Whether your passion is The Ancient Greeks, The Wars of The Roses or The Russian Revolution, you'll find stories of life during these eras and every other, often using factual accounts to build a fictional narrative.
Historical Fiction Books
HarperCollins Publishers The Reverse of the Medal Book 11 AubreyMaturin
Book SynopsisOn dry land, having been drawn into the half-worlds of London's criminal underground and of government espionage, Jack Aubrey faces perhaps the greatest challenge of his life.With rumours of peace running rampant, Captain Jack Aubrey chances his luck on the stock exchange. However, when his plans go awry, Marshalsea prison awaits. Can Stephen Maturin rescue his friend from a politically motivated trial and the enormity of being stricken from the Navy Lists?When the world has turned its back against you, friendship is all.The most brilliant historical novelist of modern times.'MAX HASTINGS[Patrick O'Brian has] the power of bringing near to the reader . . . savagery and tenderness, beauty and mystery and boldness and dignity.'EUDORA WELTYTrade Review‘If O’Brian’s novels have become a cult, this is because they are truly addictive. . . They are, quite magnificently, adventure yarns whose superb authenticity never distracts from the sheer thrill of the action.’Caroline Moore, Sunday Telegraph ‘The Aubrey–Maturin novels, by Patrick O’Brian, are so addictive that after I finish one I have to hide the next from myself for a little while in order to do anything else but read.’Louise Erdrich ‘In Aubrey and Maturin, Patrick O’Brian has created two of the most enjoyable characters in twentieth-century fiction. Their relationship sustains an absorbing and thrilling sequence of naval stories, unrivalled in their complexity, full of impeccable detail and psychological insight. O’Brian switches from the intimate to the epic with equal assurance. One of the greatest authors to sail with.’Michael Palin ‘My hero is Patrick O’Brian. It’s basically impossible to write that well.’David Mamet ‘One of the most compelling and brilliant novelists of his time . . . Beyond his superbly elegant writing, wit and originality, Patrick O’Brian showed an understanding of the nature of a floating world at the mercy of the wind and the sea which has never been surpassed.’Max Hastings, Evening Standard ‘I devoured Patrick O’Brian’s twenty-volume masterpiece as if it had been so many tots of Jamaica grog.’Christopher Hitchens ‘Written with most engaging enthusiasm that can’t fail to give pleasure to anybody who enjoys historical adventure flavoured with more than a dash of realism.’The Sunday Times ‘One of the most brilliantly sustained pieces of historical fictional writing this century.’James Teacher, Spectator ‘Patrick O’Brian brings depth to his sea-stories with outstanding dialogue, characterisation, humour and a golden thread of romance. You don’t have to love books about naval battles to become entranced.’Katie Fforde
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Flashmans Lady Book 3 The Flashman Papers
Book SynopsisCoward, scoundrel, lover and cheat, but there is no better man to go into the jungle with. Join Flashman in his adventures as he survives fearful ordeals and outlandish perils across the four corners of the world.Flashman's at it again! Caught between two Chinese lovers, held captive by Borneo pirates and enslaved by a voluptuous Madagascan queen, Harry Flashman's doing better than ever.Trade Review'Flashman is a wonderful creation, by a master storyteller. We'll forever delight in his evil antics' JEFFREY ARCHER ‘Politically incorrect, lascivious and fiendishly handsome, Flashman is the greatest ’ BORIS JOHNSON ‘Flashman is one of the great characters of modern fiction; a rogue, a lover, and always an irresistible read’ BERNARD CORNWELL ‘Flashman, Sherlock Holmes, Toad of Toad Hall, Bertie Wooster. Any writer would give his eye-teeth to have created a character as good as those. GMF was one of the greats’ CONN IGGULDEN ‘The perfect fictional creation’ TONY PARSONS ‘A first-rate historical novelist’ KINGSLEY AMIS
£10.44
HarperCollins Publishers Emperor The Blood of Gods
Book SynopsisThe epic new novel in Conn Iggulden's bestselling EMPEROR series, featuring a new short story by the author.Julius Caesar has been assassinated. A nation is in mourning. Revenge will be bloody.Rome's great hero Julius Caesar has been brutally murdered by his most trusted allies. While these self-appointed Liberatores seek refuge in the senate, they have underestimated one man: Caesar's adopted son Octavian, a man whose name will echo through history as Augustus Caesar.Uniting with his great rival Mark Antony, Octavian will stop at nothing to seek retribution from the traitors and avenge his father's death. His greatest hatred is reserved for Brutus, Caesar's childhood friend and greatest ally, now leader of the conspirators.As the people take to the streets of Rome, the Liberatores must face their fate. Some flee the city; others will not escape mob justice. Not a single one will die a natural death. And the reckoning will come for Brutus on the sweeping battlefield at Philippi.Trade Review‘A clever and convincing narrative … the best book in the series’ SUNDAY TIMES ‘Iggulden brings his five volume series about Julius Caesar to a close with this clever and convincing narrative… with a compelling grasp of Roman realpolitik’ SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE Praise for the EMPEROR series: ‘If you liked Gladiator, you’ll love Emperor’ THE TIMES ‘A brilliant story – I wish I’d written it. A novel of vivid characters, stunning action and unrelenting pace. It really is a terrific read’Bernard Cornwell ‘The great events and breathtaking brutality of the times are brought lavishly to life’ GUARDIAN Praise for the CONQUEROR series: ‘Iggulden is in a class of his own when it comes to epic, historical fiction’ DAILY MIRROR ‘This is energetic, competent stuff; Iggulden knows his material and his audience’ INDEPENDENT ‘Iggulden…tells an absolutely cracking story…the pace is nail-biting and the set dressing magnificent’ THE TIMES ‘I felt as if a blockbuster movie was unfolding before me…read the book before Hollywood takes it over’ DAILY EXPRESS
£9.49
The Lilliput Press Ltd Charlotte
Book SynopsisMartina Devlin's enthralling new novel Charlotte weaves back and forth through Charlotte Brontë's life, reflecting on the myths built around her by those who knew her, those who thought they knew her, and those who longed to know her. Above all, this is a story of fiction: who creates it, who lives it, who owns it.
£15.19
HarperCollins Publishers Child of the Phoenix An atmospheric and
Book SynopsisBeautiful repackage of this Barbara Erskine classic, the story of a remarkable mediaeval noblewoman whose life shaped the history of three crownsThe child whose hands would hold three crowns is born in fire.In 1218 an extraordinary princess is born. Her mystical powers and unquenchable spirit will alter the course of history.Raised by her fiercely Welsh nurse to support the Celtic cause against the predatory English king, Princess Eleyne is taught to worship the old gods and to look into the future and the past. However, unable to identify time and place in her terrifying visions, she is powerless to avert forthcoming tragedyDespite impassioned resistance, Eleyne's world is shaped by powerful men but her tempestuous life and loves tie her to the destinies of England, Scotland and WalesReaders LOVE Barbara Erskine:Atmospheric' ?????Enthralling' ?????Spellbinding' ?????Another fabulous read from the mistress of the genre' ?????Immensely and deeply immersive fiction' ?????I loved every mTrade Review'Her forte is mood, atmosphere and the toe-curling frisson.' Sunday Times ‘Readers of Barbara Erskine are held in thrall’Woman’s Realm ‘Stephen King meeting Ruth Rendell’Frank Delaney 'Barbara Erskine's storytelling talent is undeniable' The Times
£14.39
HarperCollins Publishers Swift J GULLIVERS TRAVELS
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.''I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.''Shipwrecked on the high seas, Lemuel Gulliver finds himself washed up on the strange island of Lilliput, a land inhabited by quarrelsome miniature people. On his travels he continues to meet others who force him to reflect on human behaviour the giants of Brobdingnag, the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos. In this scathing satire on the politics and morals of the 18th Century, Swift''s condemnation of society and its institutions still resonates today.
