The Tea Planter's Daughter

Abandoned as a baby and raised in a remote lighthouse off the wild Northumberland coast, Alice Fairchild has always dreamed of adventure. When a fierce storm wrecks a ship nearby, she risks everything in an act of bravery that alters the course of her life. Aboard the doomed vessel is the handsome John Sinclair, a Scottish soldier on his way to India. The connection between them is instant, but soon fate intervenes and leaves Alice heartbroken and alone. Determined to take charge of her destiny but secretly hoping her path will cross again with John’s, she too makes a new start in colonial India.

Two great loves. One shattering betrayal. A war that changes everything. Harriet and Mae Grafton are 20-year-old identical twins born from a scandalous affair. They grew up in India slighted by gossip and ostracised from polite society. They had each other and that was enough. But when their wealthy benefactor sends them to Singapore, they meet the mysterious Alex Blake and their relationship fractures with devastating consequences. Ivy Harcourt is posted to wartime Singapore amid the looming threat of Japanese invasion. Ivy knows the island will be a far cry from war-torn London, but she is totally unprepared for what awaits her.... 

Rajputana, India, 1930. Since her husband's death, 28-year-old photojournalist Eliza's only companion has been her camera. When the British government sends her to an Indian princely state to photograph the royal family, she's determined to make a name for herself. But when Eliza arrives at the palace, she meets Jay, the Prince's handsome, brooding younger brother. Brought together by their desire to improve conditions for local people, Jay and Eliza find they have more in common than they think. But their families - and society - think otherwise.

Ceylon, 1935. Louisa Reeve, the daughter of a successful British gem trader, and her husband, Elliot, a charming, thrill-seeking businessman, seem like the couple who have it all. Except what they long for more than anything: a child. While Louisa struggles with miscarriages, Elliot is increasingly absent, spending much of his time at a nearby cinnamon plantation overlooking the Indian ocean.

A warmhearted and nostalgic festive family saga. Will Tilly finally find a family to call her own? As Christmas grows nearer, Tilly, a young maid, is sent away from her home in London to care for a sick child in an old cottage on the Isle of Sheppey, and she little imagines how her life will change.... Having settled in with her new family, Tilly dares to believe that the happiness she's longed for could be hers at last and that she might finally be free from the secrets of her past. 

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah Jefferies, read by Avita Jay. Nineteen-year-old Gwendolyn Hooper is newly married to a rich and charming widower, eager to join him on his tea plantation, determined to be the perfect wife and mother. But life in Ceylon is not what Gwen expected.

Sweeping from the Great War, through the Jazz Age to the 1940s, this unforgettable tale follows the entwined lives of the Fentons, an aristocratic family from Yorkshire. Set against the rich canvas of the first half of the twentieth century, A Season of Secrets is an unforgettable tale of passion and betrayal, love and war from the ever popular Margaret Pemberton.

Autumn 1928. Three young women are on their way to India, each with a new life in mind. Rose, a beautiful but naive bride-to-be, is anxious about leaving her family and marrying a man she hardly knows. Victoria, her bridesmaid couldn't be happier to get away from her overbearing mother, and is determined to find herself a husband. And Viva, their inexperienced chaperone, is in search of the India of her childhood, ghosts from the past and freedom.

1995, London. When Sir James Harrison, one the greatest actors of his generation, passes away at the age of 95 he leaves behind not just a heartbroken family but also a secret so shocking, so devastating that it could rock the English establishment to its core. Joanna Haslam is an ambitious young journalist assigned to cover the legendary actor's funeral. The great and the good of the celebrity world are there. But Joanna stumbles on something dark beneath the glamour: the mention of a letter James Harrison has left behind, the contents of which others have been desperate to conceal for over 70 years. 

All her life, London-born Angelika has been intrigued by her mother's secret past. Now planning her wedding, she feels she must visit the remote Crete village her mother grew up in. Angie's estranged elderly grandmother, Maria, is dying. She welcomes Angie with open arms - it's time to unburden herself and tell the story she'll otherwise take to her grave. It's the story of the Nazi occupation of Crete during the Second World War, of horror, of courage and of the lengths to which a mother will go to protect her children.

London, 1884: Queen Victoria is Empress of India, and Britain is at its peak of worldwide power. James Falconer works as a barrow boy in a flourishing London market owned by Henry Malvern. But James hungers for more. Turning away from family tradition, he dreams of building an empire of stores like Fortnum and Mason’s and believes that Henry, along with his daughter and heir Alexis, could offer him a way to climb beyond his beginnings. But tragedy and betrayal threaten the dreams of both James and Alexis - and jeopardise everything they hold dear....

Standing on London’s Victoria docks with the wind biting through her shawl, Rose Munday realises she’s been abandoned by her sweetheart. She had risked everything to get to London, but, stumbling through the pea-soup fog, she has nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Scared and alone, Rose steps straight into danger, only to be rescued by two women with even less to their names - a woman of the night and her young sidekick, Sparrow. With only a cluster of love letters to her name and all hope of her sweetheart’s return fading, Rose finds herself forging a new life with her unlikely companions.

Summer 1935. Best friends Kate Shelton, Ella Tetley and Daphne St. Maur are on the cusp of a new life, having graduated with classics degrees. Kate is desperate to start work on an archaeological dig straightaway, and she is thrilled to be given a position at the famous Knossos palace site in Crete. However, she doesn't bargain for working with gruff site director Lewis Sinclair - nor for her own complex feelings towards him. In Yorkshire, Ella's family expect her to marry Sam, her steady friend who is training to be a doctor....

In mid-nineteenth-century Ireland, charming Kathleen and dashing Michael harbor secrets and dreams. Imagining a life beyond the kitchen and fields of the wealthy family they both work for, they plot to leave their homeland, marry, and raise the child Kathleen is secretly carrying. The luck of the Irish, however, is not on their side. Soon, they find themselves swept up in circumstances they never could have fathomed. Kathleen is forced to marry against her will and immigrate to New Zealand.

When her beloved father is killed in the Blitz, trainee nurse April Harvey is all alone in the world. Desperate to find the family she craves, she heads to Truro, her mother's hometown. But danger and heartbreak lurk even in Cornwall, and when the American GIs arrive, April finds her life turned upside down as she discovers that some people are not to be trusted. Especially when it comes to her budding romance with Major Crawford Dunbar. As vicious rumours emerge, April fears there will never be a future for them.