Showing titles in 20th Century

Peter Stuyckes is a 19-year-old who has just finished his training as a pilot for England’s Royal Air Force (RAF) when he arrives at an aerodrome called Westhill near the town of Melford, England. There he joins an established squadron already in the thick of the fighting but with a less-than-stunning first flight in front of his new colleagues. Stuyckes doesn’t know it then, but he is to become part of what will be called the Battle of Britain, the first major military campaign fought entirely by air forces.

Kitty and Tom Conlon arrive in Liverpool in July 1916 to claim the house Tom’s great-uncle has bequeathed him in his will. The move to England couldn’t have come at a better time. Dublin is in turmoil following the Easter Uprising and Kitty’s brother is now in prison. The house in Weaver Street is all they hoped for, and after a shaky start with her new neighbours, Kitty believes the world is her oyster. Until that is, Tom is conscripted into the navy. With Tom away, it’s up to Kitty and the women of Weaver Street to get each other through the war.

January 1945, Dachau, Germany. As the train rattles through the bright, snowy Bavarian countryside, the still beauty outside the window hides the terrible scenes inside the train, where men and women are packed together, cold and terrified. Jewish watchmaker Isaac Schüller can’t understand how he came to be here, and is certain he won’t be leaving alive.

October 1942. Viola loves her new job away from the factory and hopes that her romance with the handsome Ralph might have a happy ending. Meanwhile, married life is proving tough for Fran and Davey. Following her husband's shocking confession, Beth finally feels as though she's regaining control of her life. Christmas is a time for family and friends, and the factory girls will do everything they can to ensure this year's celebration is one to remember.

In the early hours of 5 June 1944, Captain Rob Collins, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, who is languishing in hospital, receives a call that will take him on a journey through England that will change his life. Mike Walker's play is an epic journey across England poised on the edge of a historical moment. It is set on June 5th, the day before the invasion. It is a portrait of England waiting for the invasion that will change the course of history, but an invasion only a very few know that is about happen. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliet Stevenson and Claudia Harrison.

A two-part radio dramatisation of Vasily Grossman's dark, honest account of the Battle of Stalingrad; a prequel to Life and Fate - plus Stalingrad: Destiny of a Novel. With this astonishing prequel published in its first ever English translation by Richard and Elizabeth Chandler, we are transported back to the very beginning of Vasily Grossman’s panoramic tale, as the ‘harsh whirlwind’ of war approaches the city of Stalingrad.

A major BBC Radio 4 drama series following the lives of those on and behind the battlefront of World War I Meticulously based on unit war diaries and eye-witness accounts, each of these 42 episodes of Tommies traces one real day at war, exactly 100 years ago. We follow the fortunes of Mickey...

The New York Times bestselling authors of The Glass Ocean and The Forgotten Room return with a glorious historical adventure that moves from the dark days of two World Wars to the turbulent years of the 1960s, in which three women with bruised hearts find refuge at Paris’ legendary Ritz hotel...

At twenty-five, Ruby Nevins has already endured more than most. But after two years of battling cancer, she’s warily determined to move forward. Researching a new project about a French actress, she soon uncovers an old diary that will change her life forever… Cécile, the “it” girl of early 1940s French cinema, vanished from Nazi-occupied Paris in 1942. Sylvia Rousseau, Cécile’s dressmaker and confidante, left that same year. Working to piece together the truth behind Cécile’s disappearance and Sylvia’s extraordinary life, Ruby recognizes the women as kindred spirits.

There’s a super storm brewing out in the Pacific… one that will change the course of history forever… After three successful raids on Japanese outposts, the men and pilots of USS Enterprise are ready to get out there and hit Tojo once more. However, something dark and dangerous lies on the horizon… but before they face that storm, the U.S. Navy and Army has a delivery to make… right to Hirohito’s front porch!