£5.62
HarperCollins Publishers At the Edge of the Orchard
Book Synopsis''A wonderful book; rich, evocative, original. I loved it'' Joanne HarrisOne in ten trees comes up sweetIn the inhospitable Black Swamp of Ohio, the Goodenough family are barely scratching out a living. Life there is harsh, tempered only by the apples they grow for eating and for the cider that dulls their pain. Hot-headed Sadie and buttoned-up James are a poor match, and Robert and his sister Martha can only watch helplessly as their parents tear each other apart. One particularly vicious fight sends Robert out alone across America, far from his sister, to seek his fortune among the mighty redwoods and sequoias of Gold Rush California. But even across a continent, he can feel the pull of family loyaltiesTrade ReviewPraise for At the Edge of the Orchard: ‘Chevalier’s prose is by turns muscular, raw and sumptuous… a delight’ INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY ‘Chevalier has carved out a middle-point between writing literary fiction and its page-turning, commercial counterpart and this book will serve both those audiences’ INDEPENDENT ‘A rollicking yarn of 19-century America’ THE TIMES ‘A densely packed tale of fruit, roots, family and hardship’ FINANCIAL TIMES ‘A wonderful book; rich, evocative, original. I loved it’ Joanne Harris ‘A stunning read’ GOOD HOUSEKEEPING ‘A kind of arboreal love song … an absorbing depiction of the harshness of pioneer life and the impossibility of escaping familial ties’ MAIL ON SUNDAY ‘Dark, brutal, moving, powerful’ Jane Harris ‘Powerfully realised … [A] fine novel’ DAILY MAIL ‘It’s her best since Girl with a Pearl Earring, telling the story both of America and a pioneer family with acuity, freshness and zest. I was captivated by it’ Amanda Craig ‘Tracy Chevalier serves up a rollicking yarn of 19th-century America. What Deborah Moggach did for tulips, Chevalier may well do for apples’ THE TIMES ‘This novel of raw beauty touches themes Chevalier explored in her novel, The Last Runaway. It’s a richly rewarding read’ EXPRESS ‘With Chevalier’s excellent storytelling ability and gift for creating memorable characters, this novel paints a vivid picture of the hard and rough-hewn life of American pioneers on their Westward journey’ STARRED LIBRARY JOURNAL REVIEW ‘Wonderful descriptions of apple grafting and plant-hunting in a 19th century New World America. Chevalier weaves an enthralling, feverish narrative through a backdrop of exploratory horticulture’ TOAST
£9.49
Pan Macmillan The Forgotten Garden
Book SynopsisKate Morton was born in South Australia and grew up in the mountains of south-east Queensland. She has degrees in dramatic art and English literature, specializing in nineteenth-century tragedy and contemporary gothic novels. She is the author of The House at Riverton, The Forgotten Garden, The Distant Hours, The Secret Keeper, The Lake House, The Clockmaker's Daughter and Homecoming, which have all been global number one bestsellers.
£9.49
Cornerstone Midshipman Bolitho Richard Bolitho Midshipman
Book SynopsisAlexander Kent is the author of twenty-seven acclaimed books featuring Richard Bolitho. Under his own name, Douglas Reeman, and in the course of a career spanning forty-five years, he has written over thirty novels and two non-fiction books.Trade ReviewOne of our foremost writers of naval fiction...authentic, inspiring, well-characterised and, finally, moving * Sunday Times *
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Bring Up the Bodies
Book SynopsisNow a major TV seriesWinner of the Man Booker PrizeWinner of the Costa Book of the YearShortlisted for the Women's Prize for FictionSimply exceptionalI envy anyone who hasn't yet read it'Daily MailA gripping story of tumbling fury and terror'Independent on SundayBring Up the Bodies unlocks the darkly glittering court of Henry VIII, where Thomas Cromwell is now chief minister. With Henry captivated by plain Jane Seymour and rumours of Anne Boleyn's faithlessness whispered by all, Cromwell knows what he must do to secure his position. But the bloody theatre of the queen's final days will leave no one unscathed Heralded as the greatest English novels of this century, the Wolf Hall trilogy has won two Booker Prizes and been adapted into hugely successful stage plays. The first two books, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, were transformed into a BAFTA- and Golden Globe-winning BBC television series, starring Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis. The cast now returns in the long-awaited concluding series, Wolf Hall: The Mirror & the Light.
£10.44
Cornerstone Morgans Run
Book SynopsisFans of Victoria Hislop, Lucinda Riley and Fiona Valpy will absolutely love this captivating and beautifully atmospheric historical saga rich in romance, adventure and unforgettable characters from international bestselling author Colleen McCullough.''Fast-moving and immensely readable... Back to the open spaces, merciless climate and sheer pioneering stance of the magical THE THORN BIRDS, this book is a page turner from start to finish'' -- Maeve Binchy''A rich, compelling epic'' -- Daily Mail''Graphically created... [McCullough is] at her best when at the heart of a relationship'' -- Daily Express''A good yarn... based on rigorous, historical research'' -- Belfast Telegraph''Colleen McCullough is a great storyteller'' -- Sunday Mail''Spellbinding'' -- ***** Reader review''Beautifully written'' -- ***** Reader review''Absolutely loved this book could not put it down'' -- ***** Reader review*****************************************************************************It was one of the greatest human experiments ever undertaken: to populate an unknown land with the criminal, the unloved and the unwanted of English society.Amid conditions of brutality that paralleled those of slavery, ''The First Fleet'' was sent to a land no European but the legendary Captain Cook had ever seen.These convicts - and their equally isolated guards - were left to live or die on the hostile Australian continent.Richard Morgan - a convicted felon and educated, intelligent, resourceful man - finds the will to survive, experience the joys of love, and finally make an indelible mark upon the new frontier.His story is both inspirational and heartwarming and will stay with you long after you finish the last page...Trade ReviewA rich compelling epic * Daily Mail *A good yarn... based on rigorous historical research * Belfast Telegraph *
£12.34
Penguin Books Ltd Moon Tiger
Book SynopsisPenelope Lively''s Booker Prize winning classic, Moon Tiger is a haunting story of loss and desire, published here as a Penguin Essential for the first time.Claudia Hampton - beautiful, famous, independent, dying.But she remains defiant to the last, telling her nurses that she will write a ''history of the world . . . and in the process, my own''. And it is her story from a childhood just after the First World War through the Second and beyond. But Claudia''s life is entwined with others and she must allow those who knew her, loved her, the chance to speak, to put across their point of view. There is Gordon, brother and adversary; Jasper, her untrustworthy lover and father of Lisa, her cool conventional daughter; and then there is Tom, her one great love, found and lost in wartime Egypt.''Leaves its traces in the air long after you''ve put it away'' Anne Tyler''A complex tapestry of great subtlety. Lively writes so well, savouring the words as she goes'' Daily Telegraph''Very clever: evocative, thought-provoking and hangs on the mind long after it is finished'' Literary ReviewTrade ReviewLeaves its traces in the air long after you've put it away * Anne Tyler *A complex tapestry of great subtlety. Lively writes so well, savouring the words as she goes * Daily Telegraph *Very clever: evocative, thought-provoking and hangs on the mind long after it is finished * Literary Review *Lively's ability to bring her character and the world she inhabits into full technicolour is beautiful. This is a unique book about a fascinating unpredictable woman way ahead of her time and yet absolutely of her time * Lemn Sissay *One of Britain's most celebrated novelists. Moon Tiger's multiple, shifting viewpoints weaves an eloquent disquisition on memory, identity, age, love and regret * Financial Times *Atmospheric, inventive. Few books I've read recently have given me so much pleasure * Sam Jordison, Guardian *
£8.54
Pan Macmillan Harvest
