Showing results by publisher "Oakhill Publishing" in All Categories

In 1836, Charles Henry Harrod was convicted at the Old Bailey of receiving stolen goods and sentenced to seven years' hard labour in Tasmania. But he miraculously escaped his fate to found what would become the legendary Harrods. His son, Charles Digby, transformed the shop from a local grocer's to a department store patronised by the wealthy and famous. Robin Harrod's fascinating book reveals the previously unknown origins of the store and follows its fortunes through family scandal, the devastating fire of 1883 and its subsequent rise from the ashes, to 1889 when its shares were floated on the stock exchange, completing one of the most extraordinary stories in the history of commerce.

Welcome to Salonika in 1916, once one of the jewels in the Ottoman crown. It is now suddenly Greek. A city nominally neutral, but teeming with French, British and Serbian armies, to hold it against the Austro-German forces to the north, with their Bulgarian allies.

December 1941, North East England. Despite the loss of her father, Sarah is settling into her new role at the munitions factory. Her blossoming romance with pitman Stan is a welcome distraction from the dangerous working conditions. But a shocking revelation puts everything on the line. Meanwhile Fran is missing her sweetheart Davey, who has been conscripted to Bletchley Park. Beth is longing for someone too - and it's not her husband on the front line. As the factory girls face hardship on the home front, they will discover that the heroes they need are already by their side.

Bill is a 15-year-old runaway evacuee, and he’s finding that surviving on the streets of London is pretty easy. Things get more complicated for Bill with the arrival of Julie. She's a runaway too, and although she’s a bit posh, she’s just as determined as Bill to stay free of interfering parents and 'the social'. But although it’s fun for a while to duck Jerry missiles and camp out in bombed-out houses, the reality of living through the Blitz quickly begins to set in.

When her brother Toby vanishes so that even their mother has no memory of him, Nin realises the reason she still remembers is because whoever took Toby is about to take her too. Enter Skerridge the Bogeyman, who steals kids for Mr Strood. With his spindle, he winds away all the memory of Nin. She escapes to the Drift, a world filled with the Fabulous and Seven Sorcerers who once ruled the land. But what is the Sorcerer's secret?

Bel is nervous about spending the lead-up to Christmas with her grandma at Lamont House, a sheltered housing complex converted from a grand Victorian home. The mansion is beautiful but eerie, too, with its moving shadows and odd noises. One night, Bel is sure she sees a cat wandering across the grounds, even though no pets are allowed. She follows its footprints through the snow and is transported into the past. There she discovers Charlotte, a Victorian girl her own age.

On a beautiful Saturday in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, state investigator Kirk Stevens and FBI special agent Carla Windermere witness the assassination of one of the state’s wealthiest men. The shooter is a young man, utterly unremarkable...except for the dead look in his eyes. The events of that sunny springtime day will lead Stevens and Windermere to a flourishing 21st-century enterprise: a high-tech murder-for-hire social media website.

From the outside Carter Tomlin's life looks perfect: a big house, a pretty wife, two kids. But Tomlin has a secret. He's lost his job, the bills are mounting, and that perfect life is hanging by a thread. Desperate, he robs a bank. Then he robs another. As the red flags start to go up, FBI Special Agent Carla Windermere hones in on Tomlin from one direction, while Minnesota state investigator Kirk Stevens picks up the trail from another. Because Carter Tomlin's decided he likes robbing banks.

1851. Wealthy businessman Jacob Welland is dying of consumption and implores private detective Laetitia Rodd to find his beloved brother, whom he has not seen for 10 years. An impoverished Oxford scholar who left college to live as a wandering hermit, Joshua Welland has been spotted in a gypsy camp, where it was rumoured he was learning great secrets. 

1915. Japanese-occupied Korea. Najin Han, the privileged daughter of a calligrapher, longs to choose her own destiny. When her traditional father seeks to marry her into an aristocratic family, her mother defies generations of obedient wives and instead sends Najin to serve in the King's court as a companion to a young princess. But the King is assassinated, and the centuries-old dynastic culture comes to an end.

