Historical War Saga

With the Great War raging, can they keep Britain going? 1915. On Beth Healey's 18th birthday, she hopes that she will be able to forget the ghastly war and celebrate. But that evening, her twin brother, Ned, announces that he has signed up to fight. No longer able to stand working in her parents' village shop while others are doing their bit, Beth applies to join the Army Post Office's new Home Depot on the Regent's Park and is astounded to be accepted. She will be responsible for making sure that letters and parcels get through to the troops on the front line.

Past and present are woven into this novel set in contemporary times and WWII Poland. Based on a real-life story about friendship and endurance in the darkest situation. Kat is a 12-year-old girl who loves working on her super-heroine comic, Girl 38 – the girl she longs to be like. But she's not brave, or fearless. At school, Gem is no longer her "best friend". And at home Kat is lonely while her parents are busy working long hours. She's even a bit afraid of her elderly neighbour, Ania.

In this exciting sequel to the award-winning "The Hunt for the Peggy C," Capt. Jake Rogers returns to the North Atlantic as commander of a U.S. Liberty ship with some of his crew from the sunken "Peggy C." But disaster strikes, and they end up shipwrecked in Ireland. There, Rogers learns from Dutch sailors that the Nazis have arrested the father of Miriam Maduro, the love of his life, and are about to deport him to a concentration camp. Rogers and crew sneak back into Holland aboard a gun-running ship from neutral Ireland and make contact with a resistance group to help them.

In Roots, Heini is home in Wales nursing her sick mother while Naomi is attending launch parties for her latest novel. The civil war in Spain seems a world away, until the fascists bomb and destroy Guernica, murdering hundreds of men, women, and children. Heini’s boyfriend, Deiniol Price, a coal miner, feels he must rally to the Spanish Republic’s cause and volunteer for the International Brigades while Naomi’s paramour, Count Nicolas Esteban, a pilot, dreams of glory, fighting for the fascists.

Mister Tidwell is a scholarly Oxford professor snatched out of his bookish world and pressed into service aboard Lord Nelson’s legendary British fleet - in the position of schoolmaster. Such is the life of the land-loving, seafaring Mister Tidwell, Gunner. Thrust into service at the height of the Napoleonic Wars, Tidwell soon finds himself directly in the line of fire and way out of his depth. Fate has cast him into a terrible and terrifying spot - alone on deck to face the fearsome approach of a French man-o’-war.

Vlak na de Tweede Wereldoorlog keert de naamloze verteller vanuit Californië terug naar zijn geboortestreek Piëmont. Met zijn enige vriend die nog in leven is, de arme Nuto, bezoekt hij de plekken uit zijn kindertijd. Terwijl hij door de wijngaarden, langs vijgenbomen en hazelnootstruiken loopt, begrijpt hij wat er in zijn geboortedorp is gebeurd tijdens de donkere jaren van het fascisme.

A British heiress in WWI England must confront her family’s plans for her future as she searches to find her place in a changing world.

Es gibt zwei Arten von Krieg: Den Krieg an der Front und den Krieg in dir. Und beide werden Opfer fordern. Eine schreckliche Tragödie hat die Familie Caldwell auseinandergerissen und die Caldwell Girls in alle Richtungen zerstreut: Imogen hat sich dem Kriegsdienst angeschlossen. Elsie scheint ihr Glück in der Ehe zu finden. Und Daisy? Daisy fühlt sich verloren... Mittlerweile lebt sie weit weg von zu Hause und vermisst ihre Familie. Sie findet zwar neue Freunde, geht aus und flirtet, aber überall breiten sich die Schrecken des Krieges weiter aus. Tod. Krankheiten. Verwundete. Schmerzen.

In 1930s Northern India, childhood friends Stella and Andrew have grown up together in the orbit of the majestic Raj Hotel. Spirited Stella has always had a soft spot for boisterous Andrew, though she dreams of meeting a soulmate from outside the close-knit community. But life is turned on its head when one scandal shatters their friendship and another sees her abandoned by the man she thought she loved.

Occupied France, 1940. When the staff at a field hospital draw straws to find out who will join the evacuation from Dunkirk, Nurse Cate is left behind. But when the Nazis arrive to claim prisoners of war, she takes her chance and flees into the night, taking one patient with her. Fifty miles away, the surrendering soldiers of the Royal Norfolk Regiment are shot dead by the advancing Germans. Beneath the pile of bodies two men survive, crawling to the safety of a nearby farmhouse, where sisters Elise and Adelaide risk their lives to take them in.

What happens to a young couple when the first flush of love fades? Alice and Amos Bell marry in 1925, when flappers and jazz prosper. Alice and her sister are ardent suffragists who live by their own rules, while their world overflows with parties, music, and dancing. But their struggle increases with the Depression years, followed by the World War II. Amos Bell does not deal with the stormy relationships with his children or his wife. As Alice’s health declines Amos’ infidelity dramas explode, with the German bombs dropping on Yorkshire being the least of their troubles.

