Showing titles in Biographical Fiction

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Where Reasons End by Yiyun Li. 'Days: the easiest possession. The days he had refused would come, one at a time. They would wait, every daybreak, with their boundless patience and indifference, seeing if they could turn me into a friend or an enemy to...

Com 23 anos, a infanta Catarina de Bragança, filha de D. Luísa de Gusmão e de D. João IV, deixou para trás tudo o que lhe era querido e próximo para navegar rumo a uma vida nova. No coração, um misto de tristeza e alegria. Saudades da sua Lisboa, de Vila Viçosa, do cheiro a laranjas, dos seus irmãos que já haviam partido deste mundo e dos que ficavam em Portugal a lutar pelo poder. Mas os seus olhos escuros deixavam perceber o entusiasmo pelo casamento com o homem dos seus sonhos, Charles de Inglaterra, um príncipe encantado que Catarina amava perdidamente ainda antes de o conhecer.

THE HOLY CITY IS NO PLACE FOR MERCY 'Matthew Plampin should rank with the best' Sunday Times 'Plampin is heartbreakingly good' The Times 'Gripping, immersive, at times very funny and beautifully written, this is historical fiction of the highest quality' Elizabeth Fremantle Rome, 1650. The...

A trio of novels by the renowned author, dramatised for BBC Radio Guyanese writer E. R. Braithwaite is probably best known for his semi-autobiograpical, internationally bestselling novel To Sir with Love, which was adapted as an award-winning film starring Sidney Poitier. Collected here are...

London, 1905: The city is alight with change, and the Stephen siblings are at the forefront. Vanessa, Virginia, Thoby, and Adrian are leaving behind their childhood home and taking a house in the leafy heart of avant-garde Bloomsbury. There they bring together a glittering circle of bright, outrageous artistic friends who will grow into legend and come to be known as the Bloomsbury Group. And at the center of this charmed circle are the devoted, gifted sisters: Vanessa, the painter, and Virginia, the writer.

Tudor adventurer, courtier, explorer and poet, Sir Walter Raleigh has been called the last true Elizabethan. He didn’t dance or joust, didn’t come from a noble family, or marry into one. So how did an impoverished law student become a favourite of the queen, and Captain of the Guard? The story which began with the Tudor trilogy follows Walter Raleigh from his first days at the Elizabethan Court to the end of the Tudor dynasty.

Loosely inspired by a true story, this tender portrait of marriage asks: what do you do when the person you love has to change? It starts with a question, a simple favour asked by a wife of her husband while both are painting in their studio, setting off a transformation neither can anticipate.

Un roman foisonnant où Céline raconte son enfance et sa jeunesse : "C'est sur ce quai-là, au 18, que mes bons parents firent de bien tristes affaires pendant l'hiver 92, ça nous remet loin. C'était un magasin de "Modes, fleurs et plumes". Y avait en tout comme modèles que trois chapeaux, dans une seule vitrine, on me l'a souvent raconté. La Seine a gelé cette année-là. Je suis né en mai. C'est moi le printemps."

Who is the Secret Royal? Some say they’re a disgruntled courtier; others that it’s King Charles’ Head of Pens. Perhaps it’s just the Countess of Wessex (as you’ll see they do appear to be close to the late Queen). But then they do have the same cadence as Camilla... Whoever it is they’ve written a rip-roaring diary of 18 months behind the Palace walls, during one of the most tumultuous periods of The Firm’s existence.

Cambridge philosophy student Rickie Elliot—an orphan, lame in one foot—wants to be a writer. He exists in the intense university environment, influenced by relationships with other students both intellectual and sporty, and faces a growing involvement with the beautiful Agnes Pembroke. But he finds himself ill prepared for the reality of life and work in the outside world, further complicated by the unexpected appearance of a half-brother. His life moves toward compromise shaped by marriage and a teaching post. Where will this ultimately lead?

