Historical Homes

Spring 1940. As the war rages on, Vickers steelworks is busier than ever, which is proving tough for Nancy as she juggles working long hours and looking after two young children, all while waiting for her husband to return home safely. Betty is determined to roll up her sleeves and joins the Women’s Voluntary Service to keep busy and from fretting about her fiancé. But Patty is left worrying about someone closer to home. Sweetheart Archie has been keeping a secret from her, and one that puts him in great danger. Will it threaten to pull them apart for good?

In the spring of 1972, Joyce Maynard, a freshman at Yale, published a cover story in The New York Times Magazine about life in the sixties. Among the many letters of praise, offers for writing assignments, and request for interviews was a one-page letter from the famously reclusive author, J.D. Salinger. At Home in the World is the story of a girl who loved and lived with J.D. Salinger, and the woman she became. A crucial turning point in Joyce Maynard's life occurred when her own daughter turned eighteen--the age Maynard was when Salinger first approached her.

Ailis McAfee, second daughter of Laird Duncan McAfee, has always known her worth lies in more than marriage contracts. A gifted healer and expert knife thrower, she prefers skill to stitching, and certainly has no patience for the arrogant Ian Sinclair, son of a neighboring laird. Her heart belongs to another. Lachlan McClain has admired Ailis from afar, but with her father seeking powerful alliances, Lachlan fears he has little to offer. Especially when a wealthier, more “suitable” suitor begins to turn Ailis’s head.

When Clara Newton’s American pilot fiancé died during the war, she thought she might never heal. But now she has a new life looking after orphans in a children’s home named in his memory. Like wide-eyed, musical little Rita, who refuses to believe her mother died during the Blitz. With the Festival of Britain approaching, Clara is delighted to see the children singing and preparing to audition together. And with D-Day war hero and handyman Ivor living next door, she begins to open her heart once more.

A biography of the spectacular rise and fall of Eddie Antar, better known as "Crazy Eddie," whose home electronics empire changed the world even as it turned out to be one of the biggest business scams of all time Back in the fall of 2016 we heard the news about the passing of Eddie Antar...

For fans of Downton Abbey comes an immersive historical epic about a lavish English manor and a dynasty of rich and powerful women who ruled the estate over three centuries of misbehavior, scandal, intrigue, and passion. Five miles from Windsor Castle, home of the royal family, sits the Cliveden...

Twenty-six-year-old Katie Macauley has placed all her hope in Hope Springs, a small town in the 1870 Wyoming Territory. But if she wants to return home to Ireland to make amends with her estranged family, she’ll need to convince the influential Joseph Archer to hold true to his word and keep her on his payroll as his housekeeper - despite her Irish roots. When Joseph agrees to keep Katie on ash is housekeeper, the feud erupts anew, and Katie becomes the reluctant figurehead for the Irish townsfolk.

A captivating oral history of the iconic music venue the Stone Pony and of the rise, fall, and rebirth of Asbury Park, New Jersey—featuring interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt, Southside Johnny, members of the E Street Band and Asbury Jukes, the Ramones, the Jonas Brothers, Jack...

Summer 1940. The war is raging on but the Steel Girls are fighting their own battles closer to home. After patching things up with Archie, Patty is miffed when he appears to have forgotten all about her 18th birthday. New girl Hattie has a lot to deal with as she trades the counter at Woolworths for the Vickers factory floor. But is she keeping a secret and are things tougher at home than she’s been letting on? Meanwhile, Nancy is besides herself when she receives word that Bert is missing in action and is struggling to keep it together.

Britain's favourite gardener and TV presenter Alan Titchmarsh takes us to the scenic highlands of Scotland for his new tale of betrayal, mystery and romance. The author of eight bestselling novels including The Haunting and Folly, Titchmarsh's new multi-generational novel makes the perfect gift this Mother's Day. It seems a perfect afternoon in the Highlands. Standing at the door of the lochside castle that has been his family's home for generations, Charlie Stuart welcomes his guests to the annual summer drinks party.

