Showing titles in Historical

Flying instructor Ellie Simpson has grown up a tomboy. She's never had an interest in the latest fashions or finding a husband; her only passion is flying her beloved Tiger Moth. But when war is declared, she is no longer be able to do what she loves most - fly.

It’s 1926, and Anna Darton is on the run from a terrible crime she was forced into committing. Alone and scared in London, salvation comes in the form of Nancy, a sassy American dancer at the notorious nightclub, The Zip. Reinventing herself as Vita Casey, Anna becomes part of the lineup and is thrown into a hedonistic world of dancing, parties, flapper girls and fashion. When she meets the dashing Archie Fenwick, Vita buries her guilty conscience, and she believes him when he says he will love her no matter what.

1940, Great Paxford, Cheshire. When a spitfire crashes in the village, the lives of an extraordinary community of women will change forever: Frances Barden's greatest challenge is only just beginning; Pat Simms received a respite when her abusive husband went to war, but now he's home Pat doesn't know who to turn to; and for newlyweds Teresa and Nick, the plane crash on their wedding day may just be the start of their troubles.

Having spent a childhood summer with Viscount Giles Weston, Angelica Wayne has never forgotten his kindness. But when he employs her as his daughter's governess, she finds him cold and formidable. A widower, Giles is engaged to the beautiful but indifferent Lady Barbara Darlington. Darkly cynical, he avoids emotional commitment and wishes to be married in name only. Despite Giles's attitude, Angelica comes to enjoy his company, and her feelings for him start to rekindle. When Barbara calls off the engagement, Giles asks Angelica to take her place as his bride.

Twice Claire has used an ancient stone circle to travel back to the 18th century. The first time she found love with a Scottish warrior but had to return to the 1940s to save their unborn child. The second time, 20 years later, she reunited with her lost love but had to leave behind the daughter that he would never see. Now Brianna, from her 1960s vantage point, has found a disturbing obituary and will risk everything in an attempt to change history.

Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper, disappointed in love and - on the brink of 40 - living a limited existence with her truculent mother: a small life from which there is no likelihood of escape. When a young Swiss woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys.

On the outskirts of Nuneaton stands Hatters Hall, home to the mentally insane. One rainy, dismal day in 1857, Maria Mundy arrives there to work. She is ordered to care for Isabelle Montgomery, daughter of an influential land-owner, but it becomes apparent that she has been falsely imprisoned. It’s going to take courage, determination, and resolve - but freedom is always worth fighting for.

Unlike most men of his acquaintance, Gregory Bridgerton is a firm believer in true love. He'd have to be an idiot not to be: all seven of his siblings are happily married. Gregory figures he is just biding his time until the right woman comes along. And so when he sees Hermione Watson, he knows with every fibre of his being that she is meant to be his. But through Hermione's closest - and slightly less beautiful - friend, Lucy Abernathy, he finds out that Hermione is desperately in love with another man. Sadly, by the time Gregory figures out the right girl is actually the wrong girl.

Imagine if you made one little mistake when you were young and were punished for it for the rest of your life. Well, that’s what happened to Lydia (yes, that Lydia, the youngest Bennet sister from Pride and Prejudice), and she’s here to set the record straight. Hold on to your teacups and get ready for sophisticated (and a little bit naughty) hot takes and witty banter that’ll make you laugh—and think. We meet Lydia just as she is denounced by her family, exiled miles from home, and married to the rogue George Wickham, who seems to love all women...except his own wife.

Dottie and Mary forged a friendship over a bag of penny sweets when they were eight years old. They've shared everything together since then. Now, at seventeen, they're both shopgirls working at Woolworths. As they go out in the world in pursuit of love and happiness and life becomes more complicated, the simplicity of their childhood dissolves. The heady excitement of first love will consume them both, but the pain of unintentional betrayal will test their friendship.

When the most eligible Earl of Rule offers for the hand of the beauty of the Winwood family, he has no notion of the distress he causes his intended. For Miss Lizzie Winwood is promised to the excellent, but impoverished, Mr Edward Heron. Disaster can only be averted by the delightful impetuosity of her youngest sister, Horatia, who conceives her own, distinctly original plans . . .

Prudence Shackleford had not expected to be a spinster at three and twenty, but unfortunately, as she'd quickly discovered, very few men were prepared to tolerate either her ghoulish sense of humour, or her macabre taste in literature. And those were the ones she'd got as far as holding a conversation with. When invited to London by the Duke and Duchess of Blackmore to witness the Coronation of King George IV, she was equal parts horrified and intrigued. Especially after a chance meeting with a Bow Street Runner on the trail of conspirators it was feared were planning to murder the King.

In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon. Their blissful reunion is shattered when she touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone ruins and is instantly transported to a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans—in 1743. Will Claire find her way back to her own time, or is her destiny forever linked with Clan MacKenzie and the gallant James Fraser?

On a cool autumn morning, Torie Nash heads into her village pulling a rickety wagon filled with late-season peaches. As she nears an intersection, a mysterious drifter with grimy thumbs and smudged cheeks and eyes as dark as a raven's wing stops to ask her the way. She could turn left or cross over. But she does not. 'Go as a river,' he whispers. So begins a mesmerising story that unfolds over a tumultuous lifetime as Torie begins to absorb and follow his words.

The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known...of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect - a man divided in his soul...of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame...and of a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state and brother against brother.

1926. Running a theatre may appear to be all about the showbiz, but times are hard at The Empire. Following a turbulent period Jack Treadwell, erstwhile proprietor, his mother Lillian, and his playwright wife Grace, know they need to get things back on track - and how better than with the annual pantomime, a new venture, and an all-singing all-dancing talent contest, showcasing the best performers around.

Scottish Highlands, 1727. In the aftermath of a tragic fire that kills her father, Aila and her mother, Janet, move to the remote parish of Loth, north-west of Inverness. Blending in does not come easily to the women: Aila was badly burned in the fire and left with visible injuries, while her mother struggles to maintain her grip on reality. When a temporary minister is appointed in the area, rather than welcome the two women, he develops a strange curiosity for them that sets them even further apart from the community.

Major Calborne Rutherford returns to England on the trail of an assassin, only to find he's become Lord Ashendon, with the responsibility for vast estates and dependent relatives. Cal can command the toughest of men, but his wild half-sisters are quite another matter. They might just be his undoing. When he discovers that Miss Emmaline Westwood, the girls' former teacher, guides them with ease, Cal offers her a marriage of convenience.

When Lila overhears her uncle talking about a man coming to look for property in the county, she doesn't think twice, until her uncle says he hopes Lila will find enough interest to marry the man. How can she marry someone named Mortimer Luthford, not to mention that his advanced age of thirty-three, and especially since she's already in love with her absent cousin Neville?

The excesses of the young Marquis of Vidal are even wilder than his father's before him. Not for nothing is the reckless duellist and gamester called "the Devil's Cub". But when he is forced to leave the country, Mary Challoner discovers his fiendish plan to abduct her sister. Any only by daring to impersonate her can Mary save her sibling from certain ruin.