Historical Fiction Europe

From the author of the New York Times best seller Firebird comes this richly detailed historical novel of an unconventional tailor's daughter who is swept up in a suspenseful drama of passion and intrigue. When a fever leaves her deaf at the age of 16, shattering her hopes of marriage, Veda Grenfell turns her exceptional talent to her father's prestigious Savile Row tailoring firm.

In the aftermath of a violent rebellion Robin Hood and his men must fight for survival with an enemy deadlier than any they've faced before... 1322. England is in disarray and Sir Guy of Gisbourne, the king's own bounty hunter, stalks the greenwood, bringing bloody justice to the outlaws and rebels who hide there. When things begin to go horribly wrong self-pity, grief and despair threaten to overwhelm the young wolf's head who will need the support of his friends and family now more than ever.

The extraordinary novel Pride and Honour is a completely revised and rewritten version of the surprise initial success of the novel Honour and Glory by Nathaniel Burns. The author took many of his listeners‘ tips, reviews, and advice to heart to make his fascinating tale about Charlemagne and the Saxon King Widukind an even better listen. Take this suspenseful, captivating, and exciting journey back into Europe’s Dark Ages to meet the pivotal figure of Charlemagne and one of his greatest adversaries.

Fate - is it written in the stars from the moment we are born, or is it a bendable thing that we can shape with our own hands? Jepp of Astraveld needs to know. He left his countryside home on the empty promise of a stranger, only to become a captive in the strange, luxurious prison that is Coudenberg Palace, the royal court of the Spanish infanta. Nobody warned Jepp that, as a court dwarf, daily injustices would become his seemingly unshakeable fate. If the humiliations were his alone, perhaps he could endure them, but it breaks Jepp’s heart to see his friend Lia suffer.

As war rages over Europe, Barbara Sinclair is desperate to escape from her unhappy home, which is a target of the German Luftwaffe. Caught up by the emotion of the moment, she agrees to marry John, her childhood friend who's leaving to join the RAF; but a meeting with Simon Farley, the son of a local industrialist, and an encounter with Alex Everton, a Spitfire pilot, complicate matters.

Toledo, 1479. Nace Juana I de Castilla, tercera hija de los Reyes Católicos. A pesar de tener una educación esmerada, ni sus padres, Isabel I de Castilla y Fernando II de Aragón, ni su esposo Felipe de Habsburgo por el que sentía un amor y unos celos desmedidos, la consideraron capaz de gobernar. Relegada a un segundo plano, y olvidada, su padre y su esposo ejercieron la regencia hasta que su hijo Carlos I tuvo la mayoría de edad.

Baldwin Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock have been granted leave to go on pilgrimage. Together they travel across Europe to Portugal, but danger seems to follow them, as they are among the first on the scene when a beautiful young girl is found brutally raped and murdered on the hillside of Santiago de Compostela. Baldwin and Simon lend their investigative skills to the ensuing enquiry headed by the local pesquisidore, Munio.

Gustav Schwab: Sagen des klassischen Altertums - Europa

Blandford Candy is sent to London, after an illicit affair, and joins the Roundhead army to fight against the King, taking part in the Battle of Edgehill. A reluctant hero if ever there was one, he becomes a spy for the cause - and, through luck or judgement, uncovers more than one Royalist plot. His love of wine and the fairer sex prove both a curse and a blessing for the agent. Blandford soon earns the enmity of the King’s spy mistress Jane Whorwood, and patronage of the great parliamentarian leader John Hampden.

July 1839, without the permission of the English Government, the New Zealand Company ship, Tory, quietly departed England, anxious to reach New Zealand with the utmost speed. Expedition leader, Colonel William Wakefield's objective is clear - acquire millions of acres of valuable land from the natives at the lowest possible price. On board the Tory, Andrew and Eleanor Stewart, young Scottish emigrants indentured to the New Zealand Company, are excited at the prospect of beginning a new life in a perfect town called Britannia. It's the Utopia the company promised.

The Sagrat militiamen suspend their hunt for Alejandro and return to Valencia to discover that they have become the prey. When Rafael Perato is abducted at the Inquisitor’s funeral, he finds himself facing a new and dangerous enemy. What his captor wants with him is unclear, but as the days turn to weeks, Rafael is plunged deeper and deeper into a web of deceit and betrayal.

David Sanz’s journey south is halted abruptly after a devastating turn of events. In a tense battle for survival against thieves and the militia he has been fleeing from, he finds himself shackled and incarcerated in the prison he once guarded. The Duke of Sagrat’s brother, Rafael Perato, has survived the war and the royal court’s treacherous intrigues, but when news of his brother’s death reaches their Most Catholic Majesties his life is thrown into turmoil.

Valencia, Spain, 1491. The ambitions of four men collide in a deadly game of intrigue. David Sanz, a young militiaman, is forced to carry out a heinous crime, and he becomes an unwitting pawn in a tense battle for power. Luis Peráto, the duke of Sagrat, sacrifices his own people to cover up dark secrets that could see him burnt at the stake for treason. Sergio Garcia, Sagrat’s lord treasurer, is a cruel and unscrupulous man, willing to eliminate anyone who opposes his rise to power. The inquisitor, Gaspar de Amo, zealously punishes heretics for their sins against Rome.

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.

A small force of peasants from the forest regions surrounding Lake Lucerne, rise up against their Austrian overlords in the 14th century. Outnumbered seven-to-one by the battle-hardened Habsburg army, they have little hope. A daring moonlight raid leaves the outlaw Noll Melchthal in possession of an Austrian fortress. In the north, an outraged Leopold of Habsburg assembles the ultimate punitive force: a great army, thousands strong, boasting the best knights and soldiers the Holy Roman Empire has to offer.

The Holy Land is in turmoil and desperately awaits the arrival of Edward Longshanks and his relieving army of French and English Crusaders. This is a time of brutality, an age of chivalry. A time of strong men with stronger hearts, an era with no place for the weak. Yet a thousand miles away, a 14-year-old boy learns a disturbing secret that drives him on a Crusade of his own. A quest to avenge his family, save his brother, and in the process recover the holiest relic in the history of Christendom.

The gallows, the rack, and angry mobs are part of the menace in this horrific novel set in 15th century Paris. Quasimodo, the kind-hearted, hunchbacked bell ringer and the lovely La Esmaralda struggle to survive the brutality that surrounds them.

State Security Officer Brano Sev is the secretive member of the Ministry for State Security. No one else quite trusts him, but it is part of his job to do what the authorities ask, no matter what. So when he gets an order to travel to the village of his birth in order to interrogate a potential defector, he goes. When a man turns up dead shortly after he arrives and Brano is framed for the murder, he assumes this is part of the plan and allows it to run its course.

Plymouth, Devon, 1501. Luke Kendal, the long-awaited son of Elizabeth and John, grows up under the loving watch of his mother and stepfather, but soon he, too, must face his trials. Irresistibly drawn to the wild Isobel, he risks all in his secret rendezvous with her. Battling with himself, he maintains the romance is only temporary, but any easing of his conscience is shattered by the revelation that Isobel is with child. Luke Kendal must make a decision: desert Isobel and render his child a bastard or defile the family honour.

Dear Mr Bigelow is an enchanting selection of weekly 'pen-pal' letters written between 1949 and 1961 from an unmarried woman working at the Pier Approach Baths in Bournemouth, to a wealthy American widower, living on Long Island, New York. Frances Woodsford and Commodore Paul Bigelow never met, and there was no romance - she was in her forties when he died aged ninety-seven - yet their epistolary friendship was her lifeline.