Continuing the story of Joe from A Son of War, this is the story of the rapid changes in his life from working-class Wigton to the rarified atmosphere of Oxford as he begins his studies there.

Seth, a musical prodigy on the eve of his 16th birthday, is obsessed with sex and with the men he might meet, as well as with his strange family - his arch mother, his beautiful sister and his damaged, distant father. Mo, a policewoman struggling with moral dilemmas and her sexuality in the violent, bigoted police force of the 1980s, wants only to find romance. In this haunting tale of self discovery and hidden identities, Mo and Seth will connect to face unexpected truths about themselves and those they have chosen to love.

The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan gather in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother Liam. It wasn't the drink that killed him - although that certainly helped - it was what happened to him as a boy in his grandmother's house in the winter of 1968.

Suffolk, 1939: Julia Compton has a beautifully well-ordered life. Once a promising musician, she now has a handsome husband who pays the bills, a young son she adores and a housekeeper who takes care of her comfortable home. Then, on the eve of war, something unexpected happens. She falls in love. Cut off from family and friends, Julia loses everything. Penniless and denied access to her son, she is cast adrift in wartime London with her bohemian filmmaker lover, Dougie.

In June 1914, Sir Anthony Valentine, a keen mountaineer, arrives with his family to spend the summer in their chalet, high in the French Alps. There, for the first time, 14-year-old foundling Mathilde starts work as one of the 'uglies' - village girls employed as servants and picked, it is believed, to ensure they don't catch Sir Anthony's roving eye. For Mathilde it is the start of a lifelong entanglement with les anglais - strange, exciting people, far removed from the hard grind of farming. Except she soon finds the Valentines are less carefree than they appear....

It is 1953 in a small country town in Australia, a time of post-war prosperity and hope. The Holtens are wealthy austere graziers who have lived on the land for generations. The McBrides are a large and loving shearers family who are new arrivals to the district. When the McBrides eldest daughter falls in love with the Holtens only son and heir, the barriers to their love seem overwhelming. But in the end, their love triumphs even over tragedy and hope and joy are their enduring legacy.

A heartwarming novel from the queen of family saga and author of Bicycles and Blackberries, Sheila Newberry. Suffolk, 1925. At only 16 years old, May Moon travels to West Wick, Suffolk, to become the local Punch and Judy girl. Determined to fulfil her dead father's wishes and to continue his business, May has her work cut out for her during her summer on the beach. Staying with a local family, she not only enjoys the silvery sand and sunshine; she also experiences first love, partings and reunions.

Billy Shaw lives in a palace. Potter's Pleasure Palace, the best entertainment venue in Yorkshire, complete with dancing and swing-boats and picnickers and a roller-skating rink. Jasper Harper lives in the big house above the valley, with his eccentric mother, Edie, and Uncle Charles, brother and sister authors who have come from London to write in the seclusion of the moors. When it is arranged for Billy to become Jasper's companion, Billy arrives to find a wild, peculiar boy in a curiously haphazard household.

Like most in London's 1920s East End, Joan Baldwin has her crosses to bear. Her greatest by far is her husband: a violent drinker and gambler. When he perishes, Joan is surprised by her sudden freedom. She finds a housekeeping job in Kent, and when her employer dies, leaving her 200 guineas, Joan is able to start her own dressmaking business. Then she meets Eric Roussel, a charismatic businessman, and it looks like happiness will finally be hers. But is he a little too slick to be trusted?

The war changed everything for Lily Verner. As the Nazis storm Europe, Lily becomes an apprentice at her family’s silk-weaving factory. When they start to weave parachute silk there is no margin for error: one tiny fault could result in certain death for Allied soldiers. The war also brings Stefan to Lily: a German Jewish refugee who works on the looms. As their love grows, there are suspicions someone is tampering with the silk.

Louise and Rebecca, good friends since their BBC days in Belfast, work for a film company and are scouring the south of England for a suitable location to shoot a movie about Elizabeth I. As they stumble across Wooldene House, they meet Diana and Henry, who own the property. Diana, widowed, feels her life is slowly crumbling along with the house, and yearns for new romance. Diana spends her time looking after their aunt Lucy who, as she senses time is running out, begins to share the startling secrets in her past.

Can love survive the worst betrayal of all? From the moment Elizabeth Nugent arrives to live on his family’s farm in Shropshire, Richard Wilde is in love with her. And as they grow up, it seems like nothing can keep them apart. But as the Second World War rages, Richard is sent to fight in the jungles of Burma, leaving Elizabeth to deal with a terrible secret that could destroy his family. Despite the distance between them, though, Richard and Elizabeth’s love remains constant through war, tragedy and betrayal.

August 1939: Thirteen-year-old Poppy Brown is evacuated to a village in Dorset. Tired and frightened, she arrives with nothing but her gas mask and a change of clothes to her name. Billeted at a grand country house, Poppy is received with cold indifference above stairs and gets little better treatment from the servants. Lonely and missing the family she left behind in London, Poppy is devastated when she hears that they have been killed in the Blitz. Circumstances soon force Poppy to move to the suburbs and into the company of strangers once more.

From the prison cell where Chloe Smith, 43, is awaiting trial for the merciful murder of the only man who ever loved her with honesty, she recalls the men in her life who lied to her. She remembers her adored father, who drank too much; the loss of her virginity at Stonehenge to a schoolboy, her marriage to petty crook Zane Tomkins, the Isle of Wight ferryman who said he was a lonely deep sea sailor, the young priest who said he loved her but left to establish a church for men.

It's the winter of 1967, and snow is on the ground in the colorful Irish village of Ballybucklebo, but the chilly weather can't stop love from warming hearts all over the county. Not just the love between a man and woman, as with young doctor Barry Laverty and his fiancée, Sue Nolan, who are making plans to start a new life together, but also the love of an ailing pensioner for a faithful dog that's gone missing, the love of the local gentry for the great estate they are on the verge of losing, or Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly's love for his longtime home and practice.