Historical Biographical Fiction

Rome, AD 37. The emperor is dying. No-one knows how long he has left. The power struggle has begun. When the ailing Tiberius thrusts Caligula's family into the imperial succession in a bid to restore order, he will change the fate of the empire and create one of history's most infamous tyrants, Caligula. But was Caligula really a monster? Forget everything you think you know. Let Livilla, Caligula's youngest sister and confidante, tell you what really happened.

From her beginnings as the daughter of a courtesan to her extraordinary transformation into the most celebrated actress of her era, Sarah Bernhardt is brought to life by an internationally best-selling author praised for his historical novels featuring famous women.

San Francisco, 1915. As America teeters on the brink of world war, Charmian and her husband, famed novelist Jack London, wrestle with genius and desire, politics and marital competitiveness. Charmian longs to be viewed as an equal partner who put her own career on hold to support her husband, but Jack doesn't see it that way...until Charmian is pulled from the audience during a magic show by escape artist Harry Houdini, a man enmeshed in his own complicated marriage. Suddenly charmed, Charmian's eyes open to a world of possibilities.

In this novel of the glittering and gritty Jazz Age, a young aspiring photographer named Dorothea Lange arrives in San Francisco in 1918. As a newcomer - and naïve one at that - Dorothea is grateful for the fast friendship of Caroline Lee, a vivacious, straight-talking Chinese American with a complicated past, who introduces Dorothea to Monkey Block, an artists’ colony and the bohemian heart of the city. Dazzled by Caroline and her friends, Dorothea is catapulted into a heady new world of freedom, art, and politics.

Connie Fitzwalter never imagined that her passion for music would lead her into a world of danger and intrigue. When her old family friend, Stephen, who works for the foreign office, tells Connie the true scale of the violence against Jewish people in Germany and Austria, she can stand aside no longer. Together, Stephen and Connie devise a daring mission to help families escape the clutches of Nazi persecution. Under their cover as music enthusiasts traveling to high-society concerts in Europe, Connie and her sister Dottie begin by smuggling money and valuables for families over the border.

Ever-loyal Maddalena, a diminutive, blue-eyed, black slave, has borne Cosimo de' Medici a son and seen him rise to the position of cardinal. Now, late in life, she finds herself committed to a convent, as part of a scheme to protect the Medici bank from ruin by Cosimo's sons, by hiding a fortune in gold for Cosimo's grandson Lorenzo to inherit. But as the months go by, and the gold does not appear, her faith in Cosimo begins to wane, and with it, her confidence in her own worth. Has she been duped?

Raised in genteel poverty after the First World War, Maria Magdalena Dietrich dreams of a life on the stage. When a budding career as a violinist is cut short, the willful teenager vows to become a singer, trading her family's proper middle-class society for the free-spirited, louche world of Weimar Berlin's cabarets and drag balls.

Lady Macbeth takes listeners into the heart of 11th-century Scotland, painting a vivid picture of Gruadh, the last female descendent of the country's most royal line. Married, pregnant, then quickly widowed, she is forced to wed her husband's murderer, the warlord Macbeth. Determined to protect her interests and those of her infant son, she vows to preserve her family's legacy at any cost.

Il est peut-être né le jour de la mort de Jeanne d'Arc. On a pendu son père et supplicié sa mère. Il a étudié à l'université de Paris. Il a joui, menti, volé dès son plus jeune âge. Il a fréquenté les miséreux et les nantis, les curés, les assassins, les poètes et les rois. Aucun sentiment humain ne lui était étranger. Il a commis tous les actes qu'un homme peut commettre. Il a traversé comme un météore trente années de l'histoire de son temps. Il a ouvert cette voie somptueuse qu'emprunteront à sa suite tous les autres poètes : l'absolue liberté.

When young James Dixon, a local jack-of-all-trades recently returned from the Battle of Waterloo, meets Dorothy Wordsworth, he quickly realizes he’s never met another woman anything like her. In her early 30s, Dorothy has already lived a wildly unconventional life. And as her famous brother William Wordsworth’s confidante and creative collaborator - considered by some in their circle to be the secret to his success as a poet - she has carved a seemingly idyllic existence for herself, alongside William and his wife, in England’s Lake District.

