Showing titles in 20th Century

Italy, 1950. The dawn of a new decade brings with it the promise of lasting peace and prosperity as the hardships of war are consigned to the past. In Pieve Santa Clara, a tiny village in rural Lombardy, Graziella Ponti, now a teenager, lives a simple life with her widowed mother and aunt. But Italy is transforming around Graziella at great speed and, as her childhood gives way to the start of her womanhood, she must learn to navigate this ever-changing new world.

Liverpool, 1955. With her abusive husband drinking all her wages, Alice faces a daily struggle to provide for her family. Her eldest daughter, Cathy, has always longed to be a nurse, but when poverty means she’s forced to leave school and get a job it looks like her dreams are over. But Cathy isn’t willing to give up, and with the support of old friend - and new love - Gianni, she manages to secure a place as a cadet nurse. Now, though, her mam must stand up to her violent husband alone - and with less money coming in, Alice will be in danger of losing everything.

A British nurse in WWI Egypt races to deliver explosive intelligence that could change the course of the war in this novel of suspense, adventure, and love.

Cassandra Zerek is a true innocent in a wild and dangerous place—but her indomitable spirit and gentle soul make her stronger than anyone suspects. The owner of a Colorado mining empire, Luke Taggart's wealth and position can buy him anything, yet he has grown bored with a life of saloons, gambling, and loose women. Nothing soothes his restless inner yearning—until he spies Cassandra, as fresh and pure as a spring morning, and vows he will possess her.

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.

Brought to you by Penguin. Alice, Kate and Naomi want to keep the magic of Christmas alive in their village of Churchwood but a thief in the area and a new family that shuns the local community are only the first of the problems they face. Naomi is fighting to free herself from Alexander...

Plymouth, 1954. The future seems rosy for Plymouth schoolgirl Anna Millington, as she prepares for teacher training college. But Anna's life is not what it seems. Her family is hiding a cruel secret that resulted from the worst night of the Plymouth Blitz. Now, the devastating consequences are about to erupt again. Fearing for her life, Anna leaves her dreams behind and flees to nearby Dartmoor. It isn't long before Anna secures a position as a serving girl at Ashcroft Hall.

After years of trying to break into New York City's literary scene, Madeline Slaughter is emotionally and physically exhausted. When a friend offers her a safe haven as the live-in companion to reclusive, bestselling novelist Victor Hallowell she jumps at the chance to escape the city. Madeline expects to find rest and quiet in the forests of Upstate New York. Instead, she finds Victor, handsome and intensely passionate, and Audrey Coffin, Victor's mysterious and beautiful neighbor.

It is 1974. Indu has inherited a flat from her grandmother and wants to turn it into a library for women. Her parents think this will keep her suitably occupied till she marries her fiancé, Rajat, who's away studying in London. But then she meets Rana, a young lawyer with sparkling wit and a...

It is 1943 in Nazi-occupied Paris, and nobody is safe. Nobody, except perhaps one small group of people, who’ve always existed outside the law… At Le Cirque Casini, the trapeze artists still fly. The strong men still perform amazing feats. The sad-faced clowns still make people laugh, even in a city with a broken heart. The Nazis do not trouble them, as long as they keep the people happy and entertained.

Victoria Bahani, the privileged seventeen-year-old, daughter of the Rajah of Marpur and an English woman, has always believed she would marry an Englishman. And when she meets Captain Henry Hindley-Jones she knows he’s exactly the kind of man she’s been thinking of. But when war breaks out everything changes for Victoria. With Henry away fighting, Victoria must try and find her own path in life and also do her duty for her king and country. Signing up to be a nurse in the Queen Alexandra’s Nursing Corp, Victoria must leave behind the country she loves for a life of danger and duty.

Like most women, Elizabeth Miles assumes many roles; unlike most, hers have made her a woman on the run. Living on the edge of society, Elizabeth uses her guile to relieve so-called respectable men of their ill-gotten gains. But brutal and greedy entrepreneur Oscar Thornton is out for blood. He's lost a great deal of money and is not going to forgive a woman for outwitting him. With his thugs hot on her trail, Elizabeth seizes the moment to blend in with a group of women who have an agenda of their own.

Hope. Glamour. Independence. A new era has begun… ‘A wonderfully absorbing tale of friendship, rich in period detail’ Stylist ***** With the Great War behind them, four friends are ready to live again. Lydia, a society beauty, has everything – wealth, status and a husband who survived...

Dear Lady Truelove . . . I have fallen in love, truly and completely in love, for the first time. The man whom I hold in such passionate regard, however, is not of my station. He is a painter, a brilliant artist. Needless to say, my family would not approve . . . Henry, Duke of Torquil...

In New Orleans in 1937, a man and woman embark on a headlong flight into the wilderness of illicit passion. In Mississippi ten years earlier, a convict risks his one chance at freedom to rescue a pregnant woman. From these separate stories Faulkner composes a symphony of deliverance and damnation.

India 1935: Amelia Collins, a missionary’s daughter left destitute by the death of her parents, leaves their home in the Himalayan foothills to find work in Darjeeling. There she meets District Officer Reginald Holden, a powerful older man who spirits her away from poverty and prejudice to start a new life as his wife in Ganpur. Amelia soon forms a bond with Reginald’s young son, Arthur, and resumes missionary work in the villages around Ganpur. There, she discovers a pavilion on a lake where the wives of maharajahs once bathed, now abandoned and cloaked in mystery.

White Waltham, 1943. As Italy surrenders and victory looms on the horizon, Ellie's doing what she does best - flying. And this time, she's rising to the sky in four-engine Halifaxes. Determined to keep doing her bit, Ellie's successes in the airfield mount, but so do tensions with her new beau, Squadron Leader Jack Reynolds. When Ellie and Jack find their dream home, they discover they've bought more than they bargained for. With a cellar full of secrets, Jack and Ellie must stand united in the face of mystery, war and loss

When Grace, April, and Poppy join the US Army Nurse Corps, they see it as little more than an adventure, one made all the better by their first station: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Joined at the hip, idealistic Grace, exuberant Poppy, and brave but haunted April frolic in the sun, attending parties, flirting with the handsome soldiers, and becoming fast friends with seasoned nurse Eva. Like the Hawaiian sun, their future seems warm and bright - until the infamous morning of December 7.

Alicia Woodman was born into a home that should have been filled with comfort and joy. Her mother Elizabeth was bright and vivacious, Humphrey Woodman was a prosperous businessman. But Alicia was not Humphrey’s child and he would have nothing to do with her, and before long Elizabeth, too, turned her back on her daughter. It was left to Polly Ford, widow of a dock labourer, to bring Alicia up, to teach her to say ‘Yes, Mama’ and to give the child the love she so desperately needed.

Gravedigger John Gascoigne lives in Downfell Hurst with his wife, Florrie, their three children and his mother, Gran. John is a deep thinker but extremely taciturn - a man of few words and many grunts. Which is why everyone is alarmed when he's hit on the head by a cricket ball, and it suddenly seems as if the words won't stop. What's more, he says he is talking to Saint Christopher - only no one else can see the saint, and they're beginning to worry John's not quite right in the head.