It is 1535, and Agnes Peppin, daughter of a West Country butcher, is banished from her family home. Forced to abandon her newborn child, she is meant to live out her days cloistered behind the walls of Shaftesbury Abbey. But King Henry VIII has proclaimed himself the new head of the church. Religious houses are being suppressed, and the great Abbey is no exception to the purge. Free to be the master of her own fate, Agnes descends into a world she knows little about, using her wits and testing her moral convictions against her need to survive by any means necessary....

Lacey Carmichael leads a solitary life. To her neighbours she is the mad old woman who lives at the end of the lane, crazy but harmless. Until she is arrested on suspicion of murder. When Rachel Moore arrives in the village, escaping her own demons, the two women form an unlikely bond. Unravelling in each other's tales of loss and heartache, they become friends.

Arriving home from a routine day at work, Anna Cottrell has no idea that her life is about to change forever. But discovering the stabbed body of a stranger in her flat, then becoming prime suspect in a murder inquiry is only the beginning. Her persistent claims of innocence start to crumble when new evidence links her irrevocably with the victim.... Leading her first murder investigation, DCI Helen Lavery unravels a trail of deception, family secrets and betrayal. 

Atticus Claw, once the world's greatest cat burglar and now its best ever police cat, is celebrating New Year's Eve in a Scottish castle! But with rumours of hidden treasure, an ancient family curse and sightings of a mysterious giant cat on the moor, it seems Police Cat Sergeant Claw's detective skills will be needed again. And danger lurks everywhere on the misty moor....

A hundred years ago, the true story of the brutal murder of Miss Jean Milne in a small seaside town captured the imagination of the whole country. A wealthy spinster who lived alone in a crumbling mansion, Miss Milne appeared to be the very model of respectability. But behind the facade, Miss Milne was living a secret life. Why was this quiet spinster tied up in her own home, tortured and brutally murdered?

Catesby is a spy with an antiestablishment chip on his shoulder. Loathed by the Americans and trusted by the Russians, he is sent to Havana and Washington to make clandestine contacts. London has authorised Catesby to offer Moscow a secret deal to break the Cuban Missile Crisis deadlock. But then Catesby meets the Midnight Swimmer, who has a chilling message for Washington.... Merging fact and fiction, sleaze and high politics, this white-knuckle thriller sees a superpower standoff played out against a backdrop of honey-trap blackmail, Mafia contracts, assassination and Vatican scandal.

Mila and her sisters live with their brother, Oskar, in a small forest cabin in the snow. One night, a fur-clad stranger arrives seeking shelter for himself and his men. But by the next morning, they've gone, taking Oskar with them. Fearful for his safety, Mila and her sisters set out to bring Oskar back - even if it means going north, crossing wild and frozen lands to find a way past an eternal winter. 

Harper lives in the City of Clouds with her Great Aunt Sassy and her beloved cat, Midnight. When Midnight goes missing - together with all the cats of the neighbourhood - Harper realises that only her magical scarlet umbrella can help her find him. When Harper steps out with the umbrella in her hand, she is carried up into the sky on a series of amazing adventures. And Midnight isn’t all she finds when she stumbles upon the Midnight Orchestra and its wild conductor!

Lukas has been apprenticed to work for Emperor Rudolph II. The reclusive emperor collects wonders from around the world, all crammed into four rooms. Not everyone is charmed by his eccentricity though, and when a group of diplomats arrives, sent by the King of Spain, Lukas senses danger. But if he is to protect the great Bohemian from tyranny Lukas must first learn the true meaning of trust, honour and friendship.

There’s more than meets the eye to Granny Hogsflesh and her pickling empire, but even Barnaby couldn’t have guessed how much more. Nor could he possibly have imagined what actually happened to his dad, who, burping and slurping, mysteriously disappeared into the night... What has Granny done? Enter the hilarious and disgusting world of bogles and pickling with a delightfully eccentric cast and deliciously dark humour.