Showing titles in 20th Century

1942. Three years into the war, Pam turns down her hard-won place at Oxford University to become a codebreaker at Bletchley Park. There, she meets two young men, both keen to impress her, and Pam finds herself falling hard for one of them. But as the country’s future becomes more uncertain by the day, a tragic turn of events casts doubt on her choice. Present day. Julia is struggling to juggle her career, two children and a husband jealous of her success. Her brother presents her with the perfect distraction: forgotten photos of their grandmother as a young woman at Bletchley Park.

1939. As Europe teeters on the brink of war, Alfred Kendall is tasked with carrying out a minor mission for the British Intelligence Service. Travelling to Prague, he takes his troubled young son, Hugh, as cover.  When Hitler invades Czechoslovakia, Alfred is given an ultimatum by the Czech Resistance. They will arrange for him to return to England, but only if he leaves his son Hugh behind as collateral. Hugh is soon taken under the wing of a Nazi colonel - Helmuth Scholl. 

On the eve of a world war, a forbidden love will blossom in the garden of a stately home, where one young woman will make a choice that will change her life forever. As the storm clouds of war gather, Cordelia seeks refuge in the grounds of her family estate. Handsome landscaper Isaac has recently arrived to tend to the gardens, and the connection between him and Cordelia is as immediate as it is forbidden. Isaac begins to secretly teach her how to cultivate the gardens, so when he and all the young men are called away to war, Cordelia takes over.

September 1940. As the skies split apart and bombs rain down on London, it's all the staff at the famed Buckingham Hotel can do to keep their guests in the luxury they're accustomed to, and evoke the magic of the Grand ballroom for them each night. Home on leave and still reeling from the tragic events at Dunkirk, the dashing Raymond de Guise struggles to define his role in this new world, and to do his duty both to his country, and his beloved wife Nancy- who needs him now more than ever.

Three days in a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu. The Pull of the Stars is the Sunday Times Bestseller from the acclaimed author of The Wonder and Room. 'An immersive, unforgettable fever-dream of a novel' – The Times The old world dying on its feet, a new one struggling to be...

The author of the “enthralling” (Woman’s World) The Lost English Girl returns with a heartfelt new novel about estranged sisters who inherit their late mother’s dress shop in World War II London. Isabelle Shelton has always found comfort in the predictable world of her mother’s...

THE HIDDEN YEARS, the captivating new novel from million-copy bestselling author Rachel Hore, is out now. Loyalty and betrayal, hope and despair, One Moonlit Night tells the captivating story of a husband and wife separated by secrets as well as by war. 'Brimming over with everything I love...

Nine-year-old Bruno knows nothing of the Final Solution or the Holocaust. He is oblivious to the appalling cruelties being inflicted on the people of Europe by his country. All he knows is that he has been moved from a comfortable home in Berlin to a house in a desolate area where there is...

The devastating rediscovered classic written from the horrors of Nazi Germany, as one Jewish man attempts to flee persecution in the wake of Kristallnacht. Berlin, November 1938. With storm troopers battering against his door, Otto Silberman must flee out the back of his own home. He emerges onto streets thrumming with violence: it is Kristallnacht, and synagogues are being burnt, Jews rounded up and their businesses destroyed.

Winner of The Bloody Scotland Crime Debut of the Year 2021 Shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2021 and the CWA Historical Dagger 2022 'A mesmerizing debut. Early gangland Glasgow with the gloss razored off' – Peter James 'Peaky Blinders meets William...

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.

Lucinda McFarlane is engaged to be married to dashing Sir David Melcome, but their society wedding has to be scaled right down when war is declared. Will David even live to see their baby born? Mabel Oakley, once a maid for the McFarlanes, has inherited Thomas Clarke’s printing works, but an unexpected turn of events leaves her at the mercy of her father’s old enemy, solicitor John Sheridan, just as she is beginning to fall for his son. What can she do?

Brought to you by Penguin. From the Sunday Times bestselling author Nancy Revell. When Lucy’s estranged mother dies unexpectedly, her grief is overwhelming. Lucy was disowned when she married penniless horse-trainer Danny for love, leaving her blue-blooded family’s fortune in tatters. But...

December 1942. As the war rages on, the accidental death of a young man is almost unremarkable. Except this young man was patrolling the grounds of Hursley Park House, where teams are designing crucial modifications to the Spitfire - and he was found clutching part of a blueprint. January 1943. Josephine Fox is given a code name and a mission as she is seconded to Hursley: uncover the network responsible for information leaks to the enemy.

Poland, 1938. Despite threats of alienation from his Christian family, Johann, a decorated army officer, falls deeply in love with Rachel, a Jewish medical student. When they settle into their new countryside home, their marriage is happy and blissful…and short-lived. After the Nazi invasion of Poland, Johann goes missing. Without a family to rely on and antisemitic sentiments growing all over the country, Rachel and her newborn daughter Ilona are thrown into the Warsaw ghetto. Faced with reality, Rachel knows the only way to save her daughter is to smuggle her outside the ghetto.

London, 1944. With bombs raining over London, keeping the Battersea Tavern open is no easy feat for owner Winnie Berry - but the community need the warmth and familiarity of the pub more than ever. After marriage, Maureen Fanning had moved out to Wandsworth with her bad-tempered husband Brancher. But when he loses both his job and their lodgings, the only people who will take them in are her kindly grandparents, Len and Renee. Getting a cleaning job at the Battersea Tavern is the least she can do to pay them back. It would all be fine...if it weren't for Brancher.

Brought to you by Penguin. The village of Alvesdon has been home to the Castells for generations. But the year is 1939 and the peace and tranquillity there is about to be shattered once more by the stormclouds of war in Europe. As three generations of the family gather, they must all face the...

Freda knows the work she does on the home front is vital. Especially when bombs begin raining down on her beloved city of Bath and she and her friends find themselves feeling the effects of war like never before. Years of being told to be a ‘good girl’ by her mother, Freda has always done what’s been expected of her. But, even though she’s proud of her work nursing soldiers and victims of war, she can’t help but wonder if there’s more for her in life. And her secret desire to become a journalist feels increasingly like a calling she can’t resist.

‘Fans of Jodi Picoult’s style will love how Diane Chamberlain writes’ – Candis. Big Lies in a Small Town, by the internationally bestselling author Diane Chamberlain, is a sweeping novel about two women connected by a painting that holds many dark secrets. North Carolina, 2018: Morgan...

As the Great War continues to take its toll, headstrong 21-year-old Emily Bryce is determined to contribute to the war effort. She is convinced by a cheeky and handsome Australian pilot that she can do more, and it is not long before she falls in love with him and accepts his proposal of marriage. When he is sent back to the front, Emily volunteers as a “land girl,” tending to the neglected grounds of a large Devonshire estate. It’s here that Emily discovers the long-forgotten journals of a medicine woman who devoted her life to her herbal garden.