Showing results for "Birds" in Historical Fiction

It is 1667, and the war between the Dutch and the English continues apace. Sir Francis Courtney, his son Hal and their crew are carried around the southern tip of the African colonies by the good ship Lady Edwina, licensed to attack and seize the treasure-laden ships of the Dutch East India company. When they capture a Dutch trader and hold the passengers to ransom, Sir Francis hopes only for a good price and a small sense of satisfaction.

First Sergeant Mack McClanahan loved his wife, Charlotte, more than anything. The two of them dreamed of having a big family. After years of miscarriages and heart break, Charlotte packs her things and leaves, telling him to have the dream with someone else. He couldn't convince her that the only thing he really wanted was her… that she was all the family he needed. After retiring from the military, he moves to Upstate New York to live like a hermit. He spends his days refurbishing an old farm house, and spending time with his dog, Bo, trying to forget the woman he lost.

Deborah Harkness first introduced the world to Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and witch, and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clairmont in A Discovery of Witches. Drawn to each other despite long-standing taboos, these two other-worldly beings found themselves at the centre of a battle for a lost, enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Since then, they have fallen in love, travelled to Elizabethan England, dissolved the Covenant between the three species, and awoken the dark powers within Diana's family line.

The Battle of Britain defined the future for Britain, Europe, and America. Bluebirds tells the story of four ordinary young men who are thrown together as Hitler plunges the European continent into its darkest hours. Andrew Francis and Gerry Donaldson were born on different sides of the Atlantic just before The Great War. Together with the mildly psychotic Bryan Hale, they fly Spitfires through the summer of 1940. 

Birds Without Wings tells of the inhabitants of a small coastal town in South West Anatolia in the dying days of the Ottoman empire: the local Potter and fount of proverbial wisdom; a Christian girl of legendary beauty; childhood friends who play in the hills above the town, and the two holy men...

Read by Anna Popplewell, known for her role in The Chronicles of Narnia. Richard & Judy Book Club Pick Sunday Times Bestseller Set during London's blitz and filled with warmth, wit and heartbreak, Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce is a wartime story about the power of friendship, the kindness of...

It is1792 and Europe is seized by political turmoil and violence. Lizzie Fawkes has grown up in radical circles where each step of the French Revolution is followed with eager idealism. But she has recently married John Diner Tredevant, a property developer who is heavily invested in Bristol's housing boom, and he has everything to lose from social upheaval and the prospect of war. Diner believes that Lizzie's independent, questioning spirit must be coerced and subdued. She belongs to him.

Jocelyn Wright would prefer to be outside, with her twin brother, instead of in drawing rooms and social events. She has had to hide her true self, and pretend to be the young lady everyone expects. But, as Jonas gets ready to attend Philadelphia College, the colonies’ rebellion against the crown heats up, and her family is forced to quarter British soldiers. That's when Bennet Hart comes into the picture, and changes come much too fast, for even her. 

From the bestselling author of The Ragged Edge of Night comes a powerful and poetic novel of survival and sacrifice on the American frontier. Wyoming, 1876. For as long as they have lived on the frontier, the Bemis and Webber families have relied on each other. With no other settlers for miles...

Set against the backdrop of the collapsing Ottoman Empire, the Gallipoli campaign and the subsequent bitter struggle between Greeks and Turks, Birds Without Wings traces the fortunes of one small community in south-west Anatolia - a town in which Christian and Muslim lives and traditions have...

'Some wrong was done long ago. It can never be righted, and it has not been forgotten. Someone remembers it.' London, 1894. Inspector Henry Cutter is in an unconvivial temper. Then the murders begin. The first to die is Sir Aneurin Considine, a decorated but long retired civil servant, is found...

Banned forever from the eastern end of the Valley of the Kings, eminent Egyptologist Radcliffe Emerson's desperate attempt to regain digging rights backfires—and his dream of unearthing the tomb of the little-known king Tutankhamon is dashed. Now Emerson, his archaeologist wife, Amelia Peabody, and their family must watch from the sidelines as Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter "discover" the greatest Egyptian treasure of all time.

It is 1873, and as the economies of Europe threaten to crumble, Mycroft Holmes finds himself in service to the Crown once again. A distant relative of Queen Victoria has been slain by the Fire Four Eleven killer, a serial murderer who leaves no mark upon his victims, only a mysterious calling card. Meanwhile, Sherlock has already taken it upon himself to solve the case as his interest in the criminal mind grows into an obsession.

Henry Shackleford is a young slave living in the Kansas Territory in 1856. When an argument between Henry's master and legendary abolitionist John Brown turns violent, Henry is forced to leave town - along with Brown, who believes Henry to be a girl and his good luck charm. An absorbing mixture of history and imagination, The Good Lord Bird is both a rousing adventure story and a moving exploration of identity and survival.

Major Heathcliff Lennox is called in, along with ex Detective Inspector Swift, to help the police investigate a macabre death. The dead man is Lord De Ruyter, a man inextricably linked to the notorious Birdcage Murders.

The choice was hers - fame and fortune or true love. Poppy Mazzini, born in Hull over her father's grocery shop, lives up to the promise of her fiery red hair and Italian ancestry. Her lovely singing voice and good looks lead her to her great ambition - to go on the stage and see her name top of...

China, 1941. With Japan’s declaration of war on the Allies, Elspeth Kent’s future changes forever. When soldiers take control of the missionary school where she teaches, comfortable security is replaced by rationing, uncertainty and fear. Ten-year-old Nancy Plummer has always felt safe at Chefoo School. Now the enemy, separated indefinitely from anxious parents, the children must turn to their teachers - to Miss Kent and her new Girl Guide patrol especially - for help.

WINNER OF THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD 2012 WINNER OF THE HEMINGWAY/PEN AWARD 2012 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST AN AMAZON EDITOR'S PICK: BEST BOOKS OF 2012 A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR AN INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR A TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR AN EVENING...

Edge of the Flame is a twist on the tale of The Phantom of the Opera. The infamous Phantom narrates this version giving the reader a remarkable insight into the brilliant mind and tortured heart of the complex character. This engaging version keeps the integrity and chilling spirit of the original novel, but unmasks a brand new gothic love story.

He's a professional. She's an amateur. There can be only one victor... Bird enthusiast Lark Fernside will stop at nothing to prove she has a place in the male-dominated, bird-observing community. When the chance comes to prove her worth by joining an excursion across England, she jumps at the...