PLEASE HELP!!! me find this book. Someone must know what it is.

[NotTheDuchessOfCambridge]

Hi all, hoping to find a book I read back in the 90s, though the book could be 80s.
It was a condensed book in a readers digest hardback book (4 different books in 1).
It was about a man (investigator??) who had to get all his clues to a treasure from an old painting.
The painting was obscure (think Salvador Dali), it had a chess board on the floor and all the people facing left had tears on their cheek because they were lying (the clues they gave were false).
There was a tree on a hill. A ladder maybe.
I cannot remember the name of the book or the author and it’s driving me crazy as I really want to read it again!
It has the feel of a Dan Brown book, following ancient clues.

Great thread. KeithLeMonde, your book sounds like Antonia Forest's 'Autumn Term'. The characters (in Kingscote school) put on a production of 'The Prince and the Pauper' and the first-night nerves are incredibly vividly described - including being sick.

But it's not a Shakespeare play and the book was written ages before so if you read it in the 80's/90's, that may not be right.

Gemma Alone by Noel Streatfeild has a production of Romeo and Juliet - but it's produced by the schoolteachers rather than the teenagers themselves.

I don't have much to go on with mine. I read it in the 90's and it was the story of a homeless man in London told in the first person. I was struck by him saying he always had a bit of money on him, even if it was just a few pence, as it made him feel he had at least something.

I've got two mystery books!

The first was a teen fiction book. There was a young girl who lived with her Mum in a rundown / neglected house due to the mum's depression/mental health problems. The Mum has a breakdown and is taken into hospital and the girl makes friends with the owner of a local antique/brick a brace shop. She ends up cleaning, decorating and renovating the house as a surprise for her Mum when she returns from hospital. The Mum is possibly hippyish.

The second was an adult romance paperback (I think). I remember the main character was a male war photographer/photo journalist who has some sort of romance (I think) with another female war reporter. It is set around the time of the Vietnam war and (I think!) talks about Tiananmen Square...I vaguely remember it focusing on the tension in their relationship and the not knowing if they will see each other again...

Any ideas?!

Hopefully someone remembers this book. It’s about a young woman who is really overweight. She runs away to London and gets a job as a typist. I think she loses the weight and gets involved with an abusive tv producer. Then eventually she finds a nice man. Can’t remember more than that but I loved that book in my teens and would love to read it again. Any ideas? Thanks

Timbuktu I remembered No More School reading your description and also the grass pie! There was lots of elaborate description of how they were going to use their meagre supplies to make school dinner for everyone.

ah someone please help me!

anthology of ghost storied aimed for teenage. probs mid nineties (i'm 33). of the stories i can remember one was definitive called 'The red miller' about a boy who moves into a mill and is terrified by the disfigured ghost there.
another story is a girl i think who moves into a house that has cat wallpaper, the room is haunted, not sure what happens!
another one is a haunted blacksmiths and a killer horse
one about a painting and a jumper that suffocates the child.
and last, a magic show being put on. the mysterious magician sends two unruly children 'somewhere' and when they come back they ad wonderfully good, if a little subdued.

if anyone can remember this i will be eternally grateful!!

Ohh I've just solved my own first mystery! It's 'Mel' by Liz Berry - it has quite a synopsis, I can see why teenage me loved it! 😂

"This winsome tale of self-transformation is a hodgepodge of home renovation tips, grass-roots political activism and modern day fairy tale--complete with a sensitive, rock 'n' roll Prince Charming. Hopelessness and her mother's madness have driven Mel to the brink of suicide. When her mother finally is institutionalized, Mel sees the possibility of creating a new life for herself. Moving in with neighbors, she sets to work cleaning and redecorating her mother's squalid house. On a visit to the local junk shop, she meets Mitch, a rock star hiding from his own fame. By the novel's end, Mel has redone her house, passed her all-important exams, mobilized her racially mixed neighborhood, transformed the junk shop into a thriving antique business, won a tidy sum at the racetrack and, of course, negotiated a romantic relationship with Mitch."

