Historical Letters

At the turn of the twentieth century, sisters Emmy and Callie Bullock are living a privileged life as the only daughters of a wealthy Alabama cotton farmer when their well-ordered household gets turned upside down by the arrival of Lily McGee. Arrestingly beautiful, Lily quickly—and innocently—draws the wrong kind of attention. Meanwhile, Callie meets a man who offers her the freedom to abandon social constraints and discover her truest self.

Fiercely romantic and hugely influential, The Scarlet Letter is the tale of Hester Prynne, imprisoned, publicly shamed, and forced to wear a scarlet for committing adultery and bearing an illegitimate child, Pearl. In their small Puritan village, Hester and her daughter struggle to survive. In this searing study of the tension between private and public existence, Hester Prynne’s inner strength and quiet dignity secure her place as one of the first great heroines of American fiction.

As a barrister in 1818 London, William Snopes is a strong advocate who chooses to defend the poorer classes against the powerful. That changes the day a struggling heiress, Lady Madeleine Jameson, arrives at his door.

World War I is in full swing, and Abigail Hudson is doing her best to keep the home fires burning while her husband, Jacob, fights for king and country. She tries to balance family life along with running The General Store in their village of Abbington Pickets. Abigail, expecting their first child, is adjusting well to her new role until something unforeseen happens. Writing to Jacob brings comfort to Abigail. His letters always lift her spirits. Then, his letters stop. What happened? Is he missing? Captured? Or worse?

'I still have that recurring fear of something happening to me before I see you again, and before I can tell you myself just how much and how often I've realised during the last few months that I love you completely and to the exclusion of all others. Remember that, because if there wasn't you, my darling Mary, the world would seem very empty and meaningless.' Mary was only 21 when she met and fell in love with the privately educated 19-year-old David in 1938.

New York, 1891: a rapidly changing city, torn between lamplight and electric light, where the burgeoning steel and railway industries attract a flood of humanity from every corner of the globe, fuelling cutthroat gangs, corruption and vice. A prostitute is found brutally murdered. Immediately fear starts to spread. The victim bears the same hallmarks as Jack the Ripper's recent killing spree in England. Could it be that the Ripper has crossed the Atlantic to fresh killing grounds? Or is this simply a copycat murder?

Berlin, 1943. As the Allied forces edge closer, the Third Reich tightens its grip on its people. For 18-year-old Susanna Göttmann, this means her adopted family including the man she loves, Leo, are at risk. Desperate to protect her loved ones any way she can, Susie accepts the help of an influential Nazi officer. But it comes at a terrible cost - she must abandon any hope of a future with Leo and enter the frightening world of the Nazi elite.

Lenora Fletcher is settling into her new role as Duchess of Blackmoore, after having put the ghost of her husband’s first wife to rest. But when her ne-er-do-well brother-in-law is accused of murder, only Lenora can help him. Using her ability to communicate with the dead, Lenora must contact the deceased sailor and determine who his real killer is in order to clear Edwin’s name. But will her involvement cause the killer to end another life? And will that life be her own?

When Beth Thompson’s only son, James, goes missing in action in Afghanistan, she is left with her prayers, hopes, fears... and letters. Mother and son have been writing since boot camp. James writes of his struggle to become a confident soldier and of his concern for his young wife and their unborn child. Beth, like any mom, praises her son’s courage even as she frets for his safety. Even after James disappears, Beth is comforted by a daily ritual of writing him about her feelings, faith, and attempts to maintain a normal life when nothing is really normal but the waiting.

Meet Tilly Rabel, a proud oyster-woman, and Landon Lockwood, the troubled son of one of the wealthiest men in America. The two could not be less suited for love. But when an old legend draws Landon to a hidden river cove, Tilly and he find each other, are lured by growing attraction, and repelled by competing desires to control Tilly’s waters. The hidden pool is replete with valuable mussel beds and the source of everything that makes Tilly who she is. Landon sees the illustrious treasure as the path to proving to his parents he is worth their love and worthy of the Lockwood name.

