaces as per your business requirements to provide easier and error-free user interface to content authors to save time and improve accuracy Customize the Sitecore backend architecture as per your business needs Automate tasks and achieve scalability by altering the development and configuration settings Integrate external systems with Sitecore to import or export content and secure user interactions Integrate the advanced features of analytics and personalization, to get the best possible customer experience and generate its reports In Detail This book will get you started on building rich websites, and customizing user interfaces by creating content management applications quickly. It will give you an insight into web designs and how to customize the Sitecore architecture as per your website's requirements using best practices. Packed with over 70 recipes to help you achieve and solve real-world common tasks, requirements, and the problems of content management, content delivery, and publishing instance environments. It also presents recipes on Sitecore’s backend processes of customizing pipelines, creating custom event handler and media handler, setting hooks to interpret foreign language URL and more. Other topics covered include creating a workflow action, publishing sublayouts and media files, securing your environment by customizing user profiles and access rights, boosting search capabilities, optimising performance, scalability and high-availability of Sitecore instances and much more. By the end of this book, you will have be able to add virtually limitless features to your websites by developing and deploying Sitecore efficiently. Style and approach This easy-to-follow guide is full of hands-on recipes on real-world development tasks to improve your existing Sitecore system. Each topic is presented with its benefits and detailed steps to achieve it through well-explained code and images.

Learn how to design 3D-printed objects that work in the real world About This Book This book shows you how to design from a reference to physical objects that can be easily represented by simple basic objects in Blender (cube, cylinder, sphere, and so on) by measuring them This is the only book on the market that shows you how to take your first steps to create 3D printed objects that are able to interact with existing objects Learn how to utilize Blender's functionality to make your designs more precise and accurate Who This Book Is For Reader will have basic knowledge of Blender and 3D Printing, and will have probably already made something simple. They will be interested in printing their first object. What You Will Learn Gain techniques to accurately measure the objects with rules, manual calipers, and digital calipers Break down complex geometries into multiple simple shapes and model them in layers using Blender Scale and re-scale a model to fit based on volume or size constraints See how to multishell geometries and auto-intersections using the Boolean Modifier In Detail Want to model a 3D printed prototype of an object that needs to be replaced or brokenThis book will teach you how to accurately measure objects in the real world with a few basic measuring techniques and how to create an object for 3D printing around the objects measured. In this book, you'll learn to identify basic shapes from a given object, use Vernier and Digital calipers and grid paper tracing techniques to derive measurements for the objects. With the help of measurements, you'll see to model these objects using Blender, organize the parts into layers, and later combine them to create the desired object, which in this book is a 3D printable SD card holder ring that fits your finger. Style and approach This book will be an easy-to-follow guide to learn the methods of scaling, precise measurements, and accurate designing. Using a step-by-step approach, this book will guide you on your journey to model different parts of a complex object and later combine them to create 3D printed objects that work in the real world.

Barbara Cartland was the world’s most prolific novelist who wrote an amazing 723 books in her lifetime, of which no less than 644 were romantic novels with worldwide sales of over 1 billion copies and her books were translated into 36 different languages. As well as romantic novels, she wrote historical biographies, 6 autobiographies, theatrical plays and books of advice on life, love, vitamins and cookery. She wrote her first book at the age of 21 and it was called Jigsaw. It became an immediate bestseller and sold 100,000 copies in hardback in England and all over Europe in translation. Between the ages of 77 and 97 she increased her output and wrote an incredible 400 romances as the demand for her romances was so strong all over the world. She wrote her last book at the age of 97 and it was entitled perhaps prophetically The Way to Heaven. Her books have always been immensely popular in the United States where in 1976 her current books were at numbers 1 & 2 in the B. Dalton bestsellers list, a feat never achieved before or since by any author. Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime and will be best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels so loved by her millions of readers throughout the world, who have always collected her books to read again and again, especially when they feel miserable or depressed. Her books will always be treasured for their moral message, her pure and innocent heroines, her handsome and dashing heroes, her blissful happy endings and above all for her belief that the power of love is more important than anything else in everyone’s life. Beautiful young Claudia Anderson is all alone in the family home in Chelsea without a penny to her name after both her mother and her father, the celebrated actor Walter Wilton, are burned to death when the theatre where Walter is performing collapses in flames. Reeling from the most terrible shock of her life, little does Claudia realise that Fate has another two mortifying shocks in store for her. First, Lady Bressley arrives at her house, the Godmother she has never known, and announces that Walter Wilton was not her real father at all! As Claudia struggles with this earth-shattering news, Lady Bressley generously takes her under her wing on a trip to Spain. But again Fate steps in when Lady Bressley is killed in a coach crash, leaving Claudia penniless and stranded alone in Seville. Finally, though, Fate takes a turn for the better when the dashing Marquis of Datchford asks her to pose as his new bride in order to avoid being matched with a plain-looking Spanish Princess. With one thousand pounds in her pocket as her reward, the Marquis has given her the moon And now, as love blossoms in her heart, can she ask him for the stars as well?

Barbara Cartland was the world’s most prolific novelist who wrote an amazing 723 books in her lifetime, of which no less than 644 were romantic novels with worldwide sales of over 1 billion copies and her books were translated into 36 different languages. As well as romantic novels, she wrote historical biographies, 6 autobiographies, theatrical plays and books of advice on life, love, vitamins and cookery. She wrote her first book at the age of 21 and it was called Jigsaw. It became an immediate bestseller and sold 100,000 copies in hardback in England and all over Europe in translation. Between the ages of 77 and 97 she increased her output and wrote an incredible 400 romances as the demand for her romances was so strong all over the world. She wrote her last book at the age of 97 and it was entitled perhaps prophetically The Way to Heaven. Her books have always been immensely popular in the United States where in 1976 her current books were at numbers 1 & 2 in the B. Dalton bestsellers list, a feat never achieved before or since by any author. Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime and will be best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels so loved by her millions of readers throughout the world, who have always collected her books to read again and again, especially when they feel miserable or depressed. Her books will always be treasured for their moral message, her pure and innocent heroines, her handsome and dashing heroes, her blissful happy endings and above all for her belief that the power of love is more important than anything else in everyone’s life. Since the loss of her parents, the beautiful young Filipa Seymour runs the family’s ancient Manor House alone with very little money and only her beloved dogs and horses and ageing housekeeper, Mrs. Smeaton, for company. So she looks forward with excitement to every visit from her brother, Sir Mark Seymour, except that invariably he is looking for yet another heirloom in the house to sell in order to finance his extravagent Society lifestyle in London. So when Mark suggests a crazy plan for Filipa secretly to take the place of the glamorous ‘Pretty Horse-Breaker’ with whom he is due to ride at the Marquis of Kilne’s prestigious horse race meeting, she reluctantly agrees. Introduced to the Marquis and the other house guests as ‘Fifi’, Filipa is intimidated yet strangely enthralled by his dismissive attitude. But, even as she realises that she is falling in love with him, the Marquis seems oblivious to her and convinced that she is just another gold digger – until she foils a dastardly plot to poison his beloved stallion, saving its life and probably that of its rider as well and in the process opening the Marquis’s eyes to love.