1939, and naïve young newlywed Harriet Pringle arrives in Bucharest with her husband, Guy - just as Europe is about to rip itself apart. She believes she knows everything about the man she has married, but soon realises she knows nothing. Guy is oblivious to her needs and desires, seeming only to care about his job as a university lecturer, his friends and the beautiful, voluptuous Sophie. Struggling to build a life in a strange city, in the face of imminent invasion, Harriet feels bereft - and increasingly isolated.

Jersey, 1940. In the quiet of the English Channel, war is brewing. When the Nazis first set foot on her island home, 16-year-old Marcy comes to realize that nothing will ever be the same. Fueled by the devastating disappearance of the man she loves and in defiance of her distant mother, Violet, she joins forces with fellow islander Louisa to aid Jersey’s secret resistance.

In a gripping novel full of plot twists, B. A. Shapiro embeds us in a circle of famous painters in late-nineteenth-century Paris, centering on the anguished Impressionist artist Berthe Morisot—the one woman in their midst who never got her due—and the story of Morisot’s great-great-great-great granddaughter, Tamara Rubin, who has inherited Édouard Manet’s Party on the Seine, a painting that completely upends her life.

From the author of The Widows of Champagne, and inspired by true events, comes a gripping and heartwrenching story of two very different women united to bring light to the darkest days of World War II. London, 1933 At first glance, Austrian opera singer Elsa Mayer-Braun has little in common with...

Inspired by real accounts of the Forgotten Blitz bombings, The British Booksellers highlights the courage of those whose lives were forever changed by war—and the stories that bind us in the fight for what matters most. A tenant farmer’s son had no business daring to dream of a future with...

While war rages across the world, Kate struggles on her family farm by the wild Atlantic Ocean. But when she meets American airman Tony, whose blue eyes are as stormy as the sea, her life collides with the war in ways she never imagined.Their time is cut short when Tony leaves for war, promising to come back for her. Only then does Kate learn she is carrying his child - and when her family finds out, she is shunned and banished to a Magdalen Laundry to be imprisoned.

Iceland 1940. Britain invades Iceland. Lieutenant Tom Marks is a British officer tasked with defending Whale Fjord. He meets Kristín, a young widow from a nearby farm, who has a small son. Tom is smitten. Iceland 2023. Inspector Magnus Ragnarsson is called to the shores of Whale Fjord where the skeletons of a man and a woman have been discovered, both shot with British wartime bullets. Magnus uncovers a web of anger and revenge that stretches back 80 years and forward to a shocking murder in Reykjavík.

July 1941. As the war grinds on, Lady Joanna Harcourt knows that her time at Goodwill House is drawing to close. A new chapter awaits, one that she never expected to happen to her – she is going to be a wife and mother again! Excited with their new arrival and with her beloved Flying Officer John Sergeant back in her life, Joanna hopes that even though war clouds gather, love will prevail, and the future will look brighter than ever for the Harcourt family. John has just one last mission to complete, before they can be together.

È l’inverno del 1943: nell’Europa scossa dalla seconda guerra mondiale, l’Albania subisce senza piegarsi l’occupazione tedesca. Nel piccolo villaggio di Rragam, nel nord del paese, Kajan guarda il mondo cambiare attraverso gli occhi curiosi di un bambino di sette anni. I suoi genitori sono partigiani e sono sulle montagne a combattere contro i nazisti, così accanto a lui ci sono l’amatissimo nonno Betim e Cornelius, un personaggio dal passato misterioso che segnerà la vita di Kajan.

1938. Dr. Ho Fengshan, consul general of China, is posted in Vienna with his American wife, Grace. Shy and ill at ease with the societal obligations of diplomats’ wives, Grace is an outsider in a city beginning to feel the sweep of the Nazi dragnet. When Grace forms a friendship with her Jewish tutor, Lola Schnitzler, Dr. Ho requests that Grace keep her distance. His instructions are to maintain amicable relations with the Third Reich, and he and Grace are already under their vigilant eye.