München, 1923: Deutschland versinkt in den düsteren Tiefen der Wirtschaftskrise, und zwei Paare stehen an der Schwelle ihres Schicksals. Helga und Heinrich Goldmann kämpfen buchstäblich um ihr nacktes Überleben, während Edith und Julius Falkenstein zur Elite Deutschlands gehören. Als die schüchterne Edith Julius zum ersten Mal traf, war es Liebe auf den ersten Blick. Die Einheirat in die mächtige Falkenstein-Familie hat sie in die glitzernde Gesellschaft der oberen Zehntausend katapultiert. Doch ihre heile Welt gerät ins Wanken, als die Nazi-Partei immer mehr Macht und Einfluss gewinnt.

Werther in Westfalen, 1933: Josephine, die jüngste Tochter von Anton und Anna Leyen, hat die Liebe zu Süßigkeiten geerbt und arbeitet in der Zuckerwarenfabrik ihrer Familie. Als sie den jungen Manfred kennen lernt, verliebt sie sich Hals über Kopf. Durch eine Idee von Manfred kreiert Josephine ein neues Bonbon, das einzeln verpackt und immer gleich groß ist – die ersten Markenbonbons sind erfunden. Die beiden heiraten, aber ihre Liebe wird auf eine harte Probe gestellt, als die Nationalsozialisten an die Macht kommen und Manfred, der jüdischer Herkunft ist, Repressalien ausgesetzt ist.

Paris, 1921. Lorsque Valentine se marie avec l'héritier de la prestigieuse maison de fourreurs, la Maison Fontenoy, elle est loin de se douter de la vie qui l'attend. Malgré l’amour que lui porte son mari André et la naissance de ses deux enfants - Camille et Maxence -, Valentine s'enfonce dans un profond ennui et la frustration la gagne peu à peu. Lassée par ce quotidien et ce rôle d'épouse et de mère qui ne la comble pas, elle décide de partir pour assouvir ses aspirations.

In the charnel house that was Europe in the Second World War, there were few instances of shining moral courage, let alone secular sainthood. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian and Nazi resister, was the exception. This emblematic figure risked his life, and finally lost it, through his participation in a failed plot to assassinate Hitler and topple his regime.

Left homeless after the Exeter Blitz, May must find a job if she's to put a roof over her head and help support her two younger sisters. Taking a job as housekeeper to farmer George, May soon ends up getting stuck into more than just cleaning and cooking. The Ministry of Agriculture will close Fair Maids Farm if it doesn't meet their produce targets, but George refuses to heed their warnings. With only two reluctant Land Girls to help, May receives unexpected guidance from Dan, a neighbouring farmer, whose kindness gets tongues wagging in the village.

Nazi-occupied Holland, 1944. As soldiers patrol the streets, nursing student Ilse is only just surviving the terrible famine and increasingly violent German occupation. Though exhausted by her demanding work at a hospital far from home, she can’t help but notice Levi, a young man with dark eyes watching the world silently from the abandoned house next door. London, present day. When Anna’s father dies, he leaves her a ticket to Amsterdam, a bent silver sixpence on a delicate silver chain, and a note begging her to complete the journey he was never able to.

Bristol 1939. At forty years of age, Mary Anne Randall still turns heads. With an abusive husband spending most of his wages on beer, she has resigned herself to be the sole breadwinner to protect her family and keep the wolves from the door. In order to make ends meet, Mary Anne runs a pawnbroking business from the wash house at the end of the garden. Following the outbreak of war an opportunity presents itself to escape her loveless marriage and find true love. Will she take that chance, or carry on living just for her children and not for herself?

England, 1940: Clara is forced to flee her home as the Nazis invade the beautiful island of Guernsey, leaving her mother Julia behind. She's scared and alone, but her spirits lift a little when she learns she's headed for Blackpool. Her slight hopes are crushed however when she is housed with and at the mercy of a cruel shopkeeper, Miss Brandon. Clara is worked like a dog, but the warmth of some newly made Blackpool friendships will go far to save her. Separated from her beloved daughter, Julia heads to London to try and track Clara down but she is thwarted at every turn.

Summer, 1945. The nation rejoices as the Second World War comes to an end, but Banbury Street matriarch Eva Parke foresees trouble ahead. Her daughter, Mildred, awaits the return of her fiancé from overseas duty, and doubts begin to seep into her mind about how little she knows of the man she has promised to marry. Meanwhile new neighbour, dancer Cissie Cresswell, hides a terrible secret. Can the two young women unite to face the doubt and uncertainty of the future?