Showing results for "Girl" in 20th Century

Sweeping and evocative, The Hidden Girl is a lost treasure from the author of The Seven Sisters series, Lucinda Riley. Discover this reimagined novel from an author loved by millions of readers worldwide. You can’t alter destiny . . . Born and raised in a small village on the Yorkshire moors...

A family secret. A century of heartache . . . The Girl on the Cliff is an evocative, moving story of family, loss and hope, from Lucinda Riley, the international bestselling author of The Seven Sisters series. After a devastating loss, Grania Ryan flees her life as an artist in New York and...

Brought to you by Penguin. London, 1941 When Mary meets a glamorous stranger named Elizabeth she realises their lives couldn’t be more different. Elizbeth is beautiful and charming, about to set off on a dazzling adventure to Ireland where she’s inherited a grand house. Mary, shy and meek...

Christmas is coming, and Alice Starling is trying hard to get into the festive spirit. Two years ago, she lost her beloved husband at Dunkirk, and it feels like a piece of her heart will always be missing. With almost nightly raids on London, all Alice can think about is her important work defending the city with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force until, on a rare night out with her friends Nell, George, and Maeve, she encounters US Army Lieutenant Brogan Rafferty.

East London, 1943: As air raid sirens wail, can the East End Girls join forces to protect their city and the people they love? Nell Reilly’s blonde curls and piercing blue eyes might look angelic, but she is ready to fight with everything she has for a better future. Brought up in London’s tough East End, she is fiercely determined to keep the promise she made to her little sister Jo to build a new life for them one day. Until a chance meeting changes everything…

Singer Jessie Delaney is back home after narrowly escaping the London Blitz with her life. With husband Johnny Randolph serving overseas, Frances Randolph is busy juggling the business, motherhood and keeping West End star Ruby Randolph out of trouble. Young, talented amateur entertainer, Peggy Marshall has been left in the care of her feckless stepmother while her father serves on the dangerous Atlantic convoys. With everyone doing their bit, the Seaside Girls pool their talents to support the community and also their men at war.

In the bustling heart of London’s East End, Maisie, Amanda and Bethan work long hours at the uniform factory. The pay is poor, the shifts relentless and the bombs fall far too close for comfort ­– but these three women refuse to give in to despair. For when not at the factory, the girls spend their days on the markets of Petticoat Lane, trying to source material in order to make dresses ­– doing their best to bring any small amount of joy in these troubled times. When a chance encounter leads them to a bundle of parachute silk, they decide to think bigger.

Against the backdrop of impending war, experience the trials, triumphs and camaraderie behind the Woolworths counter, in Elaine Everest’s historical romance The Woolworths Girls. It's 1938 and as the threat of war hangs over the country, Sarah Caselton is preparing for her new job at...

Christmas with the Teashop Girls is a heartwarming and moving story of wartime love, bravery and hope, by the bestselling author of the Woolworths series, Elaine Everest. It is late 1940 and the war feels closer to home than ever for Rose Neville and her staff at the Lyon’s Teashop in Margate...

1939. After the sudden and tragic loss of her husband, Helen is returning home to her mother’s house in Biggin Hill, Kent – the one place she vowed she’d never go back to again. Alone and not knowing where to turn, Helen finds herself joining the local women’s sewing circle despite being...

1940 - Small Heath, in the heart of Birmingham, is facing the darkest days of the war. Two very different girls from this tight-knit community join up as ARP wardens to do their bit for the Home Front. Violet Simms lives with her controlling, widowed mother who runs the local pawn shop. At just...

Bristol, 1939. School leaver Maisie Miles suspects her father, a small-time crook, has an ulterior motive for insisting she gets a job at the W. D. & H. O. Wills tobacco factory but keeps it to herself. She's befriended by effervescent Phyllis Mason and kind-hearted Bridget Milligan who take pity on her and take Maisie under their wing. But beneath their happy-go-lucky exteriors, they all harbour dreams and worries about what the future holds.

1922, London. Evelyn Bloom lies dying in her Mayfair flat. A decade earlier, she had the world at her feet - a dazzling celebrity who socialised with royalty, ignited scandalous love affairs, and filled headlines with her daring exploits. Now, surrounded by the faded mementoes of a brilliant life cut short, Evelyn is left to wonder: How did it all go so wrong? And why, when she had everything, has she been left to die alone?

1943, Nazi-occupied Holland. Turning up her collar against the wind, Trix prepares for her rendezvous. Living a double life is desperately lonely, but the longer she goes under her alias, Felix, the more comfortable she becomes with this new version of herself – one who will stand up for what is right, and fight for those who can't. That is, until the warm brown eyes of a pilot from her past spark hope for a life after the war.

Nobody leaves Auschwitz alive. Mala, inmate 19880, understood that the moment she stepped off the cattle train into the depths of hell. Edward, inmate 531, is a camp veteran and a political prisoner. They are locked up for no other sin than simply existing. But when they meet, the dark shadow of Auschwitz is lit by a glimmer of hope. Edward makes Mala believe in the impossible. That despite being surrounded by electric wire, machine guns topping endless watchtowers and searchlights roaming the ground, they will leave this death camp.

1939. Seventeen-year-old Nora Jennings has spent her life secure in the certainty of a bright, happy future - until one night of passion has more catastrophic consequences than she ever could have anticipated. Labelled a moral defective and sectioned under the Mental Deficiency Act, she is forced to endure years of unspeakable cruelty at the hands of those who are supposed to care for her. 

The final heartbreaking instalment of The Guernsey Girls wartime trilogy by Mary Wood, bestselling author of The Orphanage Girls series. Their dreams are worth fighting for . . . Winter, 1941. Olivia’s life in Guernsey is uprooted by the Nazi occupation. Forced to flee in the dead of night...

Young Julia Fowler's life revolves around Poole Harbour and its lifeboat – her older brother Wilbur is a volunteer crew member, and every blast of the mortar fills her with fear for his safety. When news of the Titanic disaster reaches the town, the close-knit seafaring community is rocked to its core. Julia and her friends – Kathy, Flora, and Betsy – are discovering new opportunities for themselves, stepping up in a world that is slowly beginning to open doors to women. Opposition rises at home and in the community, and tensions grow as the country edges closer to war.

Brought to you by Penguin. 1945, Sunderland. Ida Boulter makes the heart-wrenching decision to leave her five children behind as she escapes her husband and moves to London to start afresh with the love of her life. 1953, County Durham. Ida’s children have since built a new life in the...

It is 1942, and with the country still at war, the girls who work for Joe Lyons are praying for their loved ones to return home safely. Happily married, Rose is busy with staffing problems at the teashop with many women taking on war work. Rose dreams of her husband’s return while trying to...