Historical Fiction Books

Book SynopsisA J Cronin was born in Cardross, Scotland, in 1896 and studied at the University of Glasgow. In 1916 he served as a surgeon sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteers Reserve, and at the war's end he completed his medical studies and practiced in South Wales. He was later appointed to the Ministry of Mines, studying the medical problems of the mining industry. He later moved to London and built up a successful practice in the West End. In 1931 he published his first book, Hatter's Castle, which was compared with the work of Dickens, Hardy and Balzac, winning him critical acclaim. Six years later he published The Citadel which brought attention to the incompetence of medical practice and helped incite the establishment of the NHS. Cronin died in 1931.Trade ReviewImmensely successful, utterly ruthless * The Spectator *A.J. Cronin was perhaps the most successful novelist of the 1930s … probably as significant a figure as J.B. Priestley * The English Historical Review *One of the most popular authors in the English speaking world * New York Times *

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Book Synopsis''The Nile, the white fountains of the Nile. . .''Her father''s last words haunt Harriet Latimer long after she has been rescued from the Nubian desert which they had been attempting to cross. Her rescuer, the insolent and devastatingly handsome Raoul Beauvais, is a French explorer and geographer with the same objective - to find the source of the Nile in Africa. Despite Harriet''s requests, Raoul swears that women have no place on his expedition, but he makes an exception for the beautiful Circassian Narinda. Can Harriet realise her father''s dream and make the journey that no European woman has attempted before?

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Book SynopsisWalter Macken was born in Galway in 1915. He was a writer of short stories, novels and plays. Originally an actor, principally with the Taibhdhearc in Galway, and The Abbey Theatre, he played lead roles on Broadway in M. J. Molloy's The King of Friday's Men and his own play Home Is the Hero. He also acted in films, notably in Arthur Dreifuss' adaptation of Brendan Behan's The Quare Fellow. He is perhaps best known for his trilogy of Irish historical novels Seek the Fair Land, The Silent People and The Scorching Wind. He passed away in 1967.Trade ReviewTold with pity and poetry and an impartiality almost unnatural in an Irishman writing of those seven desperate years. * Catholic Herald *The long tale of terror and bravery, the arrests, the burnings, the ambushes, the reprisals is told with the deftness of a professional storyteller. * Irish Press *

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Book SynopsisWalter Macken was born in Galway in 1915. He was a writer of short stories, novels and plays. Originally an actor, principally with the Taibhdhearc in Galway, and The Abbey Theatre, he played lead roles on Broadway in M. J. Molloy's The King of Friday's Men and his own play Home Is the Hero. He also acted in films, notably in Arthur Dreifuss' adaptation of Brendan Behan's The Quare Fellow. He is perhaps best known for his trilogy of Irish historical novels Seek the Fair Land, The Silent People and The Scorching Wind. He passed away in 1967.Trade ReviewAn explosive segment of history . . . contagious emotion . . . action-packed entertainment. * New York Herald Tribune *An adventure story that is both exciting and moving. * The Times *

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Book SynopsisLike his father before him, Donn is born to the now mythical role of the Lord of the Mountain, a remote community in rural Ireland, unmarked by the passage of time. But Donn longs for a wider kingdom. He deserts his bride, roams the world, fights in wars, is footloose - yet finds that he is homesick.Sixteen years later he returns to take up the threads of his old life, to learn to love his afflicted daughter, and to bring progress to the neglected green valley. Light comes, water flows, the land prospers. Then, on a night of innocent festivity, a monstrous crime is perpetrated.His kingdom violated, Donn dedicates himself to a terrible revenge that can only destroy the avenger as well as the hunted

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Book SynopsisWalter Macken was born in Galway in 1915. He was a writer of short stories, novels and plays. Originally an actor, principally with the Taibhdhearc in Galway, and The Abbey Theatre, he played lead roles on Broadway in M. J. Molloy's The King of Friday's Men and his own play Home Is the Hero. He also acted in films, notably in Arthur Dreifuss' adaptation of Brendan Behan's The Quare Fellow. He is perhaps best known for his trilogy of Irish historical novels Seek the Fair Land, The Silent People and The Scorching Wind. He passed away in 1967.Trade ReviewFull of dramatic and racy incident * Manchester Guardian *

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Book SynopsisThe second book in the acclaimed Irish trilogyTrade ReviewWritten with all the power of suppressed pity and rage. * Liverpool Daily Post *Walter Macken writes with passion . . a quite brilliant novel * Topic *

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Book SynopsisUntouched by the ravages of war and the politically volatile atmosphere, the Villa della Pace remains an island of European society in the tiny British Protectorate of Aderra. Its circle religiously maintain their rigid social calendar and allow nothing, save the death of King George VI, to interfere with their pleasures. But the flawless surface of their lives conceals a turmoil of deception and desire . . .Flo has just left school in England and is flying out to spend the summer with her mother Lydia, and step-father Harry, who, as head of the British Administration, must oversee the forthcoming handover to indigenous rule. Lydia is determined that this year Flo will have the summer of her life, just as she herself did years earlier in Nairobi. And believing she can relive her youth through unworldly Flo, Lydia devises a plan for her daughter''s social debut - even providing a man. But she little suspects the intensity of emotion behind Flo''s quiet façade, nor the irrevocable impact

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Book SynopsisThis is the story of Stephen O''Riordan, a true son of the wild and beautiful land of Connemara, of his hopes and ambitions, and of his passionate and stormy love for Kathleen, sister of his bitterest enemy . . .It is also the story of Ireland after twenty-five years of liberty, like Stephen new in its freedom and thought yet primitive in its emotions, its people witty, bawdy, boozy, hard-working, loud-voiced or gentle - but never dull . . .Trade ReviewWhere the writer knows and loves his country as Walter Macken does, there is warmth and life * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book Synopsis'To be your wife is, for me, to be as happy as I can be on earth' - Jane Eyre's acceptance of Edward Rochester's proposal, but the return to Thornfield proves too much for Jane to bear.

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