Book SynopsisWinner of the 2015 International IMPAC Dublin Literary AwardWinner of the 2014 James Tait Black PrizeShortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker PrizeShortlisted for the 2013 Goldsmiths PrizeShortlisted for the 2014 Walter Scott Prize for Historical FictionAs late summer steals in and the final pearls of barley are gleaned, a village comes under threat. A trio of outsiders - two men and a dangerously magnetic woman - arrives on the woodland borders triggering a series of events that will see Walter Thirsk's village unmade in just seven days: the harvest blackened by smoke and fear, cruel punishment meted out to the innocent, and allegations of witchcraft.But something even darker is at the heart of Walter's story, and he will be the only man left to tell it . . .Trade Review'Unfolding in Crace's trademark rhythmic prose and brimming with unsentimental but intense feeling for the natural landscape, this lingering novel is as resonant as it is elusive.' Daily Mail‘Jim Crace is the most generous of writers. A fabulist, an open heart, an imagination in full flight. There is something of a harvest in every book: the promise, the violence, the fall, the regain. And Harvest is one of his best novels ever. He is, quite simply, one of the great writers of our time.’ Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin‘Harvest, his latest novel, dramatises one of the great under-told narratives of English history . . . Crace brings his signature combination of atmosphere and exactitude to every aspect of this far-off world . . . the prose is extraordinary: rich yet measured, estranged and familiar, both intimate and austere . . . Harvest can be read in mythical, even biblical terms, but the physical and emotional displacement of individuals and communities at its heart remains as politically resonant today as it was at the time.’ Guardian‘Crace’s prose - percussive, rhythmic, resonant - is unmistakable.’ Independent on Sunday ‘The rhythmic power of his prose, with its vivid physical imagery, brings his stories to life . . . Crace is brilliant at evoking atmosphere, mood and an all-persuasive sense of place . . . Harvest has been announced by Crace as his final novel. If so . . . it is majestic leavetaking, honed by an unforgettable narrative voice: resigned, bewildered, ultimately hopeful . . . Few novels as fine or as complex in their apparent simplicity will be published this, or indeed any, year.’ Irish Times‘Harvest is Jim Crace's most ambitious novel since Being Dead (1999) . . . Crace's stunning depiction of country life in all its hardship - less Tolstoy, more Hardy, but bleak-pastoral rather than idyllic-bucolic . . . Harvest is a mesmerising slow-burner of a novel, both a paean to a lost way of life and a timeless cautionary fable. . . . We gladly accompany Thirsk on his eventful seven-day journey of discovery, always aware of that one portentous word which slyly reappears as a leitmotif, signifying a better future beyond the village boundary, a word in which Jim Crace cleverly compounds his perennial twin concerns of place and time: hereafter.’ Literary Review'The best of his that I've read . . . Full of the most wonderful descriptions . . . Very readable and very scary . . . A tour de force' Gillian Slovo, Saturday Review on BBC Radio 4‘Crace evoked this musty, murky world, and the ambiguous persona of our protagonist within it, with wit and immediacy that bring it touchably close . . . The story that he constructs is involving and mysterious, stoked by vividly descriptive prose that’s never wastefully or showily verbose.’ Scotland on Sunday‘This very beautifully written novel gives pause for thought and unearths a quintessential England, never stereotyped, which is also deeply and humanly unique. And, until he writes an even better one, this, for me, is Crace’s most satisfying, and probably, best book.’ Scotsman‘Terrible, lyrical, beauty that is nothing like any other novel I have ever read . . . Crace achieves a cadence of speech which sounds and feels as if it is absolutely authentic.’ Spectator‘Harvest is as finely written as it is tautly structured. Pungently flavoured with archaic words (“reasty”, “turbary”, “yellow manchet bread”), its language is exhilaratingly exact, sometimes poetic and sometimes stark (slashed across the mouth with a pruning blade, someone is left “hardly moving, but…certainly alive. A dead man never made such noise”). Magnificently resurrecting a pivotal moment in our history about which it is deeply knowledgeable, this simultaneously elegiac and unillusioned novel is an achievement worthy to stand alongside those of Crace’s great fictional influence, William Golding.’ Sunday Times‘Jim Crace’s setting is closely imagined in a detailed, credible, tactile way that makes it seem real — while, of course, it is entirely imaginary. . . Crace’s entertaining story of ordinary farming folk, somewhere, somewhen, ploughs a deep furrow.’ The Times'Inimitably excellent, Jim Crace stands on his own ground among living English novelists . . . Crace is surely the nearest talent to William Golding that our literature can boast today. . . As for Crace's language, it would be otiose with this writer to note its blazing clarity of vision, its passionate microscopic observation and the untiring swing and spring of its rhythm. . . Crace's incandescent visit to a near-mythical Deep England results in a story both topical, and global. No recent English novel has deeper roots, yet casts so broad a shade.' Independent‘Beautifully written, alive with the author’s love of landscape and language, this is a book to savour.’ Choice Magazine‘This is a novel of beautiful writing and careful structure, in tune with the gentle harmonies of autumn and yet aware of how ruin is always around the corner. … Crace has a great gift for clarity, his prose precise and heartfelt, achieving a timeless, polished quality.’ Daily Telegraph‘Jim Crace, the son of a north London Co-op insurance agent, is a magician among British novelists … Harvest turns out to be a William Golding-like meditation of social change in a bucolic backwater and its sorry aftermath…. Crace’s 11th novel is a glory to read, as the intensely poetic prose is brought to a burnished pitch throughout.’ Evening Standard‘Jim Crace is a Titan of the modern English novel. From Continent and The Gift of Stones on to Quarantine and The Pesthouse, he has won a slew of prizes without ever losing his popular touch. Hailed as the natural heir to William Golding, he has just published his latest novel, Harvest, to universal acclaim … Beautifully detailed, the writing doubles as a paean to the natural world, as Crace precisely outlines a rural peasantry’s paradise lost.’ Irish Examiner‘The spirit of play in Crace’s work serves as the cover for a spirit of elegy. Starting from scratch- inventing cultures, fabricating epigraphs- better enables him to communicate his message, usually about transition and impermanence. His novels depict, in prose of sometimes overpowering richness, the encroachment of progress on a stone-age community, the Judean desert and a post-industrial city … The most seductive and enthralling of Crace’s novels, Harvest is also likely to be his last. Ending is its theme - or if not ending, then the destructiveness inherent in change.’ New Statesman‘Crace, a spellbinding writer, graceful in style and intense in his feeling for the natural word, deeply disturbs our polite, picturesque fantasies of pre-industrial rural life.’ Saga '[Harvest] allows Crace to indulge in his speciality: describing horrific acts of violence in ice-cool, ironic prose ... The book has the feel of a fable rather than an historical novel ... Crace’s greatest achievement is to convey the elemental pleasure of [the villagers'] lifestyle to readers.’ Sunday Express ‘Set just as common ground and strips of cultivation were being enclosed by landowners keen to reap much greater profits from sheep, it has a timeless quality that gives the central themes a continuing relevance, as immigration policy moves up the political agenda. This is achieved through a sparse structure and universal characters, but most of all through an extraordinarily metrical prose whose cadences echo across the centuries.’ Sunday Herald‘Masterly, elegiac novel about an 18th-century village under threat.’ Sunday Times Culture‘This is a novel with plenty of incident but little drama, creating its considerable power, instead, through Walter’s mesmerising narrative. At the end, it may not be too fanciful to conflate Walter and Crace, as the narrator steps out of bounds and says farewell to a way of life.’ Observer‘Each of his 11 finely crafted novels fashions a unique climate, landscape and mood, a far cry from everyday realism though nothing to do with soppy or silly fantasy ... The latest, set in an isolated English village at some unspecified point in the pre-industrial past, is no exception. The story of a single fateful week in the community’s history is told by Walter Thirsk, a middle-aged peasant ... a story that is both topical and global ... Crace’s writing has the mesmerising quality of a prose poem ... The beauty of the country is “vividly described”, but the human race is seen as “brutish, instinctively cruel and stupid”. In this brilliant novel, greed wins.’ Week‘The feel for landscape, and how man relates to it, is the crowning achievement of this fine novel. Crace’s precision of language, his mastery of his themes, the fullness of his imagination and his fastidiously well-made sentences offer abundant satisfactions.’ Times Literary Supplement For Christmas I hope for Harvest, the last novel of that fine and unsparing writer Jim Crace. -- Colin Thubron, Books of the Year * Observer *A spare, haunting book that offers a peasant's-eye view of a catastrophic week in an unnamed and remote feudal village. Interlopers arrive and the irruption marks the end of an age-old way of life. Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize, it is one to savour - Crace has said that this is his last novel. -- Books of the Year * Financial Times *There are three novels I've pressed most enthusiastically on people this year. Jim Crace's Booker-shortlisted Harvest, about land enclosure and dispossession, transports the reader into a past that feels more present than the world outside, yet also sheds an uneasy light on today. -- Best Fiction of 2013 * Guardian *Masterly in its firm grip on what need only be intimated and what stated cleanly. It was easily the best-written novel of the year. -- Philip Hensher, Books of the Year * Spectator *The most accomplished novelists can illuminate the present while making their chosen past live, move and talk. In Harvest, Jim Crace leaves the precise era unspecified as he writes, with all his near-hallucinatory skill, about an English village destroyed by the advent of agrubusiness. This intensely local story becomes, by the rhythmic majesty and fervour of its writing, a universal one. -- Boyd Tonkin, Books of the Year * Independent *A community is torn apart by the threat of enclosure, in this beautifully written book, an early front-runner for this year's Man Booker -- Best Books of 2013 * Sunday Times *Two novels this year stretched the bounds of historical fiction and were great page-turners too; Kate Atkinson's Life After Life and Jim Crace's Harvest . . . Crace's threnody to a dying rural culture has something of the same dreamlike power, a story with an almost brutally simple arc that is also lyrical and thought-provoking -- Books of the Year * Evening Standard *Harvest, apparently Jim Crace's farewell to novelism, has [an] elusive quality. Set in a remote farming community that goes to hell in a handcart with the advent of land enclosures, it aspires to the unsettling self-assurance of a William Golding novel without ever quite cashing the cheque that its attitude promises. -- Books of the Year * Daily Telegraph *
£999.99
HarperCollins Publishers The Book of Lost and Found Sweeping captivating
Book SynopsisSweeping, escapist and heartrending the perfect read for fans of Victoria Hislop and Kate Morton.LONDON, 1986: Bequeathed an old portrait by her grandmother, Kate Darling begins to unpick the tapestry of her family's secret history in a journey that takes her to Corsica, Paris and back to the heady days of the Roaring Twenties where it all began.PARIS, 1939: Alice Eversley and Thomas Stafford meet once again in the City of Light. Tom is now a world-famous artist, Alice is much-changed too bruised from the events of the last decade. Perhaps they can lose themselves in the love story that ignited by a moonlit lake all those years ago?But sometimes there's no place for happy endings and there's no hiding from the shadow of war . . .Trade ReviewPraise for The Book of Lost and Found: ‘A glamorous, seductively immersive read… [Foley] is a talent to watch’ Sunday Times ‘Wildly romantic and very enjoyable; a super debut’ Daily Mail ‘A fabulously engrossing epic read’ Woman & Home ‘This beautiful heartbreaking read will give you goosebumps’ Fabulous, Sun on Sunday ‘[A] striking debut’ Grazia ‘Tightly plotted with polished prose, this is very good indeed’ Sunday Mirror ‘Epic debut’ Independent ‘A rich, rolling, romantic story that sweeps across time and space’ Saga ‘It's a lovely world to inhabit – not only for the memorable characters and poignant romances, but thanks to an array of glorious settings that whisk you from wild Corsica to buzzing New York via wartime Paris. Perfect escapism.’ Kate Riordan, author of THE GIRL IN THE PHOTOGRAPH ‘Atmospheric, evocative, epic: a beautifully heart-wrenching story about talent, sacrifice and love' Julie Cohen, Richard & Judy selection for Dear Thing. ‘A classic sweeping love story . . . moving and engrossing’ Katherine Webb
£10.44
HarperCollins Publishers Clarissa Oakes
Book SynopsisWith factions on board, and multiple enemies to contend with, only the most careful navigation will save them.As he sails away from Port Jackson, Captain Jack Aubrey feels nothing but relief at leaving the penal colony and its inhabitants far behind. But, unknown to him, hidden among his crew is one Clarissa Oakes. With Britain at war on two fronts, with both America and France, Aubrey's orders are to make for the Sandwich Islands and intervene in the conflict there.How much trouble can one woman cause?One moment you laugh out loud at comedy rooted in character, and the next, storming adventure or danger grips you by the throat . . . good writing allied to must-read-on storytelling.'SHAUN USHER, Daily MailThank God for Patrick O'Brian. His genius illuminates the literature of the English language, and lightens the lives of those who read him.'KEVIN MYERS, Irish TimesTrade Review‘If O’Brian’s novels have become a cult, this is because they are truly addictive. . . They are, quite magnificently, adventure yarns whose superb authenticity never distracts from the sheer thrill of the action.’Caroline Moore, Sunday Telegraph ‘The Aubrey–Maturin novels, by Patrick O’Brian, are so addictive that after I finish one I have to hide the next from myself for a little while in order to do anything else but read.’Louise Erdrich ‘In Aubrey and Maturin, Patrick O’Brian has created two of the most enjoyable characters in twentieth-century fiction. Their relationship sustains an absorbing and thrilling sequence of naval stories, unrivalled in their complexity, full of impeccable detail and psychological insight. O’Brian switches from the intimate to the epic with equal assurance. One of the greatest authors to sail with.’Michael Palin ‘My hero is Patrick O’Brian. It’s basically impossible to write that well.’David Mamet ‘One of the most compelling and brilliant novelists of his time . . . Beyond his superbly elegant writing, wit and originality, Patrick O’Brian showed an understanding of the nature of a floating world at the mercy of the wind and the sea which has never been surpassed.’Max Hastings, Evening Standard ‘I devoured Patrick O’Brian’s twenty-volume masterpiece as if it had been so many tots of Jamaica grog.’Christopher Hitchens ‘Written with most engaging enthusiasm that can’t fail to give pleasure to anybody who enjoys historical adventure flavoured with more than a dash of realism.’The Sunday Times ‘One of the most brilliantly sustained pieces of historical fictional writing this century.’James Teacher, Spectator ‘Patrick O’Brian brings depth to his sea-stories with outstanding dialogue, characterisation, humour and a golden thread of romance. You don’t have to love books about naval battles to become entranced.’Katie Fforde
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers The Queens Fool
Book SynopsisPre-order BOLEYN TRAITOR now Philippa Gregory's landmark return to the Tudor court, coming Autumn 2025 A stunning novel set in the Tudor court, from the Sunday Times No.1 bestseller Philippa Gregory.I would have been a fool indeed to tell the truth in this court of liars1553. King Edward is on his deathbed, and the future of the Tudor dynasty swings perilously.Forced out of Spain by the Inquisition, Hannah Green arrives in a volatile kingdom. She is identified as a seer and sworn into the service of Robert Dudley, the son of King Edward's protector and a key player at court. Her task: to keep watch on Princess Mary, the forgotten heir.Mary's grip on the Crown is fragile. Elizabeth, Mary's half-sister, is ready to take England's throne. Caught in the rivalry between the daughters of Henry VIII, Hannah must navigate her way through a treacherous court if she is to survive.Trade ReviewPraise for Philppa Gregory: ‘Gregory's research is impeccable which makes her imaginative fiction all the more convincing’ Daily Mail ‘Gregory is great at conjuring a Tudor film-set of gorgeous gowns and golden-lattered dining. She invokes some swoonsome images…while the politics are personal enough to remain pertinent’ Daily Telegraph ‘Subtle and exciting’ Daily Express ‘Written from instinct, not out of calculation, and it shows’Peter Ackroyd, The Times ‘For sheer pace and percussive drama it will take a lot of beating’ Sunday Times
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Wolf Hall
Book SynopsisNow a major TV seriesWinner of the Man Booker PrizeShortlisted for the Women''s Prize for FictionShortlisted for the Costa Novel AwardDizzyingly, dazzlingly good'' Daily MailOur most brilliant English writer'GuardianIn this brilliant novel, Hilary Mantel brings the opulent, brutal world of the Tudors to bloody, glittering life. It is the backdrop to the rise and rise of Thomas Cromwell: lowborn boy, charmer, bully, master of deadly intrigue and, finally, most powerful of Henry VIII's courtiers, determined to bring England into a modern age.Heralded as the greatest English novels of this century, the Wolf Hall trilogy has won two Booker Prizes and been adapted into hugely successful stage plays. The first two books, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, were transformed into a BAFTA- and Golden Globe-winning BBC television series, starring Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis. The cast will return in the long-awaited concluding series, Wolf Hall: The Mirror & the Light.
