Historical Family Saga

1945. Allied forces liberate Nazi-occupied Brno, Moravia. For Gerta Schnirch, daughter of a Czech mother and a German father aligned with Hitler, it’s not deliverance; it’s a sentence. She has been branded an enemy of the state. Caught in the changing tides of a war that shattered her family - and her innocence - Gerta must obey the official order: she, along with all ethnic Germans, is to be expelled from Czechoslovakia. With nothing but the clothes on her back and an infant daughter, she’s herded among thousands, driven from the only home she’s ever known.

In 1789, on the eve of the first presidential inauguration, charismatic Lion Hampshire aspires to a seat in the first Congress. In an effort to improve his rakish reputation, he agrees to an arranged marriage with Virginia-bred Priscilla Wade. However, his fiancée's headstrong lady's maid, Meagan, is not who she seems to be and Lion's carefully crafted future may be undone by his passion for the wrong woman.

It's Christmas Eve. Flurries of snow fall on the cobbled streets of Whitechapel, and an abandoned baby, swaddled in a blanket, is found on a doorstep in Angel Lane.... Named after the street on which she was found, Angel Winter was blessed to be taken from the harsh streets into a loving home. But fate deals a cruel blow, and she's torn from the only family she has ever known, thrown onto the cobbles of Covent Garden to fend for herself.

Winter, Liverpool, 1947. Evie Kilgaren is a fighter. Abandoned by her mother and with her father long gone, she is left to raise her siblings in dockside Liverpool, as they battle against the coldest winter on record. But she is determined to make a life for herself and create a happy home for what's left of her family. Desperate for work, Evie takes a job at the Tram Tavern under the kindly watch of pub landlady and pillar of the community Connie Sharp. But Connie has problems of her own when her quiet life is upturned with the arrival of a mysterious undercover detective.

The Pratchett family have to contend with coalman Alfie Pratchett's obsessive jealousy. A bully, his two teenage children, John and Millie, have learned to dodge him and his moods. The main concern of ugly duckling Millie - who looks nothing like her handsome brother John - is to protect their mum, Eileen. When crisis strikes the Pratchetts' home, Alfie is forced to watch his whole world gradually collapse around him. Their old life has gone forever, and a new one has begun - one in which rape, debt, alcoholism and insanity play their parts. And redemption is a long time coming.

Glenda Jenkins has been beaten by her husband, Harry, one too many times - and this time he's put her in a hospital bed. Battered and bruised, Glenda slowly makes her recovery. But she fears what awaits her back at home.... When Glenda meets kind hospital porter Frank, he offers her a lifeline she can't refuse. The pair decide to run away together, escaping the terror of Harry. But, fearing for her life, Glenda has to make the biggest sacrifice of all and leave her baby, Johnnie, behind.

In 1941, the United Kingdom was in desperate straits, standing alone with its troops against the colossal war machine of Nazi Germany. There was always Prime Minister Winston Churchill, however, who growled his defiance to Hitler and induced in his people a determination to endure. The Adams family shared that determination and their own kind of optimism.

As the war rages on in Europe, it brings untold heartache to the Talbot family at Blackberry Farm. First Tom is missing in action and then his brother John. leaving the family distraught with worry. Faith finds herself in trouble and turns to Lizzie for support as fear and grief bring them closer together. But tragedy is never too far away and when it strikes, it may not be those who fight that suffer most. Will Pam’s prayers be answered and will both her sons return home?

Fun-loving Maisie is devoted to her young family and her work at Woolworths. But her happy life with her RAF officer husband and their baby daughter leads her to think of the family she left behind. With the war now into its fourth year, what will she find when she sets about searching for them? Sarah and her husband, Alan, are blissfully happy and long for a sibling for their daughter. But dark days lie ahead for this close family.

