Showing titles in 20th Century

For Rose Lucas, a spirited, intelligent girl born into a large family in the slums of pre-war Birmingham, life is hard. But through her friendship with Diana, daughter of a vicar from middle-class Moseley, she learns to aspire to a different and better existence. But life seldom follows dreams, and after losing a love she has fought hard for, and after travelling in Italy, she returns to Birmingham with her hopes shattered. But Rose's powerful spirit will not be defeated.

Venice, 1943: The world is at war, and Stella Jilani is leading a double life. By day, she works in the lion’s den as a typist for the Reich; by night, she risks her life as a messenger for the Italian resistance. Against all odds, Stella must impart Nazi secrets, smuggle essential supplies and produce an underground newspaper on her beloved typewriter. But when German commander General Breugal becomes suspicious, it seems he will stop at nothing to find the mole and Stella knows her future could be in jeopardy.

Leeds, 1918. When Amy visits her husband, Jude, at Beckett's Park Hospital, he doesn't recognise her. Broken after serving four devastating years in the First World War, Jude is a shadow of the man he once was. Can he ever again be the man Amy knew and loved? Barnsborough, 1912. The first time Jude and Amy meet, the connection between them is instant and electric. While a librarian's assistant and a collier might not be the most conventional pair, the two come together over a love of books that quickly turns into more.

Present day For the last twenty years, Summer has lived a solitary life, focusing on her career as a vet and trying not to think of the past. Every year she escapes for a few weeks to beautiful Greek islands, losing herself in photography and wreck diving. When the junk room of her clifftop...

As the world teeters on the brink of WWII, Eliza Lavery is alone in the world after her fiancé, Davey, was lost in the Irish Civil War. But a chance meeting on the wild beauty of Ballmastocker Bay could change everything. Eight decades later, troubled by her future, Saoirse O’Donnell walks on the pink sands of Bermuda’s Horseshoe Bay. When she uncovers a connection to Eliza, all those years before, she hears a story that promises to influence her own heart and her own choice – but also to reveal a long-buried secret.

Heartbreak and family loyalty collide in Rita Bradshaw's number one bestselling Dancing in the Moonlight, read by actress Anne Dover. As her mother lies dying, twelve-year-old Lucy Fallow promises to look after her younger siblings and keep house for her father and two older brothers. Over the...

Brought to you by Penguin. A producer. A novelist. An actress. It is summer in 1968, the year of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. There are riots in Paris and the Vietnam War is out of control. While the world is reeling our three characters are involved in making a...

Dottie Perks has forged a new life for herself in London, with a new job and a loving boyfriend. She's safe, happy and loved. What more could she ask for? But when Dottie visits her home in Brighton, the last person she expects to see is her first love, Ralph Bennett. As old feelings come rushing to the surface, Dottie struggles to deny the strong chemistry between them. She can't throw away everything to be with Ralph...can she?

April, 1945. As the Americans storm the Buchenwald concentration camp, among the survivors are Jakob and Emmanuelle, barely more than teenagers. Each of them has lost everything and everyone in the unspeakable horrors of the war. But when they meet, they find hope and comfort in each other. They marry and build a happy, prosperous life for themselves and their new family, but their pasts cast a long shadow over the present....

Brought to you by Penguin. 'We are cursed, here at Harfold, whether you believe in it or not.' 1922, Wiltshire. When Vee Morgan accepts the job of gardener at a crumbling stately home, she's hoping for a fresh start where nobody knows her troubled history. But Harfold Manor is shadowed by grief...

A BRAND-NEW spellbinding dual-timeline novel of forbidden love, buried secrets and the long shadow of war. Perfect for fans of Lucinda Riley, Victoria Hislop and Kate Morton. 🖼️✨ 1938: For Camilla Kerrigan, life at her family's Oxford manor is a delicate balancing act – between duty to...

'You're everything to me. I'd have to lose my life before I'd lose you.' This is the vow Silas made to Cathleen on the day he asks her to marry him. Throughout their childhood their love has grown stronger and now, in 1900, they start to plan a life together. But a jealous woman is determined to ruin their happiness and uses Silas's father – a good and honest man – to do so, forcing him to make an impossible sacrifice. As a dutiful son, Silas has no choice but to obey his father, and Cathleen must pay the bitter price.

The BRAND NEW gripping wartime saga series from Rachel Brimble, for fans of Call the Midwife. April 1942, Bath – the nurses are under fire in the city they once thought safe… Freda knows the work she does on the home front is vital. Especially when bombs begin raining down on her beloved...

A heart-warming, heart-wrenching wartime story about friendship and courage from AJ Pearce, the bestselling author of Dear Mrs Bird. 'Utterly charming and uplifting' – Jill Mansell Emmy Lake is the much-loved agony aunt at Woman’s Friend magazine, relied upon by readers across the country as...

Young, bookish Sylvia Beach knows there is no greater city in the world than Paris. But when she opens an English-language bookshop on the bohemian Left Bank, Sylvia can't yet know she is making history. Many leading writers of the day, from Ernest Hemingway to Gertrude Stein, consider Shakespeare and Company a second home. Here some of the most profound literary friendships blossom - and none more so than between James Joyce and Sylvia herself.

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?

Heartbroken by unrequited love, courage will guide her path . . . When Molly and her best friend both fall in love with Harry Spencer, their former closeness is strained, but Molly quickly turns her mind to the Suffragette movement, finding solace and passion in helping their cause. With the...

Set off the coast of Wales between the 1940s and present day, The Last Song of Winter is a beautiful, romantic story from the author of The Winter Children. 'Completely unputdownable, every Lulu Taylor novel grips you to the very end' – Lisa Jewell, author of None of This is True 'A book to...

Set during WW2 in the Yorkshire valley of Dentdale, Secrets in the Dales is a heartfelt story of family, romance and one woman's determination in hard times. In the sleepy Yorkshire Dales, the peaceful existence of Sally’s family is shattered by the outbreak of the Second World War. With her...

FROM THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE TEA PLANTER'S WIFE Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of The Silk Merchant's Daughter by Dinah Jefferies, read by Eliza Parkes. Dinah Jefferies' stunning new novel is a gripping, unforgettable tale of a woman torn...