For Amelia and her brothers and sisters, the grim past which their mother, Emily, had endured seemed very far away. As pretty as a picture and now learning to be a teacher in York, Amelia looked forward with pleasure to becoming acquainted with the young men clamouring to get to know her, and especially the two gentlemen who had come all the way from Australia to meet her family. Ralph Hawkins, bringing with him his friend Jack - a handsome half-aboriginal Australian who was determined to make a good living for himself - arrived in Hull looking for his roots.

As Julia Child once said, “It is hard to imagine a civilization without onions.” Historically, she’s been right—and not just in the kitchen. Uniquely flourishing in just about every climate and culture around the world, onions have provided the essential basis not only for sautés, stews, and stir fries, but for medicines, metaphors, and folklore. Abundantly commonplace yet extraordinarily indispensable, the onion is Kurlansky's newest global food fixation as he sets out to explore how and why the crop reigns over Wales to Italy and everywhere in between.

A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER A NEW YORKER ESSENTIAL READ From “one of the most acute and lasting writers of her generation” (The New York Times)—a ghost story set in the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries, an elegiac consideration of grief, devotion (filial and...

As war rages and brave soldiers returning home from the frontline need nurses more than ever, fiercely proud redhead Sylvia Roberts is determined to help in any way she can. In spite of her mother’s belief she isn’t good enough, Sylvia believes that becoming a home front nurse is her calling. Together with the two friends she makes on her first day in the job – Freda and Veronica – she knows she can help save lives. And, as the devastation of war shows no signs of ceasing, their work becomes ever more vital.

Arriving back in her hometown after spending some time training at the Infirmary for Women in New York, Maud can't wait to put her newfound skills to the test. But in a city built and run by men she must work hard to be accepted. Whilst her nurse friends welcome her back with open arms, there are others who do not wish her well, including the spiteful Nancy Sellers. She will stop at nothing to sabotage Maud's life and soon turns her attention to those Maud holds most dear.

Join us on a fascinating ramble through the towns and villages of the British Isles during the last 400 years in the company of some of its most illustrious chroniclers, including Jane Austen, William Cobbett, Daniel Defoe, Sir Walter Scott, Virginia Woolf, Francis Kilvert, Celia Fiennes, Chips Channon, Fanny Burney and many others, told entirely in their own words.

'These heartbreaking but also inspirational tales are full of the grit and hardship that have become hallmarks of a storyteller who writes straight from the heart.' - Lancashire Evening Post Heartfelt and moving, The Orphanage Girls Come Home is the beautiful conclusion to the Orphanage Girls...

Jimmy Propfield joined the army for two reasons: to get out of Mobile, Alabama, with his best friends Hank and Billy and to forget his high school sweetheart, Claire. Life in the Philippines seems like paradise—until the morning of December 8, 1941, when news comes from Manila: the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor. Within hours, the teenage friends are plunged into war as Japanese warplanes attack Luzon, beginning a battle for control of the Pacific Theater that will culminate with a last stand on the Bataan Peninsula and end with the largest surrender of American troops in history.

From Wendy Corsi Staub, the New York Times bestselling author of Nightwatcher and Shadowkiller, comes a gripping work of suspense . . . For years, Rory Connelly has been haunted by the memory of her sister Carleen, who vanished from her bed one night and was never seen again. When Rory returns...

Margot has spent most of her life at St Agnes' Orphanage with her little sister Lucie. She does her best to care for all the children, cradling them under the stars when Sister Helen can't get them to sleep. But she knows that when the Nazis reach the gates of Paris, the Jewish orphans will be in terrible danger. She must help them escape ... One night, Sister Helen tells Margot she has found a rich family to take Lucie in. But there will be no safety for the other children – unless Margot can lead them to the French coast for a ship destined for America.