Showing titles in 20th Century

The war has had a devastating effect on the Sweet family, with young Charlie Sweet, lost at sea, presumed dead and bombs falling on nearby Bristol. Still there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon in the form of Mary Sweet’s upcoming wedding to her Canadian beau. But even that has failed to rouse their father from his grief. But in London a baby has been found in a bombed out house, sheltered in the arms of his dead mother. A child to make life worth living again...

Dottie Perks has forged a new life for herself in London, with a new job and a loving boyfriend. She's safe, happy and loved. What more could she ask for? But when Dottie visits her home in Brighton, the last person she expects to see is her first love, Ralph Bennett. As old feelings come rushing to the surface, Dottie struggles to deny the strong chemistry between them. She can't throw away everything to be with Ralph...can she?

No one is more surprised than Meredith when she’s bequeathed a cottage by a great aunt she’d never heard of. She hopes, briefly, that the inheritance could be the answer to her financial problems. But when she arrives in Suffolk, she is shocked to discover a man is already living there. A young gardener, who claims he was also bequeathed half of Butterfly Cottage. As the pair try to unravel their complicated situation, they unearth a decades old mystery involving Clara, the garden, and a stack of letters left unread for over 50 years.

Wiltshire, December 1915. Widow Olivia Hanbury is persuaded by her cousin Donald to move in with his meek little wife while he is serving in France. When he's wounded and returns home to convalesce, tensions immediately rise between him and lively Olivia. But things begin to look up when Olivia becomes involved in starting the new Women's Institutes and is introduced to Alex, an antiques dealer. Meanwhile, Phoebe Latimer is holding the fort at Greyladies, an ancient manor house, while her husband is away at war. But someone is attempting to rid Greyladies of the German internees based there.

Following on from her bestselling historical fiction The Woolworths Girls, Christmas at Woolworths is the heartfelt second book in Elaine Everest's Woolworths series, set during World War 2. Even though there was a war on, the Woolworths girls brought Christmas cheer to their customers. Best...

A secret lies behind every door… The Dordogne, 1936 Amid tangled gardens and crumbling walls, Chateau Rousseau guards its secrets well. Pushing open its faded door, Thirza Caruthers arrives to care for her great-aunt. She's made a promise – unaware of what awaits. As the skies darken above...

This is the story of two very different children growing up in a small Irish seaside town in the 50s and 60s. Shouting their hearts' desires into the echo cave, praying that their destiny will lead them far away from the town in which they live. Castlebay, in winter empty and grey with wind and...

Brought to you by Penguin. The festive follow-up to The Rose Queen, from beloved Sunday Times bestselling author Katie Flynn... Liverpool, 1941: After German bombs shatter the life Cadi has built for herself in Liverpool, she is more determined than ever to sign up and do her bit. Joining the...

'Another brilliant, hard-to-put-down book' - 5 STARS, reader review Livia Blake has lost her husband far too soon and faces a crossroads. It's her friend Pearl Grayson, head of Bristol's nursing school, who suggests she would make an excellent district nurse. With training completed and no ties...

Cousins Masha and Rachel Morgenstern board the luxury liner the SS Manhattan bound for New York, desperate to escape the concentration camps that claimed the rest of their family. America offers a safe haven, but to reach it they must survive a hazardous Atlantic crossing. Among their fellow passengers fleeing the war, each with their own conflicts, secrets, and surprises, are the composer Igor Stravinsky, making a new start after a decade of tragedy, and Rose Kennedy, determined to keep her four children from harm.

To the student nurses at The Nightingale hospital, the ward sisters are heartless and frightening, with impossibly high standards. But the sisters have troubles of their own...Dora, the student nurse is struggling with her heartbreak over Nick, the man who got away. A new arrival on the ward brings the chance to put a smile back on her face. But can she really get over Nick so easily? Dora's fellow student Millie is also torn between the two men in her life.

May 1943. The tide of war has turned at last, with an Allied victory looking increasingly certain, but all is not well for the residents of Silverdale. Newlyweds Bobby and Charlie find themselves back in civilian life after Charlie is given a medical discharge from the RAF. But the village of Silverdale has been forever changed, and the memories of their lost young men cast a long shadow.

Botanical artist Jane Saville is devastated when her manipulative mother banishes her to the countryside to protect someone else's honour. Isolated far from home, she is forced to live an impoverished, secretive life to save the family from public shame. When the paths of these people from two very different worlds collide, Jane begins to hope for a different future, but their new friendship is shattered by jealousy, misunderstanding, duty and treachery. But a chance meeting with a young boy will inspire Jane to defy the powers working against her and prove she is no woman to be outcast.

After the heartbreak of World War Two, newlywed midwife Cathy hoped Liverpool life would offer some joy. But a terrible miscarriage and the escape of her abusive stepfather Jack from prison make happiness hard to find. Meanwhile, Cathy’s beloved granny is ailing. Whilst at the hospital, Cathy sees her midwifery friends, who are planning to open a home for unmarried mothers. After losing a baby of her own, Cathy would love to help, but for now, she must take care of her grandmother.

As a 13-year-old World War Two evacuee, Edie’s mother was chosen by the mysterious Juniper Blythe and taken to live at Milderhurst Castle with the Blythe family. In the grand and glorious Milderhurst Castle, a new world opened up for Edie’s mother. She discovered the joys of books and fantasy and writing, but also, ultimately, their dangers. Fifty years later, as Edie chases the answers to her mother’s riddle, she too is drawn to Milderhurst Castle and the eccentric Blythe sisters. Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother’s past.

The Pratchett family have to contend with coalman Alfie Pratchett's obsessive jealousy. A bully, his two teenage children, John and Millie, have learned to dodge him and his moods. The main concern of ugly duckling Millie - who looks nothing like her handsome brother John - is to protect their mum, Eileen. When crisis strikes the Pratchetts' home, Alfie is forced to watch his whole world gradually collapse around him. Their old life has gone forever, and a new one has begun - one in which rape, debt, alcoholism and insanity play their parts. And redemption is a long time coming.

What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right? During a snowstorm in England in 1910, a baby is born and dies before she can take her first breath. During a snowstorm in England in 1910, the same baby is born and lives to tell the tale. What if...

She thought she could trust him . . . Eva Kershaw thought she would never marry, and is happy living a quiet life with her dear friend Alice. But Alice is ill, and her nephew, Gus, has thrust himself into their household. Alice's dearest wish is that Eva should not make the same mistakes she did...

The gripping sequel to A Woman of Substance (now a major new tv series) and Hold The Dream. Set in Yorkshire, Hong Kong and America, this remarkable novel continues the story of an unorthodox and endlessly fascinating family. As the spirit of Emma Harte lives on in her granddaughter, Paula...

Holding the letter in trembling hands, Daisy’s future crumbled before her – the words engraved on her heart forever. The village of Little Creek, the long winter of 1867. The first flakes of snow are falling when Daisy Marshall, secretly engaged to her master's son, finds herself jilted at the altar. Heartbroken, Daisy flees to the small village of Little Creek, nestled on the coast of Essex. There she is warmly welcomed – but the village is poverty-stricken, suffering under a cruel lord of the manor. And when cholera hits, the villagers are truly in dire straits.