Historical Family Saga

From Annie Murray, the bestselling author of The Bells of Bournville Green, comes Secrets of the Chocolate Girls, another gritty family saga about love, war and chocolate . . . September 1940, Birmingham. While her husband and daughter work at Cadbury's Bournville factory, Ann Gilby has her...

Nell Reece has never known her mother, and her father's burden of guilt about his wife has kept him cowed for years, working as a common labourer on his sister's farm. For all her aunt's spiteful attempts to break Nell's independent spirit, she has never succeeded. But now Nell, pregnant and alone, is forced to leave behind the men in her life, believing she might never be able to return. With little but the clothes she wears, she travels across the Bedfordshire countryside of 1890. When she encounters a scruffy urchin called Kit, she takes him under her wing.

The dark, dramatic and compelling new novel from the Sunday Times Top Five bestselling author and two-time Richard & Judy Book Club pick. Harriet Evans returns with a tale of the infinite possibilities of families - how they can anchor you or unseat you - and why unconditional love holds the key...

Queenie Kenney seems born to suffer. Her mum dies giving birth to her, her drunken father George ignores her unless he is cursing her, and only her beloved Auntie Biddy provides an anchor for the little girl. And after her aunt dies, there is no one to protect Queenie from her father, who blames his daughter for her mother’s death. But in spite of hardship, Queenie grows tall and strikingly beautiful with her deep grey eyes and her abundant honey-coloured hair. Love, in the shape of Rick Marsden, might release her from the burden of the drink-sodden George.

This powerful Cold War novel tells the story of two cousins, one German and the other an American Army brat, as they navigate the political and social turmoil that threatens their friendship and ends in the abrupt rise of the Berlin Wall–which may separate them forever. Drew is an army brat, a...

In 1960s Glasgow, anti-nuclear activists Judith and Jimmy fall in love. But their future hopes are dashed when their protestors’ squat is raided and many, including Jimmy, are sent to prison. Pregnant and with no word from Jimmy, Judith is forced to enter an unmarried mothers’ home, give up their baby and learn to live with her grief.

Set deep in the Yorkshire Dales, Diane Allen’s A Child of the Dales is a sweeping novel of family, deceit, separation and love. Abandoned as a baby on the steps of a remote inn, Ruby Blake has been raised by the innkeeper’s wife, Martha Metcalfe, unknowing of the family searching for her...

Brought to you by Penguin. The heartwarming and uplifting new Wartime Midwives novel, perfect for fans of Katie Flynn and Nancy Revell this holiday season. Christmas time is fast approaching at Mary Vale and newcomer Libby is ready to start a fresh chapter working alongside the Wartime Midwives...

Brought to you by Penguin. The festive follow-up to The Rose Queen, from beloved Sunday Times bestselling author Katie Flynn... Liverpool, 1941: After German bombs shatter the life Cadi has built for herself in Liverpool, she is more determined than ever to sign up and do her bit. Joining the...

This Appalachian Big Creek sequel is set in West Virginia, during the 1920s, where granny witches and spiritualism often show the path for wanderers to take, especially in matters of the heart. Emerald Ashby's younger sister, Coral, determines to visit the family's nemesis, Charlie, now stewing in prison. When Mercy returns to the holler of Big Creek, she comes well-armed to re-enter Ernst's life, but he has already found a new romantic attraction. No matter, Mercy has brought along her own spiritual tools and a special friend who guides her way around this inconvenience.

The Powell brothers - Muir and Moody - are as different as Cain and Abel. Muir is an innocent, a shy young man with big dreams. Moody, the older and wilder brother - embittered by the death of his father, by years of fighting his mother, and by his jealousy of Muir's place in the family - takes to moonshine and gambling and turns his anger on his brother. Muir escapes by wandering, making his way around the country in attempts to find something - an occupation, a calling - to match his ambition.