£10.44
Random House USA Inc Outlander 4Copy Boxed Set
Book Synopsis
£35.96
Cornerstone Eagles in the Storm
Book SynopsisThe battle of the Teutoburg Forest in September AD 9 saw three Roman legions destroyed by German tribes in a masterful ambush. The defeat was a considerable setback for Rome, but such humiliations were never taken lying down. Twice in the following six years, an experienced general Germanicus and a huge army crossed the Rhine in search of revenge. One lost eagle standard was recovered and many tribes subjugated, but Arminius, the chieftain who had masterminded the Teutoburg massacre, remained at large. Burning for vengeance of his own, he continued to forge alliances among the tribes, his purpose to ambush the legions as before. At face value, Germanicus' overwhelming military superiority seemed to guarantee success, yet the forest-covered, bog-laden landscape and Arminius' guile and tenacity saw the struggle balanced on a knife edge. Eagles in the Storm is a work of fiction, but is peopled by historical characters and based on events in north-western GermaTrade ReviewBen Kane, a master of Roman military fiction…A suitable bloody end to a powerful trilogy -- Antonia Senior * The Times *Eagles in the Storm completes Ben Kane’s magnificent trilogy on the the Battle of Teutoburg… the definitive fictional account…it concludes perfectly…an extraordinary talent…This is brilliant storytelling from an author who is steeped in the history of the Romans * The Winter's Nights *Thrilling and steeped in historical and military detail, this is the conclusion of Ben Kane’s superb Eagles trilogy, which has been a triumph from start to finish * Sunday Express *Once again Ben Kane is a master storyteller, the historical detail is amazing * Frost Magazine *Eagles In The Storm is everything you could want from a historical tale * Culture Fly *Bloodthirsty, soaked in the sweat and tears of its time, this is a fine blend of history and action * Historical Novel Society *
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers The Valley of Fear Collins Classics
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every deviltry, the controlling brain of the underworld, a brain which might have made or marred the destiny of nations that''s the man!'Summoned to a mysterious manor house by one of the henchmen of his arch nemesis, Professor Moriarty, Holmes and Watson find themselves confronted by the scene of a brutal murder. But the brilliant Holmes soon reveals that there is much more to this case than first meets the eyeFirst published as a serialisation in The Strand Magazine between 1914 and 1915, this fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel will delight fans of Conan Doyle's legendary detective and his faithful sidekick Watson.Trade Review‘Holmes is a mesmerising creation and Conan Doyle a master storyteller’ The Times ‘The immense talent, passion and literary brilliance that Conan Doyle brought to his work gives him a unique place in English letters’ Stephen Fry
£5.62
HarperCollins Publishers The Revenant The bestselling book that inspired
Book SynopsisTHE BESTSELLING BOOK THAT INSPIRED THE AWARD-WINNING MOVIEWinner of 3 OSCARS including BEST DIRECTOR and BEST ACTORWinner of 5 BAFTAS including Best Actor, Best Director and Best FilmWinner of the 2016 Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture Drama, Best Actor Drama, and Best DirectorThe novel that inspired the epic new movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy.Hugh Glass isn't afraid to die. He's done it once already.Rocky Mountains, 1823The trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company live a brutal frontier life. Hugh Glass is one of the most respected men in the company, an experienced frontiersman and an expert tracker.But when a scouting mission puts Glass face-to-face with a grizzly bear, he is viciously mauled and not expected to survive. Two men from the company are ordered to remain with him until his inevitable death. But, fearing an imminent attack, they abandon Glass, stripping him of his prized rifle and hatchet.As Glass watches the men flee, he is driven to survive by oTrade Review‘A spellbinding tale of heroism and obsessive retribution’ Publishers Weekly ‘A superb revenge story’ Washington Post
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Hiding From the Light
Book SynopsisA gripping tale of witchcraft and romance, past and present, from the Sunday Times bestselling authorThe parish of Manningtree and Mistley has a dark history. In 1644, Cromwell''s Witchfinder General tortured scores of women there, including Liza the herbalist, whose cottage still stands. Some say the spirits of his victims still haunt the old shop on the High StreetEmma Dickson gave up her high-flying career to live in Liza's cottage, but as Halloween approaches, visions of a terrible past are driving her to madness. In despair, Emma turns to the local rector for help, but he, too, is in the grip of something inexplicably dangerousPerfect for fans of Christina Courtenay, Nicola Cornick and Elizabeth Chadwick!Readers LOVE Barbara Erskine:Atmospheric' ?????Enthralling' ?????Spellbinding' ?????Another fabulous read from the mistress of the genre' ?????Immensely and deeply immersive fiction' ?????I loved every minute' ?????An exceptional writer of great books' ?????You can rely on this auTrade ReviewPraise for Barbara Erskine The Warrior’s Princess: ‘An engrossing race against time’ Woman and Home ‘This is one of the most gripping page-turners I’ve read’ Sun Barbara’s many bestsellers: ‘Her forte is mood, atmosphere and the toe-curling frisson’ Elizabeth Buchan, Sunday Times
£10.44
HarperCollins Publishers The Prince and the Pauper
Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.When I am king, they shall not have bread and shelter only, but also teachings out of books; for a full belly is little worth where the mind is starved, and the heart.'Set in 16th-Century England and following the lives of two young boys, The Prince and the Pauper is a classic and timeless tale. Tom Canty, the lowly pauper is almost identical in appearance to Edward Tudor, a prince. Unbeknownst to those around them, the boys strike up an unlikely friendship and soon realise that with their similar looks they could easily pass for one another.When the Prince's father dies, some of the more underhand court officials persuade the pauper to act as the Prince in order to reap the benefits of the mistake' and there follows a tale of friendship and growing up in one of Mark Twain's most infamous works.
£5.62
Pan Macmillan New Horizons for the Woolworth Girls
Book SynopsisElaine Everest, author of bestselling novels The Woolworths Girls, The Butlins Girls, Christmas at Woolworths and The Teashop Girls, was born and brought up in north-west Kent, where many of her books are set. She has been a freelance writer for twenty-five years and has written widely for women's magazines and national newspapers, both short stories and features. Her non-fiction books for dog owners have been very popular and led to her broadcasting on the radio about our four-legged friends. Elaine has been heard discussing many topics on the airwaves, from canine subjects to living with a husband under her feet when redundancy looms.
£8.54
HarperCollins Publishers Rebel The Starbuck Chronicles Book 1
Book SynopsisThe first book in Bernard Cornwell's bestselling series on the American Civil War.It is summer 1861. The armies of North and South stand on the brink of America's civil war.Nathanial Starbuck, jilted by his girl and estranged from his family, arrives in the capital of the Confederate South, where he enlists in an elite regiment being raised by rich, eccentric Washington Faulconer.Pledged to the Faulconer Legion, Starbuck becomes a northern boy fighting for the southern cause. But nothing can prepare him for the shocking violence to follow in the war which broke America in two.Trade ReviewPraise for REBEL: ‘A sure-fire bestseller’ Financial Times ‘His series of Sharpe novels earned him almost every accolade possible from British newspapers. This is even better’ Daily Mail ‘What Cornwell really likes is battles . . . you will be duly rewarded with the smell of quality cordite rising from the pages’ Daily Telegraph
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers The Constant Princess
Book SynopsisA splendid and sumptuous historical novel from the internationally bestselling author, Philippa Gregory, telling of the early life of Katherine of Aragon.I was born a princess, destined to be queen, and I know my duty.1491. Henry VII's eldest son Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales, has been betrothed since childhood to the Spanish princess Katherine of Aragon. Their marriage will cement the alliance Henry Tudor craves to secure his country.But when Arthur's sudden death leaves an 11-year-old boy heir to the kingdom, Henry Tudor must choose whether to send Katherine back to Spain, or to marry her himself. Katherine has no son from her brief marriage to secure her future; her substantial dowry and his powerful contract are at stake.Henry has reckoned without the determination of a young woman set on fulfilling her own destiny to be a queen and the ambition of Prince Harry, the future Henry VIII.Trade Review‘One of Gregory's great strengths as a novelist is her ability to take familiar historical figures and flesh them into living breathing human beings. The Constant Princess is a worthy successor to her previous novels about the Tudors’ Daily Express ‘Gregory's research is impeccable which makes her imaginative fiction all the more convincing’ Daily Mail ‘Gregory is great at conjuring a Tudor film-set of gorgeous gowns and golden-lattered dining. She invokes some swoonsome images…while the politics are personal enough to remain pertinent’ DailyTelegraph
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HarperCollins Publishers Flashman at the Charge
Book SynopsisCoward, scoundrel, lover and cheat, but there is no better man to go into the jungle with. Join Flashman in his adventures as he survives fearful ordeals and outlandish perils across the four corners of the world.As the Light Brigade prepare to charge the Russian guns at Balaclava, Flashman assumes his characteristic battle position: sabre rattling, teeth chattering, bowels rumbling in terror and about to bolt.Trade Review'Flashman is a wonderful creation, by a master storyteller. We'll forever delight in his evil antics' JEFFREY ARCHER ‘Politically incorrect, lascivious and fiendishly handsome, Flashman is the greatest ’ BORIS JOHNSON ‘Flashman is one of the great characters of modern fiction; a rogue, a lover, and always an irresistible read’ BERNARD CORNWELL ‘Flashman, Sherlock Holmes, Toad of Toad Hall, Bertie Wooster. Any writer would give his eye-teeth to have created a character as good as those. GMF was one of the greats’ CONN IGGULDEN ‘The perfect fictional creation’ TONY PARSONS ‘A first-rate historical novelist’ KINGSLEY AMIS
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Count Belisarius
Book SynopsisThe sixth century was not a peaceful time for the Roman empire. Invaders threatened on all fronties, but they grew to respect and fear the name of Belisarius, the Emperor Justinian''s greatest general. With this book Robert Graves again demonstrates his command of a vast historical subject, creating a startling and vivid picture of a decadent era.
