Showing titles in 20th Century

1918. The Great War is over, and Clara Carter has boarded a train bound for Cornwall - to meet a family that would once have been hers. But they must never discover her secret... 2020. Caroline has spent years trying to uncover the lies buried in her family history. And once she arrives in Cornwall, the truth finally seems to be in reach. Except with storm clouds gathering on the horizon, Caroline soon learns that some secrets are best left hidden....

England is deep in the coldest winter anyone can remember. It snows every day, temperatures do not rise above freezing for seven weeks, coal cannot get from the pitheads to the power stations, food and fuel are in desperately short supply. More than that, the country's secret services have been penetrated, which means Britain is more vulnerable than ever. And Stalin knows it. He decides it is time to send his master of 'Special Tasks' to create a little extra chaos.

Manchester, 1943. Kitty's new venture, hosting wedding receptions at Dunbar's Hotel, has got off to a flying start, and she's looking to the future. With the tide of the war turning and victory on the distant horizon, Kitty is keen to keep her independence once the men come home. Beatrice's work in welfare is hugely rewarding, and she loves the children's clubs she runs at Dunbar's. But when a spate of thefts breaks out locally, the police become involved. Former hotel maid Lily knows she still loves her estranged husband, Daniel.

Edie Burchill and her mother have never been close, but when a long lost letter arrives with the return address of Milderhurst Castle, Kent, printed on its envelope, Edie begins to suspect that her mother’s emotional distance masks an old secret. Evacuated from London as a 13-year-old girl, Edie’s mother is chosen by the mysterious Juniper Blythe, and taken to live at Milderhurst Castle with the Blythe family.

Performed by the inimitable John Lee The opening of a letter leads to a desperate chase across Europe in A Matter of Honour by Jeffrey Archer, one of the world's bestselling novelists. Adam Scott listens to the reading of his father's will, aware that the contents can only be meagre. The Colonel...

London, 1940. Winnie Berry is at the heart of the community in her pub, The Battersea Tavern. Her door is always open to those in need of a cup of tea and sympathy. Winnie's abusive husband has left, and she finds herself foolishly falling in love with black-market trader Harry Hampton. But Harry is married, and Winnie soon finds herself tied up in his web of secrets. Meanwhile Winnie's son is back in London—not to visit his own child, but to charm the latest barmaid at the Battersea Tavern, which will lead to devastating consequences for the family.

It's 1914, and talk of war feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. At seventeen, they're too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle - an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the dreamy, poetic Ellwood - not having a clue that Ellwood is in love with him, always has been. When Gaunt's German mother asks him to enlist as an officer in the British army to protect the family from anti-German attacks, Gaunt signs up immediately.

A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK 'As heart-wrenching as it is achingly beautiful' Sadeqa Johnson, author of The House of Eve 'Heartbreaking and life affirming' Adrienne Brodeur, author of Little Monsters 'Courage, friendship, loyalty, hardship, love – this novel has everything' Mary Beth Keane...

Between 1947 and 1957, Ealing Studios produced a series of immensely popular, darkly funny film comedies that made the West London borough famous throughout the world. Almost 50 years later, four of these timeless films were recreated for BBC Radio 4, and are now collected together for the first time.

1943: Becoming a Home Front nurse, meant Kathy Scott was finally able to escape the violence of her childhood. At long last, her life has taken a turn for the better. Particularly because, for the very first time, she's made some wonderful friends–fellow nurses Sylvia, Freda and Veronica. Kathy's known for not being short of a word or two. So nobody's more surprised than her when she finds herself tongue-tied around Freda's handsome brother, James – who's home from war with an unexplained injury.

Series 11-15 of the major BBC Radio 4 drama charting life on the home front during the First World War – plus special extended episode Home Front: A Fragile Peace First heard on radio between 4 August 2014 and 9 November 2018, each episode of Home Front is set exactly one hundred years before...

The first in Ken Follett's breathtaking Century Trilogy, Fall of Giants is a captivating tale that follows five families through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for votes for women. A World in Chaos 1911, a thirteen-year-old boy, Billy...

From the pen of bestselling author and historian James Holland comes this action-packed page-turner of a wartime thriller. Jam-packed with sharp dialogue, dynamic and authentic scenes and unforgettable characterisation, this is perfect for fans of Robert Harris, Bernard Cornwell and Ken Follett...

Series 1-5 of the groundbreaking BBC Radio 4 drama charting life on the home front during World War One First heard on radio between 4 August 2014 and 9 November 2018, each episode of Home Front is set exactly one hundred years before the broadcast date, and each follows one character’s day...

May 1915. As zeppelin bombs fall on London and with the sinking of the Lusitania, anti-German hysteria reaches fever pitch and attacks on German immigrants surge. Not even the West End of London is immune. Jacob Stein's bespoke tailoring business comes under brutal attack, leaving his safe ransacked, his daughter, Ruth, raped and Jacob dead.

From the bestselling author of the Shardlake series, C. J. Sansom, comes Winter in Madrid, a standalone historical novel set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. 1940: The Spanish Civil War is over, and Madrid lies ruined, its people starving, while the Germans continue their relentless...

Bestselling historical fiction author Molly Green is back with her most engrossing, heartfelt World War Two saga yet! Preorder The Wartime Librarian's Secret now! War rages, but the women and children of Liverpool’s Dr Barnardo’s Home cannot give up hope… LIVERPOOL, 1941 Haunted by the...

No Greater Love is a powerful, heartwarming family drama set in Derbyshire around WW1, from bestselling author and Queen of the Saga, Margaret Dickinson. A troubled family. A young woman seeking refuge . . . Derbyshire, 1904. After a family tragedy and a broken engagement dramatically alter her...

The unputdownable new rollercoaster read from the Sunday Times bestseller Jeffrey Archer – a must read book of 2024! ‘An absolute page-turner’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reader review ‘Impossible to put down’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reader review ‘So many turns and twists’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reader...

Winnie Berry had been the landlady for the Battersea Tavern for over 25 years and loved every minute of it. Her husband Brian preferred the quiet of the upstairs, but Winnie liked to be in the thick of it: the atmosphere and the company. While her son has taken after his father in more ways than one, she can't help but love him - David might not be able to hold down a job, but she would do anything to keep him safe. After all, once upon a time she'd made a mistake - something she'd do anything to put right.