Ok, I have one. It’s about a boy / young man who keeps being reincarnated as new characters over many centuries. He meets a girl and they keep meeting in their new lives. I thought it was by a female author - Jane Gardam??- and some was set in the Muddle East. I think they die in the end.

Thanks Katherina and Halsall - neither of those are mine. It was a "modern day" setting (so probably 80s) rather than a classic school story. Wish I could remember what the play was - it may not have been R&J.

I do remember it was published in a series of teenage books which had a particular "look" to their cover design. I would get excited if a new one appeared on the shelf in the library as they were always good juicy reads. I might see if I can remember any of the other titles and track down the name of the series.

keithlemonde I don’t suppose it could be The Seventh Raven by Peter Dickinson, published 1981? About a group of London teens involved in a musical production. Wildirish- a complete guess here- you wouldn’t be thinking of Pack of Lies by Geraldine McCaughrean? Your book actually sounds a bit like The Time Traveller’s Wife, but I’m assuming you’re thinking of a kids’book?

If anyone can help me find the title of my lost book I’ll be eternally grateful. I haven’t been able to find it for decades. It belonged to my mother originally and I’ll guess it’s a few decades old.
It’s funny, about a young boy growing up in a working class family. The memorable scene was about the boy needing a costume for the school Christmas play. His mother made him a full on Brussel Sprout costume as she’d misheard the posh teacher....who actually said Sprite, not Sprout.
I think the author was someone along the same lines of Alan Bennett and I believe it may have been a true story about his upbringing.
Anyone have any idea???

Polly, not the Seventh Raven but thank you :) I read that as a child and loved it, would like to read it again.

BTW I found the series of books that mine came from - Pan Horizons. If you're of a similar age to me, google it to be transported back to the excitements of the teen shelf at the library :)

The Water Babies does have a line about ‘gathering gossamer in autumn’

That's cheery @wildirishrose1 !!!

If anyone could PLEASE help me remember the name of this book, I would be so grateful!

It’s a children’s book- I’m 20, so I think I must have read it maybe 10-15 years ago? I really want to read it to my DS, as I remember loving it. However, I’ve googled for hours and can not find it

I can’t remember loads, but what I do remember is that It’s the story of a family of rabbits who live in a little cottage. One day, One of the rabbits climbs a peach tree as he wants to make a peach crumble/peach pie, falls out and hurts his foot. My description makes it sound like a very unhappy book for children to read, but I promise it’s not

It was beautifully illustrated too.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Vanilla it was great and I thought to myself at the time that I should take a note. Needless to say....

orlandointhewilderness your ghost stories sound to me like one of the Armada Ghost Story collections , published 1980s and early 1990s. There were around 15, I think. Unfortunately they are not very easily available secondhand but if you google them you may recognise a cover.

Polly, not Pack of Lies, Time Traveller’s, or a children’s book

Thank you pansies I think I’ve found the book I was thinking of upthread. Water Babies is sitting on my shelf so it’s not that, unless the line migrated in my memory, which is possible!

thank you Polly!

Thanks Timbuktu. I don't think any of the ones mentioned on there is the right one but I'll go through it properly.

Lana - could it be Jemima J, by Jane Green?

Picture book mystery, if anyone can help. It was a largish hardback book, about a large house. Lots of different people (iirc) living in it, and lift the flaps, and sliders to show different rooms and different people. Illustrated rather than photos. I'm 44, and remember reading it when I was 8~10 with my young sister, so a late 70s early 80s book.... Not much to go on... X

Chessie I think I remember the books about the brownies in Tewkesbury as well - the favoured part of the hall rings a bell. Unfortunately I don't remember much about them either. Did it include a plot where one of the brownies is upset because her mum is having another baby, and she is given a doll to look after so she knows about how much work a baby can be?