Showing titles in 20th Century

Can a young war correspondent find herself and follow her heart? In this work of historical fiction, 20-something Annabella “Annie” March arrives in France in 1944 intending to write about the war. Soon, however, Annie begins to distance herself from her sometimes-mentor, sometimes-rival - the great Martha Gellhorn - and Gellhorn’s larger-than-life husband, the novelist Ernest Hemingway. She turns to photography in the hopes of making her own name and, to her delight, discovers that images come more easily than words.

Brought to you by Penguin. WINNER OF THE SUNDAY EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD A quest for secrets in the blue afternoon . . . Los Angeles, 1936. Kay Fischer, a young and ambitious architect, is being followed by an old man. When confronted, he explains that his name is Salvador Carriscant - and...

Will the coming war divide them . . . ? For as long as she can remember Peggy O’Shea has been expected to work at the family dairy, look after her younger siblings, and eventually marry cow-keeper Martin Gallagher. And that’s the way it has predictably gone, apart from one glorious summer...

Autumn 1945 - Off the east coast of England, a Japanese sub surfaces, unloads its mysterious cargo, then blows itself to pieces. Former spy Professor Tom Wilde is enjoying peacetime in Cambridge, settling back into teaching and family life. Until a call from senior MI5 boss Lord Templeman brings him out of retirement. A nearby village has been locked down by the military, its residents blighted by a deadly illness. No one is allowed in or out. There are rumours the Nazi machine is still operational, with links to Unit 731, a notorious Japanese biological warfare research laboratory.

In 1930s Berlin, dark days dawn under Hitler's Third Reich. For nineteen-year-old Sophia Alexander, life will never be the same. The daughter of a respected doctor, Sophia has always believed that her destiny is to look after others, and as the persecution of Jewish families begins, she joins a group of dissidents who are committed to helping them to safety.

‘Fans of Jodi Picoult’s style will love how Diane Chamberlain writes’ – Candis. Big Lies in a Small Town, by the internationally bestselling author Diane Chamberlain, is a sweeping novel about two women connected by a painting that holds many dark secrets. North Carolina, 2018: Morgan...

From Annie Murray, the bestselling author of The Bells of Bournville Green, comes Secrets of the Chocolate Girls, another gritty family saga about love, war and chocolate . . . September 1940, Birmingham. While her husband and daughter work at Cadbury's Bournville factory, Ann Gilby has her...

Workers in the Clarks shoe factory, at the heart of the village, have left for the army in droves, and news from the Front seems to grow darker by the day. When lifelong friends Louisa, Jeannie and Kate receive the news they had been fearing, all hope seems lost. And Louisa’s world will be rocked further when she makes another discovery, one that will see her cast out by her family, changing her life forever.

Great Plumstead is buzzing with news that the American GIs have arrived on the nearby aerodrome. However, when a serious accident forces Thea to step back from her work, she must focus her full attention on Rookery House. There is an impossible amount to get done - and a new arrival to accommodate. Will she manage to keep things afloat? Prue is as busy as ever, finding homes for evacuees while worrying about her sons, Jack and Edwin, who are involved in key Allied battles overseas...

It's 1944, and Rosie Sinclair is full of pride to be doing her bit for the war effort as a driver at Cottisbourne Park - the secret heart of Britain's fight against Germany, where a team of brilliant and eccentric codebreakers are battling to save the country. But when she's given a new mission to drive Major-General 'Bluff' Kingsley-Flynn down to Cottisbourne, Rosie finds herself on the frontline of a new battle - to uncover a possible spy at the Park who is jeopardising their vital work, and to resist her own growing attraction to the dashing Bluff himself.... 

London, 1940. Bombs fall and Josie Banks’ world crumbles around her. Her overbearing husband, Stan, is unreachable, called to service. Her home, a ruin of rubble and ash. Josie’s beloved tearoom boss has been killed, and Josie herself is injured, with nothing left and nowhere to go. Evacuated to the English countryside, Josie ends up at the estate of the aristocratic Miss Harcourt, a reluctant host to the survivors of the Blitz. Now a threat looms larger than anyone imagined. And a dangerous secret is about to upend Josie’s life again.

Red Sky in the Morning is an unputdownable historical story from Margaret Dickinson, richly evocative of the Lincolnshire landscape. A young girl stands alone in the cobbled market place of a small Lincolnshire town, bedraggled, soaked through and very afraid. Who is she? Where has she come from...

A beguiling, powerful and heartbreaking novel from an exceptional voice in fiction, The Listeners is the story of ordinary people thrown together in extraordinary circumstances, and the things we do to survive. 'Cinematic and so very satisfying... a phenomenally immersive read' Claire Lombardo...

A satirical view of the suffragette movement and an unblinking yet compassionate story that chronicles the impact of the First World War on an ordinary young couple, William – an Englishman by Cicely Hamilton won the first Prix Femina-Vie Heureuse prize in 1919. Written in a hospital tent to...

Brought to you by Penguin. THE TWENTY-FIRST CLIFFEHAVEN NOVEL BY SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR ELLIE DEAN The year of 1947 is almost upon them, and the community of Cliffehaven is still reeling from the tragic loss of Gracie, who left behind two young orphans. Polish refugee and nurse Danuta...

The Royal Navy is larger than it has ever been—nearly eight hundred ships and one hundred and twenty thousand men—and it is too small for the tasks demanded of it if the war is to be won. British hardwood forests have been destroyed, with the exception of the untouchable New Forest. It is...

Paris, 1940. As the city adjusts to life under Nazi occupation, Detective Eddie Giral struggles to reconcile his job as a policeman with his new role enforcing a regime he cannot believe in but must work under. He's sacrificed so much in order to survive in this new world, but the past is not so easily forgotten. When an old friend and an old flame reappear, begging for his help, Eddie must decide how far he will go to help those he loves.

Don't miss the dazzling new novel from the nation's favourite entertainer 'Heartbreaking, heartlifting and enchanting' CAROL KIRKWOOD 1942, London In the darkest times, hope lights the way... As the snow falls on Berkeley Square, the staff at the Buckingham Hotel are busy preparing for the...

Born Nigerian royalty, Princess Adenrele Ademola trained as a nurse at Guy’s Hospital in London and stepped up to serve the people of Britain when war broke out – facing both the devastation of the Blitz and the prejudice of some of the people she was trying to help. 80 years later, Ade’s great niece Yemi arrives in London clutching the Princess’s precious diaries and longs to uncover the mysteries they hold.

Ever since the Nazis came to power, violence has spread through the city Esther Spielmann once called home. Each night she prays her family will be spared. But when her husband and father are murdered alongside fellow Jews during Kristallnacht, she has no choice but to send her beloved son, Sascha, to safety. Esther’s heart breaks as she watches his thin legs trembling in the cold as he is ushered with the other crying children towards the Kindertransport.