Showing titles in 20th Century

The Secret Sewing Society is a sweeping, heartbreaking tale about a devastating family mystery, a doomed love affair, and generations of women coming together against the odds. Fans of Evie Woods, Fiona Valpy and The Keeper of Happy Endings will be utterly swept away.

When Elsie and Bert Jones move with their children, Ann and Arthur, to Candle Lane, a modest street in Battersea, they miss their comfortable house in Wimbledon. But the move is the right thing to do, as it will enable Bert to finance his new removal business. They are a warmhearted family, and Elsie soon makes friends with her less fortunate neighbour, Ruth, and her daughter, Sally. But before long Elsie realises that all is not well in the house next door....

When Daisy Newton comes to marry Corporal Cade Hadley, has she found the man of her dreams? Evan and company desperately search for the serial killer. Could Corey March be involved or is he as innocent as he claims?

Still grieving the loss of her wandering, free-spirited mother, Lucy Kincaid leaves Nashville for the faded town of Cape Hudson, Virginia. She goes to see the house she’s inherited—one she never knew existed, bequeathed to her by a woman she’s never even met. At the heart of this mystery is the hope that maybe—just maybe—this “Winter Cottage” will answer the endless questions about her mother’s past...including the identity of her birth father.

Brooklyn: the iconic classic. Read by the star of the Oscar and BAFTA-nominated film adaptation, Saoirse Ronan. The classic novel that inspired the major motion picture. The prequel to Colm Tóibín's bestselling novel, Long Island. In a small town in 1950s Ireland Eilis Lacey is one among many...

Malta, 1940. An Irish officer's wife, Adelle Ottaway, has just given birth to a baby with serious problems. Her husband insists the baby should be left in an institution. Adelle decides otherwise and joins a convoy on a perilous journey home to Ireland. She makes a secret promise to her daughter that she will look after her no matter what it takes. But she didn't expect to fall for a US Army medic who is stationed in her village. Northern Ireland, 1987. Adelle's life is falling apart.

Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper, disappointed in love and - on the brink of 40 - living a limited existence with her truculent mother: a small life from which there is no likelihood of escape. When a young Swiss woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys.

At the heart of Dover's Market Square lies the Castle's Café. A bustling, homely place run by the formidable Nellie Castle and her six children. Since the scandalous birth of her beloved son 10 years before, Marianne, Nellie's eldest daughter, has preferred to stay in the kitchen, hidden away from the town gossips. Overcome with shame, Marianne has never revealed the name of Donny's father - not even to her own mother. But with World War II just around the corner, Marianne's past catches up with her. And suddenly the lives of the Castle family become a lot more complicated.

Doctor Frances Brakespeare continues to settle into her new life in rural Somerset at Orchard Cottage Hospital, striving to improve the medical treatments on offer to the community. After successfully establishing a mother and baby clinic, Frances is determined to move with the times and add family planning advice to her roster – but are the residents of Norton Dene ready for such progress or will she face opposition?

'Meticulously researched and beautifully told . . . a wonderfully satisfying read' – Santa Montefiore The Sunday Times Bestselling Historical Fiction Summer on St Kilda – a wild, remote Scottish island. In the 1930s, two strangers from drastically different worlds meet . . . Wild-spirited...

Kathleen Gallagher is sixteen when she shares her first kiss with Liam Flynn, the older brother of her best friend. The bells were ringing in the New Year and snow was falling: it was the perfect romantic moment. But Kathleen knows they can never be together. Three years later, it's 1939, and...

Transporting you to 1930 and the beautiful, remote island of St Kilda, The Lost Lover is the sweeping historical romance from bestselling author Karen Swan. An epic first love. A second chance . . . Young Flora MacQueen has always dreamt of more than life on the small Scottish island of St Kilda...

No Greater Love is a powerful, heartwarming family drama set in Derbyshire around WW1, from bestselling author and Queen of the Saga, Margaret Dickinson. A troubled family. A young woman seeking refuge . . . Derbyshire, 1904. After a family tragedy and a broken engagement dramatically alter her...

In July 1940, Gwen Collingwood drops her husband at the railway station, knowing she may never see him again. Two days later, her humdrum world is torn apart when her sleepy English seaside town is subjected to the first of many heavy bombing attacks. In Ontario, Canada, Jim Armstrong is uncertain whether to volunteer for the army. When he uncovers the secret his fiance has been keeping from him his decision is clear. A few weeks later he is on a ship bound for England.

Everyone liked Sergeant Joe. From the huge jolly Beavis family with whom he had lodgings in Newington Butts, to Mr George Singleton, Charing Cross Road bookseller, who employed Joe in a little lucrative and harmless forgery, Sergeant Joe was a univeral favourite. Quite a few people wondered why he didn't get married. But it wasn't until he bumped into Dolly Smith - quite literally in a London pea-souper - that he met a girl who made an impression on him.

Through years of war and devastation, Tatiana and Alexander suffered the worst the twentieth century had to offer. Miraculously reunited in America, they now have a beautiful son, Anthony, the gift of a love strong enough to survive the most terrible upheavals. Though they are still young, the ordeals they endured have changed them-and after living apart in a world laid waste, they must now find a way to live together in postwar America.

London, 1955. Nurse Helen Brent has spent twenty-six years believing she’ll never find love. Then she meets her new patient, David Edevane. Despite a tragic upbringing, David is kind and stable, and their whirlwind romance quickly leads to marriage and pregnancy. But Helen’s world collapses when she uncovers a dreadful secret, and she will carry the consequences of her silence for the rest of her days…

The Tulip Girl is Margaret Dickinson's captivating Lincolnshire saga about the endurance of true love in the face of adversity. Abandoned outside an orphanage as a newborn baby, spirited Maddie March has had to fight her way through life. So when she finds a home at Few Farm with Frank...

London, Present day: Mia clutches the last remaining box found at Hope’s House in her hands. For months she has been determined to reunite every box with its rightful owner. But now it’s time for her to discover Hope’s own heartbreaking story. France 1938: When Hope meets Gus in the lively streets of Paris, she finally feels that she has met her kindred spirit. But as they plan their dream future together, it is clear that Gus’s father will never allow their romance to develop. Defying his wishes, Gus promises Hope that they will be together after his army training.

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Promise from the bestselling author Lesley Pearse. War threatens to take all she has loved and lived for . . . When Belle Reilly's husband Jimmy enlists and heads for the trenches of Northern France, she knows she cannot...