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Help
Book Synopsis***The phenomenal international bestseller that inspired the Oscar-nominated film***Enter a vanished and unjust world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raise white children, but aren''t trusted not to steal the silver . . .There''s Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son''s tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from College, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared.Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one would believe they''d be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in a search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell...''The other side of Gone with the Wind - and just as unputdownable'' The Sunday Times''A big, warm girlfriend of a book'' The Times''Harper Lee''s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird has changed lives. Its direct descendent The Help has the same potential . . . an astonishing feat of accomplishment'' Daily Express
£8.54
Allison & Busby The Powder of Death 2 The Moments of History
Book SynopsisThe Powder of Death tells the story of how gunpowder found its way to the west.
£7.19
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Ladies of Grace Adieu
Book SynopsisContains stories from the world of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and is illustrated by Charles Vess. This book includes the characters of a conceited Regency clergyman, an eighteenth-century Jewish doctor and Mary, Queen of Scots, as well as two characters from Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: Strange himself and the Raven King.Trade Review'An unholy alliance of Austen and Angela Carter' Daily Mail 'These tales read as if Jane Austen had rewritten the Brothers Grimm ... wonderful' Spectator 'Witty rejoinders and genteel manners to contrast nicely with the darker tones of hauntings, shape-changing and black magic ... Clarke is a natural storyteller' Sunday Telegraph 'It is the poise and lightness of Clarke's prose that draws the reader in' Daily Telegraph
£9.49
Headline Publishing Group Something Dangerous
Book SynopsisFrom the international bestselling novelist Penny Vincenzi comes SOMETHING DANGEROUS, the second novel in her highly acclaimed SPOILS OF TIME trilogy. ''Reading her is an addictive experience'' Elizabeth BuchanThe dazzling Lytton twins, Adele and Venetia, are born into the great Lytton publishing empire. In 1928, on their eighteenth birthday, they are rich and admired, with a confidence verging on arrogance. But the spectre of Nazi Germany is growing...Gradually their privileged world darkens in unimaginable ways - but it is not just the twins whose lives have been irrevocably changed. Barty Miller, rescued from the London slums in babyhood by Celia Lytton, is clever, ambitious, and a complete contrast to the twins - and she faces temptation of the most unexpected kind...Trade ReviewPenny Vincenzi dazzlingly combines the old-fashioned virtues of gripping storytelling with the up-to-the-minute contemporary feel for emotional depth and insight into the lives of the characters. She is a supreme stylist and clever writer. -- Elizabeth BuchanHighly addictive * Daily Telegraph *Every Penny Vincenzi is a guaranteed bestseller * Grazia *Seductively readable * The Times *
£10.44
HarperCollins Publishers The Ashes of London The first book in the
Book SynopsisThe first book in the No. 1 Times bestselling seriesThis is terrific stuff' Daily TelegraphA breathtakingly ambitious picture of an era' Financial TimesA masterclass in how to weave a well-researched history into a complex plot' The TimesOver 1 Million Andrew Taylor Novels Sold!A CITY IN FLAMESLondon, 1666. As the Great Fire consumes everything in its path, the body of a man is found in the ruins of St Paul's Cathedral stabbed in the neck, thumbs tied behind his back.A WOMAN ON THE RUNThe son of a traitor, James Marwood is forced to hunt the killer through the city's devastated streets. There he encounters a determined young woman, who will stop at nothing to secure her freedom.A KILLER SEEKING REVENGEWhen a second murder victim is discovered in the Fleet Ditch, Marwood is drawn into the political and religious intrigue of Westminster and across the path of a killer with nothing to loseTrade Review‘Ashes of London is terrific’ Sarah Hilary ‘The Ashes of London presents a breathtakingly ambitious picture of an era … the multiple narrative strands are drawn together in a brilliantly orchestrated finale’ Financial Times ‘In this elegant, engrossing novel set during an extraordinary period, Taylor skilfully presents a London in which so many must still pay the price for the Civil War and the murder of King Charles I’ Sunday Express ‘One of the most reliably enjoyable of historical novelists … Taylor demonstrates his usual command of plot and historical background’ The Sunday Times 'A complex weave of history and mystery and the first of a new series from Andrew Taylor' The i ‘The author conveys the confusion and uncertainty of the times in a pacy story of Charles II’s desire for vengeance, the struggle to rebuild a stricken city and the hunt for a murderer’ Daily Mail ‘This is terrific stuff: intelligent, engrossing and, in its evocation of a long-vanished London, wonderfully plausible.’ Toby Clements, Daily Telegraph 'The Ashes of London weaves a pacy story from the framework of true events. A new Shardlake may rise from the ashes' The Times ‘Andrew Taylor provides a masterclass in how to weave a well-researched history into a complex plot.’ The Times, Books of the Year ‘Thrilling… Gripping, fast-moving and credible… It’s a well-constructed political thriller with moments of horror, admirable and enjoyable. Taylor has done his research so thoroughly as to be unobtrusive’ Spectator ‘Finely wrought and solidly researched… The novel’s plot is fiendishly complex’ Sunday Telegraph
£9.49
Headline Publishing Group The Legion Eagles of the Empire 10
Book SynopsisIF YOU DON''T KNOW SIMON SCARROW, YOU DON''T KNOW ROME!THE LEGION is the action-packed tenth novel in Simon Scarrow''s bestselling Eagles of the Empire series. Perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden.''Scarrow''s [novels] rank with the best'' IndependentEgypt, AD 49. Cato, one of the youngest Prefects of the Roman army, and Centurion Macro have a tough posting: to track down and destroy a gang of former gladiators who have turned to piracy. Driven by vengeance, these hardened brutes have been defiling temples, sinking Roman ships, and slaughtering men, women and children.What''s worse is that they are doing it all under the name of Macro and Cato, in an attempt to stir up a rebellion against the occupying forces. And it''s working. If Macro and Cato don''t stop the pirates in time, it could be the beginning of the end for the Roman Empire...Trade ReviewPraise for Simon Scarrow: 'I really don't need this kind of competition... It's a great read' -- Bernard CornwellGripping... ferocious and compelling, it is a story of blood, romance and sacrifice * Daily Express *A new book in Simon Scarrow's series about the Roman army is always a joy * The Times *Rollicking good fun * Mail on Sunday *A satisfyingly bloodthirsty, bawdy romp...perfect for Bernard Cornwell addicts who will relish its historical detail and fast-paced action. Storming stuff * Good Book Guide *Scarrow's [novels] rank with the best * Independent *[Simon Scarrow] blends together historical facts and characters to create a book that simply cannot be put down... Highly recommended * Historical Novels Review *
£10.44
Little, Brown Book Group Secrets of a Summer Night The Wallflowers
Book SynopsisFrom the New York Times bestselling author Lisa Kleypas comes Secrets of a Summer Night, the first title in the beloved romance series The Wallflowers - perfect for fans of Sarah MacLean, Julia Quinn and Eloisa James. ''Kleypas can make you laugh and cry - on the same page'' Julia Quinn, Sunday Times bestselling author of the Bridgerton series The Wallflowers: four young ladies at the side of the ballroom make a pact to help each other find husbands . . . no matter what it takesProud and beautiful Annabelle Peyton could have her pick of suitors - if only she had a dowry. Her family is on the brink of disaster, and the only way Annabelle can save them is to marry a very wealthy man. Unfortunately, her most persistent admirer is the brash Simon Hunt, a handsome and ambitious entrepreneur who wants her as his mistress.Annabelle is determined to resist Simon''s wicked propositions, but
£9.49
Harper Collins Publ. USA Last Twilight in Paris Itpe
Book Synopsis
£15.82
Banshee Press Penelope Unbound
Book Synopsis'A dazzling portrait of Norah Barnacle' Lisa Harding
£10.44
Transworld Publishers Ltd Boudica Dreaming The Eagle
