Showing titles in 20th Century

Berlin, 1938: it’s the height of summer, and Germany is on the brink of war. When fledgling reporter Georgie Young is posted to Berlin, alongside fellow Londoner Max Spender, she knows they are entering the eye of the storm. Arriving to a city swathed in red flags and crawling with Nazis, Georgie feels helpless, witnessing innocent people being torn from their homes. As tensions rise, she realises she and Max have to act - even if it means putting their lives on the line. 

Surrey, England, 1938. After 30 devoted years of marriage, Ellie Endicott is blindsided by her husband’s appeal for divorce. It’s Ellie’s opportunity for change too. The unfaithful cad can have the house. She’s taking the Bentley. Ellie, her housekeeper Mavis, and her elderly friend Dora—each needing escape—impulsively head for parts unknown in the South of France.

Brought to you by Penguin. A brilliantly realised account of the most famous archeological dig in British history, now a major motion picture starring Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan and Lily James. In the long hot summer of 1939 Britain is preparing for war. But on a riverside farm in Suffolk...

From autumn 1941 to the first months of 1942, the war continued to affect the lives of the Adams and Somers families. It was not so much the war, however, as a succession of tragic domestic events that brought a sad and lonely little girl called Phoebe into the care of Susie and Sammy Adams, reminding them of the entry of Rosie as a child into the lives of Boots and Emily. Much needed to be done to cure little Phoebe of her sadness, and it proved a difficult time for Susie and Sammy.

As the Great War continues to take its toll, headstrong 21-year-old Emily Bryce is determined to contribute to the war effort. She is convinced by a cheeky and handsome Australian pilot that she can do more, and it is not long before she falls in love with him and accepts his proposal of marriage. When he is sent back to the front, Emily volunteers as a “land girl,” tending to the neglected grounds of a large Devonshire estate. It’s here that Emily discovers the long-forgotten journals of a medicine woman who devoted her life to her herbal garden.

1918. The Great War is over, and Clara Carter has boarded a train bound for Cornwall - to meet a family that would once have been hers. But they must never discover her secret... 2020. Caroline has spent years trying to uncover the lies buried in her family history. And once she arrives in Cornwall, the truth finally seems to be in reach. Except with storm clouds gathering on the horizon, Caroline soon learns that some secrets are best left hidden....

Defeat is a moment; victory is a legacy. In the blistering heat of the North African desert, the air crackles with tension as the unrelenting Desert Fox, Erwin Rommel, closes in on the beleaguered forces of the Allied troops. Private John ‘Hawkeye’ Sharratt, a battle-sharpened soldier...

Characters you'll come to love and a story that keeps you turning the page.' Rosie Goodwin THE SIXTH BOOK IN THE MUCH-LOVED DOVER CAFE WWII SAGA SERIES Dover, January 1942 The war is closing in on every shore, and when Marge Atkinson is assigned to an elite group of Wrens, chosen to teach war...

A moving and nostalgic saga from Pam Evans, set in London during wartime. Perfect for readers of Katie Flynn, Kitty Neale and Dilly Court. It is autumn 1940 and, as the bombs rain down on London, a close-knit community struggles to survive. Working at the local post office, Bessie Green does her...

Western Ocean, 1942... From the bridge of HMS Gladiator, Lieutenant-Commander David Howard’s orders were chillingly clear. There could be no mercy. To the men who fought to protect the vital, threatened Merchant Navy convoys in the Western Approaches, the Battle of the Atlantic was a full-scale war. A relentless, savage war against an ever-present enemy and a violent sea - in an arena known only to its embittered survivors as the killing ground. HMS Gladiator was part of that war.

In a snowbound London, danger races down the tracks—can Becky and Flynn derail disaster before it’s too late? December 1915. Becky lies silent in a coma, framed for treason, while Flynn is caught in a treacherous web of spies and lies. With Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes unable to intervene, the stakes have never been graver. The enemy is relentless, and the battle has never been more personal.

Adored by her parents and pampered by the court, the infant Princess Mary’s life changes suddenly and drastically when her father’s eye is taken by the enigmatic Anne Boleyn. Mary stands firm against her father’s determination to destroy both her mother’s reputation and the Catholic church. It is a battle that will last throughout both her father’s and her brother’s reign, until she is almost broken by persecution.

It's 1952 and with a new Monarch about to ascend the thrown, The Woolworths Girls will face fresh new challenges . . . At The Erith Store there is a new temporary manager and Sarah is getting more than a little concerned by problems he seems to be creating. The whole mess is enough to make her...

Brought to you by Penguin. One of our best writers, Lauren Groff returns with a fierce new story collection, her first since the award-winning and bestselling Florida. Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region - from New England to Florida to California -...

1944. Paul Brandt, a German soldier, returns wounded and ashamed from the chaos of the Eastern front to find his village home existing in the dark shadow of an SS rest hut - a luxurious retreat for those who manage the concentration camps, run with the help of a small group of female prisoners. When Brandt glimpses one of these prisoners, he realises that he must find a way to access the hut. For inside is the woman to whom his fate has been tied since their arrest five years before, and now he must do all he can to protect her.

Paris, 1942: From the far side of the cobbled street Sadie locks eyes with a thin woman wearing a yellow star and clutching a newborn baby. Her eyes carry a pleading message that Sadie cannot ignore. As the woman is hustled onto a bus by cold-eyed soldiers, she calls out a desperate appeal. Moments later, Sadie hears the tiny cry. Scooping the abandoned baby under her jacket, she runs to where she works: La Maison Bleue. A place of glittering chandeliers and velvet armchairs, beloved by the German soldiers. A dangerous place for a young girl to hide a Jewish child.

Berlin, 1944. ‘No! Not my child!’ Annaliese screams, her voice breaking as she pounds the window uselessly. But no-one looks up as the man in the SS uniform cradles her precious baby and strides away. She lies unmoving on the threadbare cot, her throat hoarse from long hours of screaming but her tears keep falling. Her heart has been cleaved in two, now the Nazis have taken the only thing she has left–her child. She is utterly powerless against them. But as Annaliese cries herself to sleep, she makes a vow—she will find her precious baby again. Whatever it takes.

Anna Cavanaugh is a restless young widow and brilliant French teacher at an all-girls school in Washington, DC. Everything changes when she’s recruited into the Office of Strategic Services by family friend and legendary WWI hero Major General William Donovan. Donovan has faith in her - and in all his “glorious amateurs” who are becoming Anna’s fast friends: Maggie, Anna’s down-to-earth mentor; Irene, who’s struggling to find support from her husband for her clandestine life; and Julia, a cheerful OSS liaison.

Don’t miss the next book in MILLION COPY BESTSELLER Rosie Clarke’s Dressmakers' Alley series Times are changing. Is there a glimmer of hope on the horizon for the women of Dressmaker Alley? London’s East End 1927 Yvonne White is content as head seamstress at Miss Susie, raising her beloved...

Performed by the inimitable John Lee The opening of a letter leads to a desperate chase across Europe in A Matter of Honour by Jeffrey Archer, one of the world's bestselling novelists. Adam Scott listens to the reading of his father's will, aware that the contents can only be meagre. The Colonel...