Showing titles in Biographical Fiction

Brought to you by Penguin. This extraordinary novel gives the reader the heart-to-heart testimony of one of our finest writers - a wonder of literary invention and a boisterous modern classic. His most intimate and epic work to date, Inside Story is the portrait of Martin Amis' extraordinary...

Lady Jane Grey was born into the most dangerous of times. Child of a scheming father and a ruthless mother for whom she was a pawn in a dynastic game with the highest stakes, she lived a life in thrall to political machinations and lethal religious fervour. Growing up with the future Queen Elizabeth and her reluctant nemesis, Mary, she soon learned the truth of the values imparted to her by Henry VIII's last Queen, Katherine Parr.

Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Kirsty Besterman, an experienced TV and theatre actress known for her leading role as Lady Macbeth in the National Theatre Tour, as well as a number of roles with Shakespeare's Globe and the RSC. 'January 22nd - Robert startles me...

Brought to you by Penguin. Carrie Soto is the greatest player the world has ever seen. But six years after her last match, she watches a young British tennis player steal her world record - and Carrie knows she has to go back and reclaim her rightful place at the top. Even if the world doesn't...

A dangerous mission is underway in Occupied Rome, right under the noses of the Gestapo. The acclaimed wartime thriller from the award-winning and internationally bestselling author of My Father's House. May 1944. Rome is still ruled by the Gestapo, but the Allies are closing in. As tensions rise...

Mummy dreams of a quirky rural cottage with roses around the door and chatty chickens in the garden. Life, as ever, is not going quite as she planned. Paxo, Oxo and Bisto turn out to be highly rambunctious rather than merely chatty, and the roses have jaggy thorns. 

An awkward misfit, nine-year-old Fulke FitzWarin leaves his family for the household of Joscelin de Dinan, Lord of Ludlow. Once there, he begins to learn the knightly arts which he desperately hopes will free him from the shadows of his past. Joscelin’s youngest daughter, Hawise, befriends Fulke when he most needs it. But as the years pass, an enemy to Ludlow changes their friendship unalterably, forcing them onto opposite sides of a cruel divide.

Madeleine Talmage Force is just 17 when she attracts the attention of John Jacob "Jack" Astor. Jack's mother was the Mrs. Astor, American royalty and New York's most formidable socialite. Despite their 29-year age difference and the scandal of Jack's recent divorce, Madeleine falls headlong into love. On their honeymoon in Egypt, the newlyweds finally find a measure of peace away from photographers and journalists. Madeleine feels truly alive for the first time - and is happily pregnant. The couple plans to return home in the spring of 1912, aboard an opulent new ocean liner. 

Brought to you by Penguin. Jack Kerouac's classic novel about friendship, the search for meaning, and the allure of nature A witty, moving philosophical novel, Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums is a journey of self-discovery through the lens of Zen Buddhist thought. This Penguin Modern Classics...

Kathryn Janeway reveals her career in Starfleet, from her first command to her epic journey through the Delta Quadrant leading to her rise to the top as vice-admiral in Starfleet Command. Discover the story of the woman who travelled further than any human ever had before, stranded decades from home, encountering new worlds and species.

Inspired by the true story of mountaineer George Mallory, Paths of Glory bring to life one of history's enduringly enigmatic figures in a stunning novel from bestselling author Jeffrey Archer. 'Archer at the peak of his imaginative powers' – The Times Some people have dreams that are so...

'This brilliant series has brought Henry VIII's six wives to life as never before. This novel will enthral and inspire, just as much as it will break your heart' TRACY BORMAN 'Katharine Parr deserves better than to be known just as Henry VIII's sixth wife - the one who survived. And there's...

Brand-new historical fiction from the author of the Sunday Times-bestselling Six Tudor Queens series. This is the spellbinding, untold story of Elizabeth of York, the first Tudor queen. 'Alison Weir gives us her most compelling heroine yet... This is where the story of the Tudors begins and is...

I am sure that what I remember is not necessarily what actually happened, but I can only write what I remember. Wildly inventive and magnificently surreal, The Smiths: A Novella recounts the impact of an unconventional pop group from Manchester on one man's life. Taking the form of a flâneuring...

A murder at her beloved Sandringham House threatens to ruin Christmas for the Queen in the third mystery in the Her Majesty The Queen Investigates series December 2016 - A severed hand is found washed up on a beach next to the Queen's estate at Sandringham. Elizabeth has become quite accustomed...

Anthony Opoka and Florence Okori are coming of age in Uganda in the 1990s. Outstanding students, they believe in being good humans before they are kidnapped and forced into the fanatical Lord’s Resistance Army. In a legion of young recruits, no one gets closer than Anthony to powerful messianic warlord Joseph Kony and his darkest secrets. To stay sane as he spirals through chaos, Anthony clings to his childhood lessons about being a good human. Florence’s upbringing grounds her, too, helping her keep her dreams alive even as she’s pulled deeper into the insanity of Kony’s war.

Brought to you by Penguin. **SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021** **LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2022** I WAS BORN TO BE A WANDERER From the night she is rescued as a baby out of the flames of a sinking ship; to the day she joins a pair of daredevil pilots looping and diving...

A masterpiece from one of the great contemporary American writers. 'A wonderful novel, full of energy and art, at once funny and heartbreaking...terrific' WASHINGTON POST Anniversary edition with a new afterword from the author. A worldwide bestseller since its publication, Irving's classic is...

'Alison Weir makes Henry VIII's story feel like it has never been told before' TRACY BORMAN Six wives. One King. You know their stories. Now it's time to hear his. The magnificent new Tudor novel from the author of the Sunday Times-bestselling Six Tudor Queens series. --- A second son, not born...

Brought to you by Penguin. This is the story of three women - one an orphan and refugee who finds a place in the studio of a famous French artist, the other a wife and mother who has stood by her husband for nearly forty years. The third is his daughter, caught in the crossfire between her...