Book SynopsisIn AD 60, Boudica, war leader of the Eceni, led her people in a final bloody revolt against the occupying armies of Rome. It was the culmination of nearly twenty years of resistance against an occupying force that sought to crush a vibrant, complex civilization and replace it with the laws, taxes and slavery of the Roman Empire. Gloriously imagined, Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle recreates the beginnings of a story so powerful its impact has survived through the ages, recounting the journey to adulthood of Breaca, who at twelve kills her first warrior, and her sensitive, skilful half-brother Bán, who carries with him a vision of the future that haunts his waking hours. In the company of a supreme storyteller, the reader is plunged into the unforgettable world of tribal Britain in the years before the Romans came: a twilight world of Dreamers and the magic of the gods; a world where horses and dogs and the landscape itself become characters in their own right; where warriTrade ReviewManda Scott has created a fictional universe all her own, but close enough to our reality for it both to warm and break our hearts. Breathtakingly good, it reveals the best and worst in all of us -- Val McDermidThe best in the current crop of novels about Rome, its empire and its victims ... never sentimental and always tough-minded -- Roz Kaveney * Independent *Every so often, a book comes along that totally remoulds a historical figure for our own times ... massively impressive -- Jane Jakeman * Scotland on Sunday *A powerful novel, alive with the love, deceit, wisdom and the heroics of humanity -- Jean M. AuelAn extraordinary work ... exciting and intriguing, taking you into a world where unbelievable danger and cruelty sit side by side with magic, spirituality and profound human relationships -- Jenni Murray
£11.69
Cornerstone Spartacus: Rebellion: (Spartacus 2)
Book SynopsisThe mighty slave army, led by Spartacus, has crushed all before it, scattering the legions of Rome. Now invincible, he marches towards the Alps and freedom.But storm clouds are growing on the horizon. Crassus, the richest man in Rome, has raised an army to rival Spartacus, and there are murmurings of rebellion in Spartacus’ own army.Spartacus, on the brink of glory, must make a crucial decision - to go forward over the Alps to freedom, or back to face the might of Rome and try to break its power forever.'Compulsive, relentless ... vividly recounted in muscular prose' Daily Telegraph'A brutal, blood-spattered novel' BBC History MagazineTrade ReviewBen Kane’s superb Spartacus ‘mini series’ takes historical Roman novel writing to heady new heights in the final, pulsating instalment of the slave rebellion that shook the mighty Roman empire... [a] bold and brutal trip to the heat and heart of an ancient legend... tough, uncompromising prose, allied to a refreshingly human and humane portrayal of the principal protagonists... an epic story conveyed with power, passion, gut-wrenching realism and enough emotion to fill the long and gruesomely historic Appian Way from Rome to Capua... Kane approaches the legendary warrior with a fresh eye, a raw and convincing realism... * Press Association *
£10.44
Pan Macmillan To Die in Spring
Book SynopsisWinner of the HWA Sharpe Gold Crown for Best Historical Novel.An international bestseller, To Die in Spring is a beautiful and devastating novel of a friendship tragically interrupted by war, by German author Ralf Rothmann.Walter Urban and Friedrich 'Fiete' Caroli work side by side as hands on a dairy farm in northern Germany. By 1945, it seems the War's worst atrocities are over. When they are forced to 'volunteer' for the SS, they find themselves embroiled in a conflict which is drawing to a desperate, bloody close. Walter is put to work as a driver for a supply unit of the Waffen-SS, while Fiete is sent to the front. When the senseless bloodshed leads Fiete to desert, only to be captured and sentenced to death, the friends are reunited under catastrophic circumstances.In a few days the war will be over, millions of innocents will be dead, and the survivors must find a way to live with its legacy.'To Die in Spring holds its own against Günter Grass and Erich Maria Remarque; it is an excellent work, and one deserving of its wide readership' – GuardianTrade ReviewTo Die in Spring holds its own against Günter Grass and Erich Maria Remarque; it is an excellent work, and one deserving of its wide readership. -- Rachel Seiffert * Guardian *A Bosch-like vision of hell... The horror of war and the deep damage it does to people... is not always handled as well, or as powerfully, as this. * Sunday Times *A wonderful, precise, very moving novel. -- Roddy DoyleA remarkable and memorable book, about the nastiness, fear, dirt and brutality of war . . . Few novels, in any language, have conveyed them better. -- Caroline Moorehead * Times Literary Supplement *Yes, you’ve already read Remarque, but you should read this one because it’s not just the story of wartime trauma, but also the story of how that trauma affects the future. Walter Urban and his friend Friedrich Caroli are just 17 years old when they’re drafted from their dairy-farm duties into the trenches. Today, right now, we all need to read the chilling section in which very young men are hectored into military service. * LitHub *Rothmann's work [is] one of the most substantial of contemporary German literature. * Tagesspiegel *In this masterpiece, Ralf Rothmann manages the seemingly impossible. He describes the guilt of their fathers' generation from the viewpoint of the post-War generation without betraying it to a moralising know-it-all attitude. * Badische Zeitung *In contemporary German literature, there is nothing that can be compared to this book. * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung *Searing, haunting, incandescent: Rothmann’s new novel is a vital addition to the trove of wartime fiction. * Kirkus (starred review) *A sublime novel of damaged lives - and of fathers and sons. * Der Spiegel *With his powerful poetics, Ralf Rothmann belongs to the most important German authors, and as a narrator, he is possibly the most sensitive of his generation. He visualises thoughts, gestures and noises masterfully. * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung *As a critic, one should use superlatives cautiously, but this novel is a sensation, a literary and political event. Rothmann's scenes and imagery are so impressive that readers experience the sensation of standing on the battlefield themselves. The author always finds the appropriate words for the horror, for this life damaged by war . . . Rothmann poses the question of guilt, without moralising . . . Apart from the prizes that this powerful and smart novel will receive, one wishes the text one thing first and foremost: many readers. From all generations, in Germany and abroad, because in belligerent times like these, the sad story of Walter and Friedrich is a strong, timeless beacon against war. * SWR *He imagines the characters, landscapes, dialogues with hallucinatory precision, doesn't spare the reader any detail of the brutality . . . [He] lets objects - a footstool, a coat, the hem of a dress - speak. * Süddeutsche Zeitung *One can justifiably say that To Die in Spring heralds the post-Grass era with force. * Die ZEIT *Rothmann tells a story which, without resorting to a hyper-realistic description of catastrophe, narrates the destruction of human beings who seek to remain untouched by evil, who strive with very different intensities to preserve the traces of their humanity . . . Moving, with exquisite prose, suffused with a sense of poetry, in the face of human and collective desolation. * Diario Vasco *To Die in Spring by Ralf Rothmann, is the best novel about the end of the Second World War in years, and a beautiful anti-war tale of universal importance . . . With its lyrical realism, the text reaches new heights. Not a word is out of place. * El País *The war is almost over, the Russians are getting nearer and two young men join the SS. A bad career move, but To Die in Spring is a wonderful, precise, very moving novel by German author Ralf Rothmann. -- Roddy Doyle * Guardian *In To Die in Spring Ralf Rothmann finds a way to describe German suffering without succumbing to self-pity or overlooking guilt. An extraordinary novel. * La Nueva España *Brilliant . . . Spare and elegant, [To Die in Spring] paints a quietly harrowing picture of the lasting effects of human violence . . . Directly confronting issues of responsibility, accountability, and legacy, this is an undeniably powerful work. * Publishers' Weekly (starred review) *
£8.54
Birlinn General Witch Wood: Authorised Edition
Book SynopsisDavid Sempill is being torn apart. Young and idealistic, his loyalty to his King conflicts with his Covenanting sympathies, which are, in turn, tested by the brutality he witnesses towards Montrose's beaten army. When black magic is uncovered in the ancient Witch Wood, as a man of God he must fight it, but his love for the beautiful, pagan Katrine and the religious extremism of the time puts him at the centre of a deadly spiral. Buchan's favourite novel - and an inspiration for the young C.S. Lewis - is a terrifying portrait of a cruel and intolerant age. With an introduction by Allan Massie. This edition is authorised by the John Buchan Society.Trade Review'One of Scotland's most enduringly popular writers' * The Scotsman *'Buchan knew that you can't buck the consequences of your actions, and that your life is what you make of it. Perhaps his peculiarly Scottish combination of Romanticism and Calvinism - daring living and high thinking - is due to return to fashion' * The Independent Magazine *
£9.99
Baker Publishing Group Wings of the Wind
Book SynopsisAfter her Canaanite family is killed by the Hebrews, Alanah disguises herself as a warrior and enters the battle to avenge her loved ones. She never intended to survive. When Tobiah, a Hebrew warrior, finds her unconscious among the dead, he faces an impossible dilemma: The only way to protect this wounded woman--the enemy of his people--is to marry her.
