Historical Letters

The deepest currents of passion seldom break the surface of literature. Romantic classics abound; but however skilled a writer may be in verbalising an emotional experience, he cannot publicly evoke the heat of blood, the yearning of soul, bared in perfect intimacy between two beings. But letters can do this, and songs never meant to be sung by any but the lover, or the beloved.

It is 1828. Fate has brought four people together in a modest house in Abingdon, Virginia. All of them have experienced great losses in their lives, with the three adults consumed by their grief and regret. The fourth, an innocent, is a recently orphaned young boy working through his own sadness but learning to adapt to his new living situation. Alexander Dromgoole, a Revolutionary War veteran and Indian trader, is a frail and ailing old man, living out the last years of his life being boarded out by the town's Overseers of the Poor.

Katherine Arthur and her family are back and it’s time to collect the money Mrs. Mellet left them in her will. The tidy sum will allow the family peace of mind and a future that’s stable and fulfilling. But when things don’t go exactly as planned, Katherine steps up to do more than her share. Hired as a kitchen mistress, her intuition (with the help of a mysterious recipe book), cooking prowess, and work ethic make her the perfect partner for the enigmatic, wealthy woman next door. Then Aleksey Zurchenko arrives.

When her sister volunteers to help renovate the two cottages she owns in France, Merle is happy to have company. The cottages are a disaster–especially one that has mostly been inhabited by rodents for years. But inside the cottage are surprises. A packet of letters dating from World War One intrigue Merle. What happened to this soldier who was writing to his girlfriend back in England? Does his last letter, telling her to forget him, mean something terrible happened to him?

Letters discovered in a tin box hidden in the foundation of a small cottage in Normandy reveal a terrible secret, a desperate whisper between the lines. Antoine's world was collapsing. His beautiful Marianne, his precious daughter Ariéle, missing. The lives of hundreds - perhaps thousands - of allied soldiers preparing to storm Juno Beach on D-Day literally are in his hands.

Miss Arabella Leeds, the teenage daughter of a prominent New York family, and Aubrey Paxton, the pampered "high-yellow" house servant of wealthy New Orleans slaveholders, are destined to meet and fall in love. But before their paths can cross, and their romance commence in London, each must forsake complacency and comfort, the familial and familiar, for a journey toward self-discovery and the allure of the forbidden. Arabella must abandon the gentlewoman's prescribed path and redefine her convictions - particularly those regarding her own sexuality.

1891: Living separately for three years, 14-year-old twins Katherine and Tommy Arthur have done their best to make each boarding house feel like home. But unrest grows as they are driven to questionable actions just to survive. Meanwhile, their desperate mother is confronted with breaking yet another promise to her children. Then a miracle descends. Hope rises on a cold, rainy night and changes everything. If Jeanie could just get word to Katherine and Tommy, she knows she can set their lives right again.

Who exactly is Danziger? He's a writer of letters for illiterate immigrants on Manhattan's Lower East Side - "a steadfast practitioner of concealing and forgetting" for his clients, and perhaps for himself: He hints at a much worldlier past. What and whoever he really is or has been, he has a seemingly boundless knowledge of the city and its denizens. And he knows much more than the mere identity of the floating corpse.

These letters were arranged in two volumes by Albert Bigelow Paine, Samuel L. Clemens's literary executor, as a supplement to Mark Twain, A Biography, which Paine wrote. They are, for the most part, every letter written by Clemens known to exist at the time of their publication in 1917. They begin with a fragment of a letter from teenaged Sam Clemens to his sister, Pamela, and conclude with a letter to his attorney two weeks before his death. These letters give us some degree of insight into the evolution of Twain's style of speech and prose over the period of his lifetime.

London, 1941. Keen to do her bit in the war, Connie Allinson joins the WRNS and is posted as a letter censor. Her task: to read and alter correspondence to ensure no sensitive information crosses enemy lines. At first, she is not sure she's up to it, but is soon drawn in by the letters she reads, and their secret... Doncaster, 1967. Bored of her domestic life, Connie wants a job, but her controlling husband Arthur won't hear of it. Looking for an escape and plagued by memories of letters she read during the war, she makes a bid for freedom and starts secretly tracking down their authors.

