Historical Diaries

She steps into the room and it’s like going back in time. Catapulting her right into the heart of the 1940s. The spindle of the record player frozen and ready to play. The flowery wallpaper faded but intact. A soldier’s uniform pressed and hung on a door, coal still in the fireplace.

Monday, 9th September "I left London today and met Bingley at Netherfield Park. I had forgotten what good company he is; always ready to be pleased and always cheerful. After my difficult summer, it is good to be with him again . . ." The only place Darcy could share his innermost feelings was...

The year is 1814, and springtime is in full bloom at Pemberley. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy have married. But now a new romance is in the air, along with high fashion, elegant manners, scandal, deception, and the wonderful hope of a true and lasting love. Shy Georgiana Darcy has been content to remain unmarried, living at Pemberley with her brother and his new bride and convinced that the one man she secretly cares for will never love her in return.

Kitty Bennet is finished with love and romance. She lost her one-time fiancé in the Battle of Waterloo, and in the battle's aftermath saw more ugliness and suffering than she could bear. Staying with her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner in London for the winter, Kitty throws her energies into finding a husband for her hopelessly bookish sister Mary, and discovering whatever mysterious trouble is worrying her sister Jane.

Douglas Abrams’s magical debut novel captures the heart of the Spanish Golden Age and the secret life of the world’s greatest lover–Don Juan. It was a time of discovery and decadence, when life became a gamble and the gold that poured endlessly into the port of Sevilla devalued money...

THIS AUDIOBOOK INCLUDES AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH PATERSON JOSEPH AND MALORIE BLACKMAN, AUTHOR OF NOUGHTS AND CROSSES. PICKED FOR THE TIMES BIGGEST BOOKS FOR AUTUMN 2022 'An absolutely thrilling, throat-catching wonder of a historical novel. Told with dazzling energy and brilliant panache...

From the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder, this novel is based on the true story of two girls who fall secretly, deeply, and dangerously in love at boarding school in 19th century York. “A wrenching love story.” —Chris Bohjalian, The Washington Post Drawing on years of...

A lyrical multigenerational novel about two families—one Israeli and one Palestinian—and the house that connects them, by the award-winning author of The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land Jerusalem, 1939: An eccentric Jewish bookbinder and his young niece, Agata, are hired to repair books at...

In the first novel of Maya Rodale's stunning new series, an American heiress must learn to navigate London society and an infuriatingly irresistible rake . . . Lord Darcy is the quintessential Englishman: wealthy, titled, impossibly proper, and horrified that a pack of Americans has inherited...

This program is read by the author, who also plays the lead role of Sancho in his play, Sancho: An Act of Remembrance. "To be able to speak these intimate words into a listener’s ears is this writer-performer’s dream. I have always loved the spoken word, as it strikes me as the purest form...

Meet Mazie Phillips: big-hearted and bawdy, she's the truth-telling proprietress of The Venice, the famed New York City movie theater. It's the Jazz Age, with romance and booze aplenty--even when Prohibition kicks in--and Mazie never turns down a night on the town. But her high spirits mask a...

Step into the heart of East London through the eyes of Elizabeth Cooper as she reflects on three turbulent decades of life, love, and survival. From the cobbled streets of Masthead Lane to the shadow of the Great War and the challenges of making ends meet, Elizabeth's story captures the resilience of working-class families as they navigate a rapidly changing world.

A warm and affectionate portrait of a city and a people under lockdown during the Covid-19 crisis, from the award-winning and Sunday Times bestselling author of Rome: A History in Seven Sackings. On the first morning of Rome's Covid-19 lockdown Matthew Kneale felt an urge to connect with friends...

"I looked up the word "scandal" in my dictionary last night. No wonder there has been such a fuss." It's December 11th 1936 and 10 year old Lilibet hears of some news that will change her and her family's life forever. She decides to keep a secret diary chronicling these extraordinary events. Will she fulfil her destiny, and also remember which the main course fork is and which the dessert fork is? Can Lilibet's younger sister Margaret end her mischievous ways, and become a worthy member of the League of Ovaltineys?