Trudy and Jeremy grew up in the same neighborhood, and they have always loved each other. She is a part of a large blended family living near a south Mississippi village. Jeremy, having lost all his family, makes his way through the world alone. At the beginning of World War I, he becomes so enthralled with his goals to succeed that he neglects Trudy, who has reached the stage in life where she wants to be loved.

Germany, 1930s. In the peaceful village of Dachau, Ariana lives with her family, ordinary German citizens, during the Third Reich. Ariana and her sister Renate come of age amidst the growing horrors. Munich, 2012. Hard-nosed ex-cop Jack Bailey is determined to locate Ariana Schröder, who wrote a WWII wartime love letter to his father, decades ago. Jack and his brother think that the letter may hold the key to his past drunken abusiveness.

Mark’s dog, Wolfie, is part malamute, part German shepherd, and all heart. Mark can hardly imagine life without his big, loving canine companion. But in 1969, the Vietnam War is still raging, and when Mark learns that the army needs scout dogs, he decides to send Wolfie. As his dad says, a smart dog like Wolfie could save a lot of soldiers - soldiers like Mark’s brother, Danny. Besides, it seems like the patriotic thing to do. Inspired by real events, this is a heartbreaking story about sacrifice, loyalty, and the complex meanings of patriotism.

An intimate three-volume collection of moving letters from the private writings of three of the most popular writers of the 19th century, presented in a dramatised setting.

With Prejudice is a romantic yet harsh action story of runaway soldier Michael Carver and a young Cherokee woman called Little Deer who find each other when their worlds collide in 1838 America. Amid the destruction of the Native tribes and their forced migration out west to the new Indian Territory, Michael becomes disillusioned with the army and the treatment of the indigenous people and decides to leave it all behind and return to his farm in Virginia.

Liverpool, 1958: nursery nurse Irene Miller falls for her friend Peggy's handsome older brother, Marty. But he is trapped in an unhappy marriage. Meanwhile, Irene's friend Peggy is desperate to marry her long-term boyfriend, Pete, but Peggy's staunchly Catholic parents would never accept a Protestant son-in-law. When her mother decides to remarry, her brother heads off to sea, and she loses her job, Irene feels utterly alone in the world. An unexpected job offer from America offers her a lifeline.

War Letters presents historic, dramatic, personal accounts of both World Wars, the Civil War, Vietnam, Korea, the Cold War, Somalia and the Balkans, revealing in vivid detail what the servicemen and women of America have experienced and sacrificed on the front lines. Read by an all-star cast, including Joan Allen, Tom Brokaw, Rob Lowe, Noah Wyle, and more.

It is 1693 in Hereford, Connecticut, when Mary Case, the spinster daughter of a Puritan minister, finds herself hopelessly smitten by roguish thief Daniel Eames. Betrothed to a man she does not like or love, she is soon compelled to help Daniel escape from jail. Suddenly she finds herself on the run, not only accused of being Daniel's accomplice but also of murder.

One sunny Spring morning, EJ's simple life is turned upside down when the town's master gardener unceremoniously hands her a stack of handwritten letters that have all been addressed to a nonexistent person at the garden. This simple act sets in motion a chain of events that will lead EJ on a life-altering quest to uncover the identity of the mysterious letter writer―and into a surprising head-on confrontation with the harsh realities of the racial injustice that is as deeply rooted in the life of her community as the ancient herbs cultivated in the Moravian garden.

Seb Fowler has arrived in Paris to research his literary idol, Henri Fournier. It begins with an interview granted by a woman whose affair with the celebrated writer trails back to World War I. The enchanting Pauline is fragile, but her memories are alive - those of an illicit passion, of the chances she took and never regretted, and of the twists of fate that defined her unforgettable love story. Through Pauline’s love letters, her secrets, and a lost Fournier manuscript, Seb will come to learn so much more - about Pauline, Henri, and himself.