Letters to a Savage follows the epic tale of Spanish conquistador, Rodrigo Diaz, during the fall of the Aztec Empire. Rodrigo becomes disillusioned with the Spanish cause and falls in love with Atzi, a beautiful young Aztec woman.

Kent, 2019. With her marriage in tatters, school teacher Lizzie Armstrong moves to sleepy Elm Heath for a fresh start and her pupils and the community soon steal her heart. So when the school is threatened with closure Lizzie knows she has to fight and she looks to the school’s founder for inspiration. What makes Esther, born and bred in London, a proud Suffragette, suddenly leave the city and escape to Elm Heath? And when Lizzie uncovers Esther’s heartbreaking secret, could it give her the strength she needs to save not just the school, but her new beginning too?

Two hundred years later, on the anniversary of the Battle of Saratoga, thousands arrive from Europe and the US to celebrate the event, including descendants from the war. One young American, Abby, meets the offspring of a British soldier. When she is threatened, Abby turns to the only person she knows at the event: her British ally. Can she trust him with her life? Or will he betray her in the same way Loyalist spies betrayed her ancestors?

England, 1575. The inn yards of London are closed due to plague and the playing troupe, The Earl of Worcester's Men, are on the road, touring the market towns of the Midlands. When Tyburn accidentally intercepts a coded letter from a hidden Jesuit priest in Warwickshire, he is entangled in a murderous and deadly conspiracy. Stalked by unknown enemies, he must race to uncover the conspirators and hunt down the Jesuit to clear his name... or die a traitor's death.

We are all a bit broken, and Katherine is no different. She spent her life searching to understand why her father had walked out the door and had never returned. After his disappearance, she spent the rest of her childhood in two different parts of a racially divided town, and soon discovered she belonged in both.

In the wake of a murder in 1950's Puerto Rico, nationalists revolt against American colonialism. An amnesiac recluse, married to a man she does not love, Arabella finds solace in the only remaining book in her possession. One of the many banned by Puerto Rico's Gag Law. The mysterious novel entitled The Last Love Letter by one Aurelio Valentino leads Arabella on a journey with the main character in search of his lost love.

It was a stormy evening in 1920s London. When newly qualified almoner Alice stepped into the home of Charlotte, a terrified teenager who had just given birth out of wedlock, she did not expect to make a pact that would change her life forever. Thrown into secrecy after an unexpected turn, Alice was determined to keep bewildered Charlotte and her newborn baby safe. But when a threatening note appeared, she realised that Charlotte may need more protection than she first thought. But from whom?

It is a stormy evening in 1920s London. When newly qualified almoner Alice stepped into the home of Charlotte, a terrified teenager who has just given birth out of wedlock, she did not expect to make a pact that would change her life forever. Thrown into secrecy after an unexpected turn, Alice is determined to keep bewildered Charlotte and her newborn baby safe. But when a threatening note appears, she realises that Charlotte may need more protection than she first thought. But from whom?

Letters from Erastus: Field Notes on Grace is a hybrid memoir woven around 22 extraordinary letters written by abolitionist Erastus Hopkins to his daughters in the 1850s and 60s in Northampton, Massachusetts. The letters reveal an unexpected sensitivity and attempt to provide firm but gentle guidance to a family coping with years of domestic tragedy.

Robert enjoys his life in Japan, but the dark tides of war are rising, and it won't be long before foreigners are forced to leave Japan. Torn from the people he has come to think of as family, he stays in contact by exchanging letters with Makiko, letters that soon show their relationship is blossoming into something much more than friendship. The outbreak of total war sweeps all before it, and when correspondence ends with no explanation, Robert fears the worst. He will do anything to find Makiko, even launch himself headfirst into a conflict that is consuming the world.