Showing titles in Historical Fiction

Marvellously atmospheric tale of strangers summoned to a grand but neglected villa on the Italian coast. Each of them has been named in a will, but nobody knows their benefactress.... Four very different people are named in a will. Delia, an opera singer robbed of her voice by illness; George, an idealistic scientist who cannot face what his skills have created; Marjorie, desperately poor and unable to dislodge her writer’s block; and Lucius, ostensibly in control but whose personal life is in chaos.

The fourth volume of Bernard Cornwell’s bestselling series on the American Civil War and featuring rebel Nathaniel Starbuck – a yankee fighting for the Southern cause. It is late summer 1862 and the Confederacy is invading the United States of America. Nate Starbuck, a northern preacher’s...

Roddy Greenbank was brought by his father to the remote Northumberland community of Langley in the autumn of 1807. Within hours of their arrival, however, the father meets a violent death and the boy is left with all memory of his past life gone. Adopted and raised by old Kate Makepeace, Roddy found his closest companions in Hal Roystan and Mary Ellen Lee. These three stand at the heart of a richly eventful narrative that spans the first half of the 19th century, their lives lastingly intertwined by the inexorable demands of a strange and somewhat cruel destiny.

Commissioned to rescue Governor Bligh of Bounty fame, Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend and surgeon Stephen Maturin sail the Leopard to Australia with a hold full of convicts. Among them is a beautiful and dangerous spy - and a dangerous disease which decimates the crew.

Everybody thinks that Charlotte Lucas has no prospects. She is unmarried, plain and seemingly without ambition. When she stuns the neighbourhood by accepting the proposal of buffoonish clergyman Mr Collins, her best friend, Lizzy Bennet, is angry at her for undervaluing herself. Yet the decision is the only way Charlotte knows to provide for her future, and marriage will propel her into a new world, of duty, marriage, children, grief and ultimately illicit love, and a kind of freedom.

Who owns the Eustace Diamonds? Lizzie Eustace claims that Sir Florian Eustace, her late husband, gave them to her. But Mr Camperdown, the family solicitor, insists that they are an heirloom, to be passed down from generation to generation. Lizzie is both beautiful and clever, yet Mr Camperdown believes her to be a scheming liar. And Mr Camperdown is right! The battle for the diamonds rages until a robbery intervenes and they disappear. Or do they...?

From the trenches of France, General Sean Courtney comes back to fame, fortune and a seat in the government. Mark Anders, the courageous young South African whom he has come to regard as his own son, returns to nothing, his grandfather murdered and his property seized by an unknown company. At the bottom of the mystery is Sean's son Dirk, the jealous, violent and power-crazed genius whose all-consuming hatred can only end in blood.... A Sparrow Falls is the thrilling third novel in the Courtney series, continuing from When the Lion Feeds and The Sound of Thunder.

As London goes up in flames during the Blitz, two sisters from Bermondsey find their lives changed out of all recognition.... When a bombing raid destroys nearly everything she holds dear, May joins the ATS and becomes a gunner girl. Peggy, May's elder sister, is trapped in a stifling marriage, yet amid the chaos of war, a route to freedom beckons. From war will come hardship and tragedy as well as new, unexpected friendships and love affairs.

Ruined by scandal, Georgiana bargains with a duke to regain her place in Society. But their pretend friendship sparks real love, risking reputations, duty, and unexpected happily-ever-afters. Eight months after a stolen kiss ruined her reputation, Miss Georgiana Wood is a recluse, cast out of...

*SHARPE’S COMMAND, the brand new novel in the global bestselling series, is available now* Lieutenant-Colonel Sharpe, sidelined on the Royal staff, magnificently siezes command at the final moment of the great victory. It is 1815. Sharpe is serving on the personal staff of the Prince of Orange...

'Gritty, pacy historical fiction. The action never lets up and it's a real pleasure to share the perilous adventures of Will and his hard-fighting band of followers.' SIMON SCARROW, #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 1191. For Will Bowman, newly restored to the service of King Richard 'Lionheart', the...

When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles and to seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her cousin Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future. Thomas Hardy’s timeless masterpiece is brought to life in this new recording by Anne-Marie Duff (Shameless, His Dark Materials).

Brought to you by Penguin. 1946. Three years after a cataclysmic event which tore their lives apart, a mother and daughter flee Poland for Paris, shame, and fear at their heels, not knowing how hard it is to escape your past. Nearly eighty years later, Gretel Fernsby lives a life that is a far...

THE INSPIRATION FOR HBO AND SKY TV’S EMMY NOMINATED HOUSE OF THE DRAGON. Centuries before A Game of Thrones, an even greater game began, one that set the skies alight with dragon flame and saw the Seven Kingdoms turned to ash. So began the Targaryens’ bloody rule, with fire and blood...

Britain, March, 1944. After a desperate aerial battle over Somerset, a German bomber goes down in flames. When Joan discovers the Luftwaffe pilot hiding in her barn, her first instinct is to turn him in – against her better judgment, she offers him shelter instead. As they work side by side in the fields, a forbidden love begins to flourish. As the walls close in on their unlikely affair, Dieter and Joan's lives become fraught with danger, until passion and patriotism finally collide.

*NOW A MAJOR SKY TV SERIES. Read the novel Season 3 is based on.* THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES HARDBACK BESTSELLER Fall deeper under the spell of Diana and Matthew in this phenomenal third instalment of their epic tale, following A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES and SHADOW OF NIGHT...

On a moonlit night in 1898, Kathleen Wyman lies in labour at Bessington Hall. Her husband, Edward, is sure that she has been unfaithful to him. In his blind, jealous rage he later gives away the baby to gypsy Rona Parrish, summoned to help with the delivery. Kathleen, frenzied with grief, is soon after locked away in an asylum.

From the author of the Kindle Number One bestseller The Letter comes a heartbreaking novel of tragedy, hope and second chances, set in England in 1976 and the present day, and in Australia. Readers who treasure the novels of Lesley Pearse and Susan Lewis will adore this author. It's the long hot...

'One of the greatest storytellers of our time' Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska-a place of...

A young woman begs Sherlock Holmes to help find her missing fiancé, but the great detective makes an uncharacteristic mistake. Then Sherlock’s daughter, Lucy James, takes on a missing-person case of her own, but she must also keep a vicious criminal away from Becky, Lucy’s 10-year-old sister-in-law. Little Becky soon becomes dangerously involved in both cases. No one foresees the devastating news that Sherlock Holmes has been murdered.