Historical Homes

It's 1941, and the war rumbles on. Nowhere is immune to the effects of war, not even Ambridge. But in England's favourite village, something else is occupying the residents. When a prominent villager dies, the main beneficiary's name is a mystery, and no one knows who is set to inherit the estate, cottage and all. The name is hidden within a locked box, and the villagers much uncover the password to find out the name of the beneficiary.

Detective Rudyard Bloodstone’s career is moving along well as Holborn Station’s lead investigator. His year had gotten even better when he met London’s celebrated music-hall star Honeysuckle Flowers. As he and his lady embark on celebrating the holidays, Rudyard grows homesick for Wales and his family there. He makes plans to see his parents and thinks it is the perfect time to introduce Honeysuckle to them. To his unhappy surprise, his mother paints her with a trollop’s brush.

Carrie Vernon knows her powerful father has no love for her except as a pawn in his evil plans. Receiving a letter asking her to elope with the handsome rancher who’s been courting her, she defies her father to follow her heart. Hank Anderson has survived on his small ranch with hard work and the sheer will to make it prosper, and he desires the beautiful Carrie by his side. After he refuses to sell his ranch to Carrie’s father, cattle and horses are stolen and fences destroyed. And he knows exactly who is causing the problems. But can he overlook the fact that maybe Carrie is part of her father’s plan?

Born in England and raised in India by her father after her mother's untimely death, Asyra has been ostracized from her small village most of her life. News of her impending marriage arranged by her grandmother back in England only serves to confuse her further about who she is and where she fits in. When Madras is attacked by the French before Asyra's ship sails, she must pretend to be the wife of her grandmother's agent, who happens to be the elder brother of her intended. Can she move beyond prejudice to find her place in the world?

Anna's father disappeared months ago. He had to flee the country because the cruel new Communist government wanted to arrest him. The Communists may have arrived like heroes at the end of World War II, saving Czechoslovakia from the Nazis - but since then, things have changed. Now Anna's whole family feels threatened and doesn't know whom to trust, so she and her mother and sister set out to escape, hoping to reunite with Papa.

Alice's life is about to change. She's a skinny orphan. She's never been able to hear too well. And she can't speak too well, either. The only person who seems to care for her - one of the nuns at the orphanage - gets taken away from Alice in a freak accident. And then one day somebody calls Alice by the wrong name. Miami, she says. Miami Shaw. Miami Shaw, who may be Alice's twin sister. Who lives only a few miles away. Who has what Alice has always dreamed of - a whole wonderful family.

There were dozens of us on the ship, all ages, boys and girls, and we were all up on deck for the leaving of Liverpool, gulls wheeling and crying over our heads, calling good-bye, I thought they were waving good-bye. None of us spoke. It was a grey day with drizzle in the air, the great sad cranes bowing to the ship from the docks as we steamed past. That is all I remember of England…

Far and near. Lost and found. Four girls. Four generations. Georgia cannot figure out what's going on in her family. Her mother, Francie, is extremely overprotective. Her grandmother, Dana, and her great-grandmother, Abby, don't speak to each other. And Georgia's great-great-grandmother also had some secrets that nobody else knows about. Georgia knows this because she's found her great-great grandmother's diary hidden in a wall in the family's house in Maine.

Becky Nelson fled her childhood home and risked irreparable damage to her relationship with her only sister for an independent life in Kansas. The bookish bachelorette had no sooner settled in the Sunflower State when her path crossed with Henry, a ruggedly handsome farmer. The draft selects the seemingly untouchable Henry, and the couple rushes to make their union permanent before the war carries him to far-off lands. As the days turn to months, their letters give Becky and Henry the strength to go on as he serves his country, and she shares their home with an unlikely guest.

Isaac Liddle is keen to marry Emmie, and she knows she shouldn't hide her pregnancy from him any longer. But before she can tell him her secret, a widower friend asks the impossible of Emmie: Will she honor her promise to his dead wife by marrying him to care for the orphaned baby?

Growing up in Palmer Lake, Colorado, Jessica Lehman and Andy McCormick were practically inseparable. But when tragedy struck, their childhood friendship was torn apart. Now, more than a decade later, Jessie's search for the truth about her family has brought the two together again.

In Worship of Hollow Gods, James Sniechowski bears witness to the world of a sensitive nine-year-old boy, subjected to the underbelly of his Polish Catholic family in working-class Detroit. The year is 1950. The family gathers for a Friday night family poker/pinochle party. The outcome reveals a world no one ever talked about then and they are forbidden to talk about now - the unspoken, the impermissible, the reality beneath every family's practiced facade - and what lies beneath when the front has been ripped away.

Endpapers excavates the extraordinary histories of the author's grandfather and father: the renowned publisher Kurt Wolff, dubbed "perhaps the 20th century's most discriminating publisher" by the New York Times Book Review, and his son Niko, who fought in the Wehrmacht during World War II before coming to America.

August, 1942 - Fresh from the successful completion of an undercover assignment, Regan is determined to do her bit for the war effort. Before returning home, she goes to Washington to offer her investigative skills to the Army. Now all Regan has to do is avoid Mark Harris who is still actively pursuing her and ignore the call of her own heart.

English rose Eleanor Rigby has stared into the cold eyes of death more than once. To escape its icy grip, she flees as a mail-order bride to a new future with Samuel Johnson, a Western cowboy. But when a lost love returns from the grave to claim his broken bride, a fearful fight for Ellie's own life and sanity ensues. Can the bonds of true love bring her home, or will she be lost forever?

Join us on a fascinating ramble through the towns and villages of the British Isles during the last 400 years in the company of some of its most illustrious chroniclers, including Jane Austen, William Cobbett, Daniel Defoe, Sir Walter Scott, Virginia Woolf, Francis Kilvert, Celia Fiennes, Chips Channon, Fanny Burney and many others, told entirely in their own words.

Jack recalls 1974, when Henry Aaron was only one hit away from tying the great Babe Ruth for most career home runs and only two home runs away from breaking Ruth's record. Aaron's pursuit of the record has such a powerful influence on fans' imaginations that Jack thinks his best friend Joe hit a home run on a freight train. And just like with Aaron's home run (that is earning him death threats and has placed him under FBI protection), Joe's home run reveals deep-seated divisions among everyone in Jack's hometown, even his own family.

It's summer and renowned actress, Dame Pamela Harcourt, has organized a treat: the first Purley Hall Jane Austen holiday - to the home of Mr. Darcy no less. With Katherine and Warwick, Robyn, Doris Norris and the rest of the gang, it's going to be a trip to remember.

Mary was born in New York City and due to the Spanish Influenza, her father realized she needed a special gift to distract her from loneliness. Mary cherished this gift, but it was tragically destroyed in an accident. Mary never forgot her favorite gift, and 80 years later, when she retired to Alabama, Mary experienced culture shock as well as a Christmas miracle. This is a humorous and sweet story that everyone in the family will love.

A girl known only as Brat has no family, no home, and no future until she meets Jane the Midwife and becomes her apprentice. As she helps the short-tempered Jane deliver babies, Brat—who renames herself Alyce—gains knowledge, confidence, and the courage to want something in life for the first time.