Historical Fiction Europe

On August 4, 1940, an unassuming American journalist named Varian Fry made his way to Marseilles, France, carrying in his pockets the names of approximately 200 artists and intellectuals - all enemies of the new Nazi regime. As a volunteer for the Emergency Rescue Committee, Fry’s mission was to help these refugees flee to safety, then return home two weeks later. As more and more people came to him for assistance, however, he realized the situation was far worse than anyone in America had suspected.

In June of 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte's attempts at reclaiming the French Empire are destroyed on the field of Waterloo. With the Bourbon monarchy restored to the throne of France, King Louis XVIII seeks his revenge against many of Napoleon's former generals. While many are sent into exile, the fanatical royalists demand that one in particular pay with his life. That man is Michel Ney, Marshal of France; called by both friend an enemy as "The Bravest of the Brave".

Ka the time-travelling cat has disappeared again, and Topher knows that she is in terrible danger. For Ka has gone to Tudor England, a time when cats were tortured. Topher must try to find her, and in doing so, meets up with Doctor Dee - magician and astronomer to Queen Elizabeth I. But Doctor Dee is searching for something far more important than a cat. He must satisfy the Queen by finding the elusive Philosopher’s Stone...Another amazing adventure with Ka and Topher from Julia Jarman.

The Holocaust remains as a reference to the destruction of about six million Jews. The collection of undesirables began in 1933 with the construction of the first concentration camp. As Hitler's power grew, he rounded up others that he considered undesirable. Hitler had come into power and the slow destruction of Jews was put into place.

Through the centuries, the good folk in Ireland have grown pleasant traditions and habits to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child during Christmas. However, Christmas in Ireland does not just celebrate one or two special days; Christmas lasts 12 days, and perhaps even a little bit longer. An Irish Christmas and the Storyteller, set in 1894, introduces one of the many country villages in Ireland and the eager villagers' preparations to get ready days and weeks ahead.

Mythology is interesting as well as complicated. It becomes even more intricate when the narrators and their opinions are many and do not seem to converge at some point. This is, however, one side of the picture. Mythology can be worth considering if one follows it with concentration and an evaluative approach. This book unveils all those significant features of Viking mythology, which can be interesting as well as elaborative for your knowledge about the Vikings and their ancient tales.

In 1226 a young German noble plotted the unthinkable: to kidnap the archbishop of Cologne. What followed was a cavalcade of murder, exile, torture, and vengeance. The noble was named Friedrich von Isenberg. Eight centuries later writer Robert Isenberg traveled to Germany to explore Friedrich's legacy. Picking through the ruins of Castle Isenberg and surveying scant documentation, he began to reassemble Friedrich's tragic tale.

1305 A.D. Being descended from great, though disgraced family, can be a greater curse than most. As a direct descendent of Simon de Montfort, Lady Gray de Montfort Serroux has lived her life with the axe of shame hanging over her head. Because of this, her marriage matches were limited and she wed a dishonorable man who widowed her when he was murdered in a gambling game. Left with a young daughter to support, Gray and her daughter and her mother have been living in poverty.

Little Mary Lennox is a bad-tempered, disagreeable child. When her parents die in India, she is sent back to England to live with her uncle in a big, lonely, old house. There is nothing to do all day except walk in the gardens – and watch the robin flying over the high walls of the secret garden . . . which has been locked for ten years. And no one has the key. An Oxford Bookworms Library reader for learners of English, adapted from the Frances Hodgson Burnett original by Clare West.

Harry Walsh is a young man on the make. He intends to become a famous singer, little knowing what dramas this will lead him through. He attaches himself to celebrity composer George Frederick Handel, maestro of the Italian opera and a favourite of royalty. But the aristocratic fashion for Handel is cooling. Opposing opera factions, one led by scheming castrato Senesino, knock the great man from his pinnacle.

The deepest currents of passion seldom break the surface of literature. Romantic classics abound; but however skilled a writer may be in verbalising an emotional experience, he cannot publicly evoke the heat of blood, the yearning of soul, bared in perfect intimacy between two beings. But letters can do this, and songs never meant to be sung by any but the lover, or the beloved.

Hitler's U-boats rule the North Atlantic and threaten to eliminate the Allied supply lines through meticulously coordinated attacks using Germany's secret weapon: the Enigma. Desperate to turn the tide of the war, British scientists at Bletchley Park work tirelessly to break the codes. But there is a problem. They need the German ciphers and a working Enigma machine.

Carolyn Meyer's historical fiction, such as Marie, Dancing, is popular for its unique perspectives. Loving Will Shakespeare is the tale of Agnes Anne Hathaway. There are few details known about the girl who - though eight years his senior - would eventually become wife to the Bard. Meyer's imagining of her story will inspire listeners to learn more.

In medieval times, Bram has agreed to a marriage of convenience with an Irish nobleman's daughter. A marriage bargain is struck in exchange for land and his services fighting with the Laird Liannon's clan against all rivals: Norsemen and Irish alike. However, Bram's intended does not stir his heart. Not like the Laird's daughter, Kaireen. Unknowingly, Kaireen has captured his Viking heart.

In 1913, before there is a rumor of war in Europe, Matthias Wrenn and Con Hatchel, lifelong friends from Ballyrannel in the Irish midlands, decide to see the world at the expense of the king of England and join the British army. A year later, while en route to India, their troop ship is recalled and they soon find themselves in the European slaughterhouse that was World War I.

King Henry VIII is inconsolable over the loss of his beloved queen, Jane Seymour. He banishes himself to the lower-levels of Whitehall Palace and refuses to see or speak to anyone. A deeply concerned Cromwell has a desperate plan: To send down the old court jester, the unstable Will Sommers, into the darkness, to somehow help. Meanwhile, Cromwell's enemies at court are gathering. Henry's grief regresses into a strange kind of manic madness. But can a fool really save the King?

During the hot Irish summer of 1969, tensions rise in Belfast where Katherine, a former actress, and George, a firefighter, struggle to keep buried secrets from destroying their marriage. As Catholic Republicans and Protestant Loyalists clash during the Troubles and Northern Ireland moves to the brink of civil war, the lines between private anguish and public outrage disintegrate. An exploration of memory, childhood, illicit love, and loss, Ghost Moth is an exceptional tale about a family - and a country - seeking freedom from ghosts of the past.

In the middle ages, marriage by proxy was common, but not falling in love with the substitute. Caroline has found fault with all of her suitors. She thinks she has escaped her duties, until a marriage by proxy arrives. Her future husband is too weak and old to travel. Even the nunnery sounds more appealing than marriage to the old baron. Nicholas, the proxy, marries Caroline as a stand-in for her new husband. Nicholas, the baron's servant, must help her to fall in love with the baron's character.

Munich, Germany, 1942. Hans Scholl never intended to get his younger sister involved in an underground resistance. When Sophie Scholl finds out, she insists on joining Hans and his close friends in writing and distributing anti-Nazi leaflets entitled The White Rose.

It is 1964, and Chris Nash is 20. His mother is married to Reg, whom Chris thinks is his father. He is, therefore, astonished when she tells him that his real father was a pilot, John Gregson, killed during the Second World War in an accident training Australian air crews. Chris sets out to discover more about the little-known incident. He tracks down his father's only living relative, and visits the site of the crash, near a small church in Bedfordshire.