Born in a quiet English village shortly before the onset of the Second World War, Simon Brand’s life is quickly and inextricably interwoven with the Clare-Thompson family and their country Estate which borders the village. His mother moves them away from the village after the war, and an honors degree in economics at Cambridge sees him opting for what proves to be a brilliant career as a business/financial consultant in the City. At the end of a day of goodbyes, in Cambridge, his eyes meet those of an extraordinarily beautiful young woman through the window of a bus.

Irish domestic worker Norah King's decision to ask her wealthy employer, Caroline Parker, for an elegant red coat that the Beacon Hill matriarch has marked for donation ignites a series of events that neither woman could have fathomed. The unlikely exchange will impact their respective daughters and families for generations to come, from the coat's original owner, marriage-minded collegian Cordelia Parker, to the determined and spirited King sisters of South Boston, Rosemary, Kay, and Rita.

Brought to you by Penguin. THE EMOTIONAL CONCLUSION TO THE ROWNTREES GIRL SERIES! January 1945. The end of the war at last feels within reach, and the Rowntrees workers dream of returning to work on chocolate rather than munitions. Within the Freeman household, there are also dreams of a...

Against the chaotic backdrop of World War II, Grace Murphy is working as a midwife in Doncaster Royal Infirmary with her two friends, Clodagh and Patsy. In between delivering babies and tending wounded airmen, the girls endure bombing raids, rationing and the hardships and heartbreak that war brings. But in the faces of the new babies she welcomes to the world, Grace always looks for hope, as she dreams of a time when the war will end.

Berlin, Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts. Sie nennen ihn "Merlin", weil er alle verzaubert - der Mann, den ihr Bruder ihr als seinen Freund vorstellt. Paula Oppenheimer, die in einem offen jüdischen Haushalt groß geworden ist, verliebt sich sofort in den jungen Dichter Richard Dehmel. Ihre Eltern aber stellen sich gegen diese Verbindung. Richard ist ihnen zu wild und unkonventionell. Entgegen aller Warnungen, Paula heiratet den Dichter und wird kurz darauf schwanger. Richard hat große Pläne - er verkehrt mit vielen jungen Literaten und will als Künstler leben.

Progressing from the 1960s to the turbulent present, the novel begins on the island of O’ahu and centers on Ana, abandoned by her mother as a child. Raised by her extended family on the “lawless” Wai’anae coast, west of Honolulu, Ana, against all odds, becomes a physician. While tending victims of Hurricane ‘Iniki on the neighboring island of Kaua’i, she meets Nikolai, a Russian filmmaker with a violent and tragic past, who can confront reality only through his unique prism of lies. Yet he is dedicated to recording the ecological horrors in his motherland.

‘I can take him away from you any time I want.’ Her mistress’s cruel taunt is deeply disturbing to Jenny Dickens—why would Claudia be interested in a servant’s sweetheart? All the same, Jenny reckons without Claudia’s vicious nature. Using a wily trick, Claudia seduces Frank who, overcome with shame, leaves the household for a new life in Blackburn. Losing Frank is just the first of many disasters that leave Jenny struggling to cope alone.

Die Fortsetzung von Stay away from Gretchen. Tom Monderath ist frisch verliebt, und glücklich. Bis er durch Zufall auf seinen Halbbruder Henk stößt, der alles über ihren gemeinsamen Vater wissen will. Doch Konrad starb vor vielen Jahren, und seine demente Mutter Greta kann Tom nicht befragen. Als sich weitere Halbgeschwister melden, wird es Tom zu viel. Toms Freundin Jenny und Henk hingegen folgen den Spuren Konrads.

The Llewelyn family's livelihood largely depends on the ferry, run by Siona Llewelyn, the kindly yet rugged head of the family. The family is large but close knit, held together by their mother Emily—a hard-working woman made old before her time having borne seven sons, and now with child once again. As the boys grow into young men, tensions flare in the family unit, made worse by a web of rivalries and ambitions. When a death shocks the family to its core, it will take the intervention of a special person to remind them of what they have lost.