Cambridge, 1952. When Ellen Kingsley embarks upon an exciting career in scientific research she soon finds herself caught in a bitter world of rivalry and ambition. Resisting the advances of charismatic Mark Pharaoh, who will stop at nothing in his pursuit of success, she moves to London and falls in love with dashing Alec Hunter. Then a chance encounter introduces Pharaoh to Ellen's old school friend, the captivating India Mayhew, and they embark upon a passionate love affair that leaves destruction in its wake.

War rages, but the women and children of Liverpool’s Dr Barnardo’s Home cannot give up hope.... Liverpool, 1943. Yorkshire is the place Lana has always called home, but it’s now filled with painful memories of her fiancé, Dickie, who was killed at sea. When she accepts the challenging position of headmistress at a school in Liverpool, she hopes a new beginning will help to mend her broken heart.

Beth Cohen wants to make the most of the months she has left with her elderly father, Max. His only request of his daughter is to go through the long-forgotten box of memorabilia from his days as a medic on the western front. Then, among his wartime souvenirs, Beth finds a photograph of her father with an adoring and beautiful stranger - a photograph worth a thousand questions.

"Masterful...a classic parable of the human condition," said Publishers Weekly about Ethan Canin's For Kings and Planets, and the same can be said about Canin's brilliant new novel. Breathtaking in its suspense and beauty, Carry Me Across the Water tells the story of a complex man's extraordinary life, lived against the backdrop of the central years of the twentieth century.

The year is 1979. The Iranian Revolution is just around the corner, as is a once-in-a-lifetime solar eclipse. Meanwhile, in the northeastern city of Naishapur, a retired judge and his wife, Bibi, run an ancient orchard, growing apples, plums, peaches, and sour cherries, and looking after several generations of family members. The days here are marked by long, elaborate lunches on the terrace and arguments about government corruption and the rise of religious fundamentalism, peppered with tales of ancient Persia that foreshadow the seismic political changes to come.

A successful horse breeder and self-proclaimed rake, Harry Lester samples women like wines. But after having his heart trampled upon by someone he actually loved, he has no intention of falling for a woman again, let alone be ensnared by the trap of marriage. Now, with a large inheritance to his name, Harry knows that he'd best start running from London's matchmaking mothers and widows.

Inspired by the true story of the Quality Street factory and its loyal workers, this is a nostalgic and compelling novel and the perfect Christmas treat. At 16 years old, Irene ‘Reenie’ Calder is leaving school with little in the way of qualifications. She is delighted to land a seasonal job at Mackintosh’s Quality Street factory. Reenie feels like a kid let loose in a sweet shop, but trouble seems to follow her around, and it isn’t long before she falls foul of the strict rules.

Every first Sunday in June, members of the Moses clan gather for an annual reunion at “the old home place,” a sprawling hundred-acre farm in Arkansas. And every year, Samuel Lake, a vibrant and committed young preacher, brings his beloved wife, Willadee Moses, and their three children back for the festivities.

It's 1911, and Greta Goldbaum is forced to move from glittering Vienna to damp England to wed Albert, a distant cousin. The Goldbaum family are one of the wealthiest in the world, with palaces across Europe, but as Jews and perpetual outsiders, they know that strength lies in family. But World War I looms, and even the influential Goldbaums cannot alter its course. For the first time in 200 years, the family will find itself on opposing sides, and Greta will have to choose: the family she's created, or the one she left behind.

Against the chaotic backdrop of World War II, Grace Murphy is working as a midwife in Doncaster Royal Infirmary with her two friends, Clodagh and Patsy. In between delivering babies and tending wounded airmen, the girls endure bombing raids, rationing and the hardships and heartbreak that war brings. But in the faces of the new babies she welcomes to the world, Grace always looks for hope, as she dreams of a time when the war will end.

A charming and evocative tale of family and fortune from the queen of the West Country saga, Linda Finlay. Isabella Carrington has been brought up in a life of privilege in London. Her life seems perfect until her father suddenly announces bankruptcy. To save Isabella from destitution he sends her to stay with family she has never met, far away on a violet farm deep in Devon. Isabella is horrified to find her uncle expects her to work for her keep, packing up the flowers and selling them in the nearby market.