£11.39
Little, Brown Book Group Mary Toft or The Rabbit Queen
Book Synopsis''Palmer spins a cracking tale that, despite its disconcerting subject, is piquantly cheerful and compassionate . . . With empathy and imagination, Palmer explores the master/apprentice relationship, first love and first rivalry, spite and kindness: conjuring a world to raise a wry smile'' New York Times---------------------------------------------------------------------------------A stunning, powerfully evocative new novel based on a true story - in 1726 in the small town of Godalming, England, a young woman confounds the medical community by giving birth to dead rabbits.Surgeon John Howard is a rational man. His apprentice Zachary knows John is reluctant to believe anything that purports to exist outside the realm of logic. But even John cannot explain how or why Mary Toft, the wife of a local farmer, manages to give birth to a dead rabbit. When this singular event becomes a regular occurrence, John realizes that nothing Trade ReviewWonderful! The kind of novel that you want to read and then discuss with other readers. But then Dexter Palmer is a writer like Hilary Mantel or Kate Atkinson, able to move between genres and time periods, by virtue of the almost supernatural sympathy he is able to invoke for his characters and the sense of the worlds they inhabit. * Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble *The Rabbit Queen is provoking in ways that reach well beyond the premise, anticipating as it does our own 'world of ash,' with all its spectacle, factionalism, and noise. It is vividly composed and audaciously imagined, filled with characters who do battle against a world that perceives them as strange - or who, conversely, assume strangeness as a mask in order to induce the world to see them at all. It is yet another wonder in Dexter Palmer's cabinet of wonders * Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Brief History of the Dead *Like the historical fiction of Hillary Mantel or Caryl Phillips, Palmer does not shy away from the depravity of the past, particularly the violent desires of London's elite. Expertly utilizing an actual bizarre historical event to explore faith, reason, and the foundations of our current economic system, this exhaustively researched and dexterously constructed novel is another triumph to add to Palmer's incredibly diverse corpus of works * Booklist review (starred) *Deft, droll, and provocatively philosophical . . . A novel that attempts to illuminate 'the slippery nature of truth,' when everything from God to reality is up for grabs * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *Palmer brilliantly fictionalizes the true story of Mary Toft . . . [He] evocatively captures the period . . . But more impressive are the novel's inquiries into the human concerns of wonder, denial, and belief. . . Palmer skillfully and rewardingly delves into the humanity at the heart of this true historical oddity * Publishers Weekly *
£8.54
Atlantic Books A Burning Sea
Book Synopsis'Superb. A Burning Sea is a vivid, enthralling read, yet again proving that Theodore Brun is a force to be reckoned with.' Giles KristianDoomed to wander. Destined for glory.Convinced he is cursed, Erlan Aurvandil has turned his back on his native Northern lands. In search of freedom, he embarks on a perilous trip to Byzantium, the greatest city in the world. But as his voyage ends, Erlan is brutally betrayed and sold into slavery to a powerful Byzantine general.Meanwhile, Lilla Sviggarsdottír, Queen of Svealand, has lost her husband - and with him her kingdom. Fleeing for her life, Lilla journeys east on a new quest: to find Erlan and raise an army mighty enough to defeat her usurper.But, on reaching Byzantium, Lilla discovers a dark tide is rising against the Emperor, both outside the city walls and within his own court. As the whispers of war grow ever louder, both her and Erlan's fate become entwined with that of the city. Are they doomed to fall, or can freedom be won in the fierce heat of battle?Trade ReviewSuperb. A Burning Sea is another vivid, enthralling read, yet again proving that Theodore Brun is a force to be reckoned with in both historical fiction and historical fantasy. * Giles Kristian *Brilliant. Theodore Brun might just be historical fiction's next big thing. * Adam Lofthouse *Gripping. Gut-wrenching. Visceral. Highly recommended * Eric Schumacher *Brun's writing is filled with nuance and humanity, jeopardy and violence. This is epic historical adventure at its very best. * Matthew Harffy *Engages you from the first page, throws you into the plot, and thrills and exhausts at the same time. Very highly recommended. * Robin Carter, Parmenion Books *A masterly debut. ... If Bernard Cornwell and George RR Martin had a lovechild, it would look like A Mighty Dawn. I devoured it late into the night, and eagerly await the sequel. * Antonia Senior on A Mighty Dawn *Evocative prose and the brutality of the Viking world, it's all here, woven with a deft touch into a tremendous tale. * Giles Kristian on A Mighty Dawn *
£8.99
Pan Macmillan Bella Poldark
Book SynopsisBella Poldark is the twelfth and final novel in Winston Graham's hugely popular Poldark series, which has become a television phenomenon starring Aidan Turner.Cornwall 1818. We continue the tale of Ross and Demelza; of the wayward Valentine Warleggan, whose existence keeps open the old wounds of the feud between Ross and George; of Bella, the Poldarks' youngest daughter, whose precocious talent as a singer is encouraged by her old flame, Christopher Havergal, and by a distinguished French conductor, who has more in mind than Bella's music; of Clowance, the Poldarks' widowed daughter, who considers remarriage to one of two rival suitors; and of a murderer who stalks the villages of west Cornwall.
£9.49
Oxford University Press The Italian
Book Synopsis''Among his associates no one loved him, many disliked him, and more feared him.'' Father Schedoni is enlisted by the imperious Marchesa di Vivaldi to prevent her son from marrying the beautiful Ellena. Schedoni has no scruples in kidnapping Ellena and in undertaking whatever villainy will further his own ends. His menacing presence dominates a gripping tale of love and betrayal, abduction and assassination, and incarceration in the dreadful dungeons of the Inquisition. Uncertainty and doubt lie everywhere, in Radcliffe''s last and most unnerving novel. Ann Radcliffe defined the ''terror'' genre of writing and helped to establish the Gothic novel, thrilling readers with her mysterious plots and eerie effects. In The Italian she rejects the rational certainties of the Enlightenment for a more ambiguous and unsettling account of what it is to be an individual - particularly a woman - in a culture haunted by history and dominated by institutional power. This new edition includes RadcliffeTable of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography Chronology The Italian Explanatory Notes
£8.99
Cornerstone Spartacus The Gladiator
Book SynopsisBen Kane was born in Kenya and raised there and in Ireland. He studied veterinary medicine and University College, Dublin, but after that he travelled the world extensively, indulging in his passion for ancient history. He lives in North Somerset with his wife and two young children.Trade ReviewGritty, passionate and violent, this thrilling book is a real page-turner and a damn good read. It brings Spartacus - and ancient Rome - to vivid, colourful life * Steven Pressfield, bestselling author of Gates of Fire *Ben Kane manages to bring a freshness to the saga ... Told with Kane's usual panache and historical knowledge, this book is highly recommended * Kathy Stevenson Daily Mail *Eyes are merciless, blows are wicked and screams are piercing, but this is a compulsive if relentless story, vividly recounted in muscular prose. Definitely one for the boys * Daily Telegraph, 4 stars *Like many choosing to read a book like this, I was seeking an active and exciting plot, and in this respect, Spartacus: The Gladiator delivers handily * Medieval Bookworm *If you want to become familiar with the lanista and the rudus, to know your scutum from your licium, then Kane's your man ... plenty of action * Independent *
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers The Queen's Choice
Book SynopsisA Sunday Times Bestseller England’s Forgotten Queens ‘O’Brien cleverly intertwines the personal and political in this enjoyable, gripping tale.’-The Times Her children or her crown France, 1399: The Duke of Brittany is dead and his widow, Joanna of Navarre, has inherited control of their land – a testament to her intellect, integrity and political prowess. Then comes an unprecedented proposal from Henry IV, King of England. The price of becoming his Queen? Abandoning her homeland, leaving her children and sacrificing her independence. Henry's hold on the crown is unsteady and war is brewing. With the constant threat of rebellion, Henry will trust no-one – not even his new Queen. Crossing the channel is a dangerous prospect. But the union between Joanna and Henry would bring the chance of a vital alliance between two proud states – if they will allow it. One question. Two paths. A choice that will make history. Praise for The Queen’s Choice ‘A gem of a subject … O’Brien is a terrific storyteller’- Daily Telegraph ‘Joanna of Navarre is the feisty heroine in Anne O’Brien’s fast-paced historical novel The Queen’s Choice.’-Good Housekeeping ‘A gripping story of love, heartache and political intrigue.’-Woman & Home ‘Packed with drama, danger, romance and history.’-Pam Norfolk, for the Press Association ‘A gripping historical drama.’-Bella www.anneobrien.co.uk@anne_obrienTrade ReviewPraise for Anne O’Brien ‘Joanna of Navarre is the feisty heroine in Anne O’Brien’s fast-paced historical novel The Queen’s Choice.’-Good Housekeeping ‘O’Brien is a terrific storyteller’- Daily Telegraph ‘A gripping story of love, heartache and political intrigue.’-Woman & Home ‘Packed with drama, danger, romance and history, The Queen’s Choice is the perfect reading choice for the long winter nights.’- The Press Association ‘A gripping historical drama.’- Bella
£999.99
