Showing titles in 20th Century

From autumn 1941 to the first months of 1942, the war continued to affect the lives of the Adams and Somers families. It was not so much the war, however, as a succession of tragic domestic events that brought a sad and lonely little girl called Phoebe into the care of Susie and Sammy Adams, reminding them of the entry of Rosie as a child into the lives of Boots and Emily. Much needed to be done to cure little Phoebe of her sadness, and it proved a difficult time for Susie and Sammy.

A new series from bestselling author Kate Thompson. 'Kate Thompson's wartime novels always strike a chord and Secrets of the Homefront Girls is no exception. You can almost smell the Yardley violets drifting over the factory as the girls live lives complicated by the trials and tribulations of...

During World War I, the ancient manor house of Greyladies in rural Wiltshire is requisitioned for a hospital. Living in Swindon, Phoebe Sinclair is unaware of any connection to Greyladies and the Latimers. She loses her job when her German employers are interned because of the war. When Phoebe is posted to the hospital at Greyladies, she feels she's come home. But Frank is still pursuing her and Corin has his own problems. With obstacles at every turn, can Phoebe find happiness and embrace the role of mistress of Greyladies?

Woman. Wife. Smuggler. Spy . . . A thrilling and heart-wrenching novel inspired by the astonishing real life story of Nancy Wake. Perfect for fans of Suzanne Goldring's MY NAME IS EVA, Kate Quinn's THE ALICE NETWORK and Imogen Kealey's LIBERATION, soon to be a blockbuster movie. 'Lawhon breathes...

Britain, March, 1944. After a desperate aerial battle over Somerset, a German bomber goes down in flames. When Joan discovers the Luftwaffe pilot hiding in her barn, her first instinct is to turn him in – against her better judgment, she offers him shelter instead. As they work side by side in the fields, a forbidden love begins to flourish. As the walls close in on their unlikely affair, Dieter and Joan's lives become fraught with danger, until passion and patriotism finally collide.

Kitty learned early on in her marriage that her husband, Bill Dunbar, isn’t reliable with money. So when they inherit the Dunbar family hotel at the start of the war, she's hopeful that their financial worries are over… until the bailiffs turn up! With Bill away fighting, it’s up to Kitty to turn things around for her family, or risk ruin. Lily worked as a chambermaid at Dunbar’s before the war. She met Daniel there, but their relationship was complicated by class differences and the disapproval of Daniel’s mother.

Rumor has it; they are being moved to Warsaw. Heide, who is always informed, claims that all hell is loose over there. There is talk of a German pullback from the eastern frontline. Thousands of British paratroops have landed and Polish soldiers converge on from the woods. But the Polish army is already doomed. Not only by the Reichsführer Himmler in Berlin, but also by Marshal Stalin. The Polish nationalists vainly beg the Red Army for help. But it has already been decided that the Polish communists are to take over Poland.

Brought to you by Penguin. Discover the gothic horror phenomenon that is sweeping across Europe, with over 2 million copies sold As the dark and menacing waters of the local river submerge Perdido, a small town in the south of Alabama, the Caskeys - a family of rich landowners - must confront...

1944. Paul Brandt, a German soldier, returns wounded and ashamed from the chaos of the Eastern front to find his village home existing in the dark shadow of an SS rest hut - a luxurious retreat for those who manage the concentration camps, run with the help of a small group of female prisoners. When Brandt glimpses one of these prisoners, he realises that he must find a way to access the hut. For inside is the woman to whom his fate has been tied since their arrest five years before, and now he must do all he can to protect her.

Hampshire, 1913. Amidst the glitz and glamour of England’s High Society, Sarah Trenwith is more of a wallflower living in the shadow of her beautiful sister Marianne. But as the war approaches Sarah will have to step out of the place society and her family have assigned her if she’s to do her part and claim the love she always dreamed of from afar.

Plymouth, 1941. As sirens blare all around, the Shawbrook family take refuge in a packed shelter. Bombs have already begun to fall through the night sky when they realise their infant son, Freddie, has been forgotten in the rush, left to sleep in his crib. Terrified, Vera, his young mother, races to find him and bring him to safety. The next morning, air raid warden David Shawbrook returns from his watch to find the shelter pulverised, and his family seemingly all dead. Dirty footprints inside their home betray the looters who have rifled through the house.

1940 - Small Heath, in the heart of Birmingham, is facing the darkest days of the war. Two very different girls from this tight-knit community join up as ARP wardens to do their bit for the Home Front. Violet Simms lives with her controlling, widowed mother who runs the local pawn shop. At just...

As children, Eva Rosselli and Angelo Bianco were raised like family but divided by circumstance and religion. As the years go by, the two find themselves falling in love. But the church calls to Angelo and, despite his deep feelings for Eva, he chooses the priesthood. Now, more than a decade later, Angelo is a Catholic priest and Eva is a woman with nowhere to turn. With the Gestapo closing in, Angelo hides Eva within the walls of a convent.

Against the chaotic backdrop of World War II, Grace Murphy is working as a midwife in Doncaster Royal Infirmary with her two friends, Clodagh and Patsy. In between delivering babies and tending wounded airmen, the girls endure bombing raids, rationing and the hardships and heartbreak that war brings. But in the faces of the new babies she welcomes to the world, Grace always looks for hope, as she dreams of a time when the war will end.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Bomb Girl Brides by Daisy Styles, read by Anne Dover. The life of a Bomb Girl isn't usually glamourous. But Maggie is getting married, so she is going to make sure her wedding day is - even if she does have to spend every other day slaving on the...

The New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond Eye and The Rose Code returns with a haunting and powerful story of female friendships and secrets in a Washington, DC, boardinghouse during the McCarthy era. Washington, D.C., 1950 Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, an...

In a different world, Evie Milton would have accepted her fate, married an aristocrat and become the doyenne of one of England’s finest estates, just like her mother. In a different world, Rose Wiley would have married her fiancé, David, established a modest homestead and brought up a brood of babies, just like her mother. But this isn’t a different world, and these women are not their mothers. Rose dreams of a life filled with more than family and duty to her husband—a life of purpose—and Evie dreams of a life far away from her rarefied existence. 

Non è una di loro, Mallena. Un giorno di sedici anni prima è arrivata a Norolani insieme con Jubanne, cui è bastato un attimo per innamorarsi e che l'ha sposata per proteggerla da un destino che gravava su di lei come una condanna. Dovrebbero essere rivali, Mallena e Angelica, invece sono le due facce della stessa medaglia, entrambe spinte dal desiderio di libertà e indipendenza, entrambe tradite dalle persone che avrebbero dovuto proteggerle e vittime della quotidiana ingiustizia che il mondo sa riservare soprattutto alle donne.

It is 1942. Lt. Harry Gilmour has already made a name for himself in the Royal Navy submarine service. He has risked his life to save a fellow seaman after his first boat, HMS Pelorus is rammed and sunk in the North Sea. He’s played a leading role in HMS Trebuchet’s epic foray into a fjord in the then-neutral Soviet Union to scatter German ships secretly assembling to invade Iceland. And as number three on HMS Umbrage in the Mediterranean, he had assumed command after her skipper had been lost overboard and gone on to attack an Italian cruiser squadron.

Enter the world of the rich, charismatic Lytton family and their powerful publishing empire in this passionate family saga that spans from the Edwardian era to World War I and the excesses of the glamorous 1920s. Enter the world of Celia Lytton, a woman who is used to getting her way. Celia makes difficult and often dangerous decisions that affect not only herself, her husband Oliver, and their children, but others.