Showing titles in 20th Century

London, 1938. Bookseller Gertie Bingham is facing difficult times, having just lost her beloved husband, Harry, and with a lingering sadness at never having been able to have a child of her own. Struggling to face running the bookshop she and Harry opened together, Gertie is preparing to sell up and move away when she is asked if she would be willing to take in a young Jewish refugee from Germany. Gertie is unsure and when sullen teenager Hedy Fischer arrives, Gertie fears she has nothing left to give the troubled girl. 

In 1943, Private Clay Paxton trains hard with the US Army Rangers at Camp Forrest, Tennessee, determined to do his best in the upcoming Allied invasion of France. With his future stolen by his brothers' betrayal, Clay has only one thing to live for - fulfilling the recurring dream of his death. Leah Jones works as a librarian at Camp Forrest, longing to rise above her orphanage upbringing and belong to the community, even as she uses her spare time to search for her real family - the baby sisters she was separated from so long ago.

Nine-year-old Olivia Friel is delighted to be spending the summer at Greyfriars House, a place where her parents, their family and friends are always happy. But this year there's an underlying tension that Olivia doesn't understand. Then one night she sees something she's not meant to, and accidentally lets slip a devastating betrayal. Charlotte Friel gets a call from her ailing mother, asking something she's never asked before: for Charlotte to come home. There are things Olivia needs to tell her daughter before it's too late, secrets to be shared about forgotten relatives and a mysterious house. 

1923. Among the ancient honey-coloured walls of the tiny island of Malta, strangers slip into the shadows and anyone can buy a new name. Rosalie Delacroix flees Paris for a dancer’s job in the bohemian clubs deep in its winding streets. A sister with a secret 1944. Running from the brutality of war in France, Florence Baudin faces a new life. But her estranged mother makes a desperate request: to find her vanished sister, who went missing years before.

Left an orphan, five-year-old Rosie Harris is found and raised by Maria, a Romany gypsy. Life on the road is hard, but the little girl soon feels one of the tribe with the travelers. As she grows older, Rosie realises she has 'second sight' and is able to read people's palms and see into their futures. Needing to make a living of her own, she befriends the canal folk, known as the 'cut-rats' traversing the Black Country waterways with their cargo, and so offers readings to anyone who can pay. Pursued by Jake Harding, Rosie instead finds herself falling in love with a married man.

A tale of hardship and social injustice, Miss Purdy's Class by Annie Murray is a heartfelt saga with strong emotional relationships at its heart, read by actress Annie Aldington. In the New Year of 1936, Gwen Purdy, aged twenty-one, leaves her home to become a schoolteacher in a poor area of...

When the distressing shadows of war fall across Europe, Olivia Brodie watches the man she loves, Captain Spencer Middleton, lead his men proudly to the front, his final words a promise to return. Left behind among the working-class neighbours she calls family, Olivia clings to hope as the world around her changes forever. Her spirited younger brother, Lachie, eager to prove himself, enlists underage – his letters home filled with bravado and dreams of glory.

As one of the Navy’s most skilled mapmakers, Merry knows the very lives of men far away depend on her work in the War Office. But when a family crisis draws her back to her beloved Cornwall, Merry finds herself working alongside an enigmatic American officer on secret operations spanning the rugged coasts of Cornwall and Brittany which she knows so well. But not everything is as clear as the maps she draws. As rumours and suspicion swirl around her family, Merry is increasingly drawn to Jake, despite the defences she’s built around her heart.

The girls of Dressmakers Alley are happy in their new jobs. Business is thriving and yet a new shadow looms. Women are being attacked and robbed whilst several businesses have been burgled. Are these two circumstances linked or is this just a coincidence? As the attacks escalate, and the police seem unmoved to intervene, the men of Dressmakers Alley decide to take the law into their own hands and patrol the streets to keep them and their women safe.

Sing As We Go is a heart-rending wartime novel from the much-loved author of The Clippie Girls, Margaret Dickinson. Kathy Burton longs to escape the drudgery of her life as an unpaid labourer on her father's farm. With only the local church choir and the occasional dance at the village hall for...

Brought to you by Penguin. Cliffehaven, December 1946 From a hill above the town of Cliffehaven, a young woman makes a heart-breaking choice that will change the course of her life forever. Hours later, a baby is found in the Nativity crib of the local church. Who could have left him there, and...

The third novel in the brand new Backshaw Moss series by beloved million-copy bestselling author Anna Jacobs Lancashire, 1936. With her son Gabriel finally married, and her youngest following his dreams of becoming a doctor, Gwynneth Harte finds herself with an empty nest - until a fire forces...

In 1960s Marrakech a young girl travels to meet her estranged grandmother. Vicky Baudin steps on to the train through Morocco looking for the truth about the woman who gave her father up for adoption decades before. Clemence Petier lives in a kasbah on the edge of the Atlas Mountains, her background shrouded in mystery. But the past holds secrets that threaten them both. A face from Clemence’s childhood threatens to expose everything she has built a life to hide.

Jackie: when her first marriage ends in tragedy, Jackie Kennedy fears she’ll never love again. But all that changes when she encounters...Ari: successful and charming, Ari Onassis is a man who promises her the world. Yet soon after they marry, Jackie learns that his heart also belongs to another. Maria: a beautiful, famed singer, Maria Callas is in love with Jackie’s new husband - and she isn’t going to give up.

London, 1941. The East End Angels - Frankie, Bella and Winnie - are settled into life as ambulance crew members at LAAS Station Seventy-Five. The threat of air raids and other atrocities are a constant worry, but life continues regardless, and the weight of responsibility weighs heavy on each of them. Frankie's grandfather is unwell, and she promised him she would always look after Ivy, her stepgrandmother, but things between the two women are becoming increasingly strained. And then Frankie discovers something that turns everything she thought she knew about herself on its head.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, written and read by Arundhati Roy. FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE WINNING AUTHOR OF THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018 LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017 NOMINATED FOR THE NATIONAL...

1912. Fifteen-year-old Kate Truscott leaves her small Hampshire village to become a nursemaid to five children she's never met. She's looking forward to a new adventure. Life in town with the wealthy Winton family is different to anything Kate has known before. But she enjoys looking after her charges, becoming firm friends with Clara, the eldest daughter, and noticing that 18-year-old Philip, the eldest son, is so very handsome. But Kate knows that she would be considered an unacceptable match for a wealthy banker's son.

Brought to you by Penguin. THE NINETEENTH CLIFFEHAVEN NOVEL BY SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR ELLIE DEAN Cliffehaven, 1946. The war is over and those who have spent years fighting behind enemy lines are finally coming home. Peggy Reilly is over the moon that her husband Jim is safely back from...

Princess Grace of Monaco has invited the world-famous Forsyth Variety Company to perform at her annual high society ball. Monaco is in the heat of its preparations for the Grand Prix when the Forsyth family makes their emotional return to the city, stirring up painful memories for father Ed Forsyth. When daughter Evie Forsyth meets Formula 1 driver Charles, their chemistry is unforgettable and a passionate affair begins. Meanwhile her brother Cal Forsyth is on location with Hollywood's biggest star, his new glittering career shaken by the arrival of a stranger from his past.

Brought to you by Penguin. The heartwarming and moving story of three fascinating women finding their strength in World War II, perfect for fans of Katie Flynn, Call the Midwife and Downton Abbey It is June 1940, and as the bombs fall, the women at home must dig deep . . . Tucked on the edge of...