What makes you purr? Of all the questions in the world, this is the most important. It is also the great leveler. Because no matter whether you are a playful kitten or a sedentary senior, a scrawny alley Tom or a sleek-coated uptown girl, whatever your circumstances, you just want to be happy...

1173, France. Eleanor of Aquitaine has been arrested for rebelling against her husband, King Henry II of England. Her loyal ladies-in-waiting, Alice and Joanna of Agen, have fled to the nunnery at Fontrevault, where they are anxiously awaiting news of their queen. Alice and Joanna struggle to adapt to their cramped new home at the Abbey. Each is secretly nursing a broken heart—and harboring unholy desires. Joanna left behind a lover, Jean, at Eleanor's court in Poitiers, and Alice has long been in love with the queen's daughter, Marie.

Against this rapidly shifting landscape, Tennyson Bouguereau - freed man, devoted brother, nascent singer, conflicted soldier and wanted man - journeys to find meaning and belonging. From the relative safety of home in Tennessee with his sister Rosalee, he is offered the possibility of a whole new life in Nashville, until a surprising trip to Victorian England changes everything.

Sullo sfondo della brughiera battuta dai venti, una ragazza umile ma volitiva trova lavoro come istitutrice nella casa di un uomo aspro e malinconico. Tra di loro nascerà inaspettata una grande passione, che dovrà però fare i conti con un segreto scabroso. Un capolavoro di una modernità dirompente, un cult che continua ad affascinare generazione dopo generazione.

Set against the sprawling backdrop of 1930s Australia, Anna May Shahan is a wild child raised on a lush farm by the sea, always barefoot and playing in her neighbor’s secret garden. Her Aboriginal nanny teaches her the ways of the land, and she grows up to be a quirky, eccentric, and sweet woman. But she is not without her demons, as she struggles with bizarre behaviors and a haunting, dark side. Soon after marriage, Anna inherits Sugar Alexandria, her family’s sheep station, and she and her Irish husband James lead a simple, hardworking life.

For the first time in audio, Marguerite Yourcenar's masterpiece—an extraordinary novel based on the life of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Written in the form of a testamentary letter from the Emperor Hadrian to his successor, the youthful Marcus Aurelius, this work is as extraordinary for its...

When Robert Baratheon died suddenly after a boar hunt, all hell broke loose. When Edward IV, King of England, died suddenly after a fishing trip in April 1483, another phase of the Wars of the Roses ensued, the Yorks (Starks) battling the Lancasters (Lannisters). Thwarted Queen is told mainly in the voice of Lady Cecylee Neville (1415-1495), the thwarted queen, but other voices are important to this tale, not least those of the Londoners, who forged their own political destiny by engaging in public debate with the powerful aristocrats of the time

Nineteen-year-old April Wilton has just enlisted in the WRENs in Portsmouth, where she works servicing engines on ships. She finds herself immersed in dockyard life and surrounded by soldiers - from England and America. The atmosphere is one of spontaneity and impulsiveness, brought on by the unpredictability of war. So when April meets Daniel, a young American soldier, whose mother is Sioux and father is of African descent, she doesn't hesitate when she starts to fall for him.

Una donna ancora giovane, serena e appagata, tutt’altro che inattiva nel cerchio sicuro della famiglia, viene abbandonata all’improvviso dal marito e precipita in un gorgo scuro e antico. Rimasta con i due figli e il cane, profondamente segnata dal dolore e dall’umiliazione, Olga, dalla tranquilla Torino dove si è trasferita da qualche anno, è risucchiata tra i fantasmi della sua infanzia napoletana. Comincia a questo punto una caduta rovinosa, un racconto che cattura e trascina fino al fondo più nero, più dolente dell’esperienza femminile.

Brought to you by Penguin. SELIN IS THE LUCKIEST PERSON IN HER FAMILY: the only one who was born in America and got to go to Harvard. Now it's her second year, 1996, and Selin knows she has to make it count. The first order of business: to figure out the meaning of everything that happened over...