In 1915, Jean Dartemont heads off to the Great War, an eager conscript. The only thing he fears is missing the action. Soon, however, the vaunted "war to end all wars" seems like a war that will never end: whether mired in the trenches or going over the top, Jean finds himself caught in the midst of an unimaginable, unceasing slaughter. After he is wounded, he returns from the front to discover a world where no one knows or wants to know any of this.

Rome, AD 41. Caligula has been assassinated and the Praetorian Guard have proclaimed Claudius Emperor – but his position is precarious. His three freedmen, Narcissus, Pallas and Callistus, must find a way to manufacture a quick victory – but how? Pallas has the answer: retrieve the Eagle of the Seventeenth, lost nearly 40 years before. Who but Vespasian could lead a dangerous mission into the gloomy forests of Germania?

Gracias a su pasión por los libros y gusto exquisito, Belle da Costa Green se ha vuelto, con tan solo veinte años, la bibliotecaria más joven de la prestigiosa universidad de Princeton. Sin embargo, un golpe de suerte mayor está por impulsar su carrera: el famoso millonario J. P. Morgan la quiere para curar una colección de manuscritos raros, libros y obras de arte que compondrán el corazón de su biblioteca personal.

Pensando al Rinascimento è probabile che vi vengano in mente lo splendore delle città, le opere sublimi, la magnificenza di signori e papi. Aprendo questo libro, mettete da parte ciò che sapete: verrete travolti dallo stupore. State per cominciare un viaggio nei meandri di un tempo imprevedibile, fatto di voli pindarici e cadute fragorose. Popolato di artisti strepitosi oggi dimenticati, contesse guerriere e frati ribelli. Al vostro fianco in questa avventura, ci saranno due giganti della storia dell'arte destinati a odiarsi per tutta la vita.

Elizabeth of York, her life already tainted by dishonour and tragedy, now queen to the first Tudor king, Henry the VII. Joan Vaux, servant of the court, straining against marriage and motherhood and privy to the deepest and darkest secrets of her queen. Like the ravens, Joan must use her eyes and her senses, as conspiracy whispers through the dark corridors of the Tower.

It is 1914, and 25-year-old Frances Marion has left her (second) husband and her Northern California home for the lure of Los Angeles, where she is determined to live independently as an artist. But the word on everyone's lips these days is "flickers" - the silent moving pictures enthralling theatergoers. Turn any corner in this burgeoning town and you'll find made-up actors running around, as a movie camera captures it all. In this fledgling industry, Frances finds her true calling: writing stories for this wondrous new medium.

"Je rêvais de retrouver la trace et l'image d'un saint Louis à l'humanité sensible, un saint Louis de chair, à figure humaine. Le temps, en l'élevant au-dessus de nos natures, lui a peut-être rendu un mauvais service. Il m'a imposé d'aller puiser aux sources les plus authentiques."

In 1887 young Nellie Bly sets out for New York and a career in journalism, determined to make her way as a serious reporter, whatever that may take. But life in the city is tougher than she imagined. Down to her last dime and desperate to prove her worth, she comes up with a dangerous plan: to fake insanity and have herself committed to the asylum that looms on Blackwell's Island. There, she will work undercover to document—and expose—the wretched conditions faced by the patients. But when the asylum door swings shut behind her, she finds herself in a place of horrors.

For more than three decades, Yugoslavia's history played out in the life of one man. That man was Josip Broz Tito. The fictional autobiography of a regime insider, K. Balej's thoroughly researched novel provides a revealing insight into the emergence and functioning of the Yugoslav socialist system from the time of the Vienna Congress in 1815 to Tito's own death in 1980. It is an immersive exploration of the changing nature of Tito's power and the fascinating symbiosis of man and state that Tito represents.

Consecrated at birth as a royal goddess, Cleopatra learns early on from her father's experience that to rule means to fight. Politically astute, her deep love for Egypt means she'll do everything in her power to retain its autonomy from the all-devouring Romans. Julius Caesar is a legendary warrior whose might helped secure the Egyptian throne for Cleopatra's father. Years later, when he encounters the now Queen of Egypt, it is more than a meeting of rulers - it is a meeting of souls.