Showing titles in World War I

Louis-Ferdinand Céline thunders out from the grave with this long-lost novel. Looted by the Resistance during the liberation of Paris and resurfacing only in 2020, War is a major rediscovery. It begins in the chaotic battlefields of Flanders, with Bardamu (Céline’s fictional alter ego) surrounded by corpses. Wounded and shell-shocked, he wanders in hallucination, finding refuge at a hospital in Peurdu-sur-la-Lys and striking up a friendship with a Parisian pimp – however, the war continues to drive itself under his skin and destroy him.

Martha Owen has not had an easy start in life. Her abusive father dominates the family and she has lost her only friend after a painful falling-out. When her father's reliance on the bottle, and his increasingly violent temper, causes more turmoil for Martha, her mother and her three siblings, as well as World War One causing more strain on the home front, her prospects look bleak. With no money or qualifications to speak of, starting a job at the Potteries feels like a lifeline, but Martha finds herself wanting more than the production line job she works on.

THE BRAND-NEW WARTIME SAGA SERIES BY MAGGIE MASON, MUCH-LOVED AUTHOR OF THE HALFPENNY GIRLS Troubles lie ahead - will friendship see them through? BLACKPOOL, 1918. Martha is seventeen and alone in the world. Of Irish descent, her flashing green eyes see into your soul. Foretelling the future is...

Desmond never did have much luck with women – except in getting them through their driving tests. Now a coach driver, he is at the most crucial crossroads of his life. His wife has thrown him out. The crisis serves only to deepen his despair over another failed liaison – until he elects to steer his coach on a spectacularly reckless quest for the son he has never seen.

A British nurse in WWI Egypt races to deliver explosive intelligence that could change the course of the war in this novel of suspense, adventure, and love.

The slums of Poor House Lane are no place to bring up a child, and Kate O'Connor struggles to make ends meet when her beloved husband is killed, leaving her a single mother with a baby to support on the meagre handouts she gleans from charity. So when the childless Tysons, owners of Kendal's shoe factory, offer to adopt her son, Callum, and employ Kate as his nanny, she seizes the chance to ensure he has a better life. To be so close to her son, yet no longer be his mother, is bittersweet.

Brought to you by Penguin. Flanders, June 1917: a British officer and celebrated poet, is shot dead, killed not by German fire, but while recuperating from shell shock well behind the lines. A young English soldier is arrested and, although he protests his innocence, charged with his murder...

From the highly acclaimed author of The Photographer of the Lost, a BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick, comes a tale of a young war widow and one life-changing, sun-drenched visit to Cornwall in the summer of 1923... Esme Nicholls is to spend the summer in Cornwall. Her late husband Alec, who died...

Heartbroken by unrequited love, courage will guide her path . . . When Molly and her best friend both fall in love with Harry Spencer, their former closeness is strained, but Molly quickly turns her mind to the Suffragette movement, finding solace and passion in helping their cause. With the...

Lamar Jimmerson is the leader of the Gnomon Society, the international fraternal order dedicated to preserving the arcane wisdom of the lost city of Atlantis. Stationed in France in 1917, Jimmerson comes across a little book crammed with Atlantean puzzles, Egyptian riddles, and extended alchemical metaphors. It's the Codex Pappus—the sacred Gnomon text. Soon he is basking in the lore of lost Atlantis, convinced that his mission on earth is to administer to and extend the ranks of the noble brotherhood. 

As spring wildflowers bloom in the American midwest in 1917, Lorraine McQuarrie envisions those same flowers rising from the trenches in war-torn France. Ever a fearless young woman, Lorraine knows the Great War is coming for her nation and her loved ones. She would brandish a helmet and uniform if she could; anything to save her youngest brother from the fate of a German rifle. It’s not until General John Pershing calls upon women to join the war effort that Lorraine finds her opportunity. For the first time, American women will join their husbands, sons, and brothers at the front lines.

1917. Private Daniel Dawkins fights at Messines Ridge and Passchendaele. He writes home to his true love, Joyce, but reveals little of his extreme bravery, his kindness, his loyalty to his comrades and the horrors they experience on the Western Front. 1920. Captain Peter Harding is tasked with a secret mission to assist in the selection of a body dug up from the battlefields of Flanders to be buried in Westminster Abbey as the 'Unknown Warrior'.

Set in the decades between the two World Wars, the captivating story of one man who banishes himself to a solitary life in the Arctic Circle, and is saved by good friends, a loyal dog, and a surprise visit that changes everything. In 1916, Sven Ormson leaves Stockholm to seek adventure in...

London, 1915. As German bombs rain down on the East End of London and hungry children queue for rations in the blistering cold, 15-year-old Florrie is forced to grow up fast. With her father fighting in the muddy trenches, Florrie turns to her older sister Edith for comfort. But the war has changed Edith. She has grown quiet, with dark shadows under her eyes, and has started leaving the house at night in secret. When Florrie follows her sister through the dark and winding streets of London, she is shocked by what she discovers.

When Jack Kelly, a captain in the Australian army, shows compassion towards his prisoner Paul Mann, a brave and high-ranking German officer, an unexpected bond is formed. But neither could imagine how their pasts and futures would become inextricably linked by one place – Papua. The Great War is finally over and both soldiers return to their once familiar lives, only to find that in their absences events have changed their respective worlds forever.

Set during and after the First World War, A Very Long Engagement is the tale of a young woman's search for her fiancé who she believes might still be alive despite having officially been reported as "killed in the line of duty." Unable to walk since childhood, fearless Mathilde Donnay is undeterred in her quest as she scours the country for information about five wounded French soldiers who were brutally abandoned by their own troops. A Very Long Engagement is a mystery, a love story, and an extraordinary portrait of life in France before and after the War.

1916. Poppy is being transferred to an enormous new munitions complex in Gretna, on the Scottish border. Even though it means moving far away from her best friends, Maggie and Annie, she is excited for the challenge. As a member of the Women's Police Service, it's her job to maintain law and order so that the factory workers can safely carry out their vital war work. She soon makes friends and even starts to open herself up to the possibility of love. But then she sees something in the dead of night, and suddenly the dangers of the war are no longer far away on distant shores.

In this evocative tale of life in India between the wars, friendships will be tested and loyalties torn. But can love win the day?

Annie Pearson is working on Emmerdale Farm, while her love, Edward Sugden is at the front line. Lily Dingle has found purpose in joining the ATS, though she may get more than she bargained for. And Meg Warcup, now teaching at the local school, has taken in two children evacuated from Hull. They have adjusted to their new way of life until one day a German plane comes crashing down in the village....and changes everything in the village of Beckindale. 

1915. Patrolling is the last thing on the minds of Women's Police Service recruits Annie, Maggie and Poppy right now, because Annie and her fiancé Richard are about to get married. She's been waiting for this day her whole life, but when it finally comes it brings only heartache and Annie doesn't know if she can go on. The influx of soldiers to the capital means that the WPS's work is more important than ever, though, and Annie's country needs her. She and the girls are posted to the bustling heart of the city and she hopes the new job will distract her from her sorrow.