Historical War Saga

Cambridgeshire - March 1939. As the clouds of war begin to gather in Europe, the Talbot family of rural Blackberry Farm will be torn apart, just as so many families all over the world will be. Life will never be the same again. Whilst in London, the Salmons family will feel the pain of parting and loss. Brought together by war, the two families become intertwined and, as the outlook looks bleak, they must draw on each other’s strength to fight through the hard times.

Our hero, Uhtred, has been made governor of London. This fourth book in the series is set mostly in London and covers Alfred's building of fortified towns to hold Wessex and his push into Mercia.

This is the story of a young Liverpool woman widowed in the Second World War before she can know the happiness of having a family. With the blessing of her mother, with whom she runs a B&B, she goes to Normandy to see where her husband was killed in the D-Day landings. Once she is there, she meets an impoverished French poultry farmer, now reduced to driving a beaten up (and still rare) taxi and looking after his old mother and dying brother. Will these two find happiness together?

Liverpool, 1939. Bella Rogers thought her life was just starting; she can’t wait to get married to her childhood sweetheart, Bobby. But when war is declared and Bobby is called up, his letters stop, leaving Bella heartbroken and alone. Then her family is torn apart by tragedy when her angelic 5-year-old sister dies from a terrible illness. They can barely afford a funeral, but the church is packed with the entire community, devastated for their loss. Grieving for her sister and lost love, Bella finds a job at the Bryant and May factory, making matches.

Juillet 1942. Jamais l'issue du conflit n'a semblé aussi incertaine. Si l'Angleterre a écarté tout risque d'invasion, la Russie de Staline plie sous les coups de boutoir des armées d'Hitler. L'Europe est sur le point de basculer.

Liverpool, 1935. Monica Savage is delighted when new neighbours move in next door and she and Joan Copperfield quickly become firm friends. While Monica's father has a good job as a guard on the railway, Joan's family are harder up, with her sailor dad Billy mostly off at sea and restless when he's home - Mersey View is no substitute for the exotic places he sails to.

1916: Betty O’Fogarty is proud and clever. Spurred on by Betty's belief in her husband Seamus’s talent as a violin-maker and her desire to escape rural life, the couple elopes to Dublin. As Dublin is plunged into chaos as the Easter Rebellion of 1916, Betty gives birth to her first child to the sound of gunfire and shelling. A hundred years later, secrets churn their way to the surface, and Betty’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren uncover both Betty’s ruthlessness and her unique brand of heroism.

Germany 1937: Fear and betrayal stalk the streets. People disappear. Persecution of the Jews has become a national pastime. When Ruth Friedman's husband is arrested by the SS, she is left to fend for herself and her four children. She alone stands as their shield against the Nazis. But where can she go? Where will her family be safe? Ruth must overcome the indifference, hatred, and cruelty that surrounds her as she and her family race to escape the advancing Nazi army's final solution.

A stirring adventure novel set amid the tumultuous clashes between the Roman and Carthaginian empires, battling for control of the Mediterranean, north Africa and Rome itself. Atticus, the young Greek captain, is now a commander of the growing Roman navy, blockading a port near Tunis, when the Roman legions suffer terrible defeat by the triumphant Carthaginian army, spearheaded by the elephant charges.

May 1944. Hope and excitement is in the air when news breaks of the allied forces landing in Normandy. D Day has arrived. However, the day-to-day struggles for the Tobacco Girls continue. Peace is on the horizon, but will their wishes and dreams win through and bring them a happy ever after?

Bristol 194. As the clouds of war grow bleaker both at home and abroad, the Tobacco Girls are determined to do their bit for king and country. To that end Maisie Miles and Bridget Milligan become voluntary ambulance drivers. As well as coping with the frequent air raids, Maisie is kept on her toes with three new junior employees, one of whom is particularly testing. Bridget’s heart becomes torn between family loyalty and Lyndon O’Neill III, the man she loves. Meanwhile Phyllis Harvey has joined the WAAF, opting to serve overseas whilst trying to escape her past.

An unknown location, occupied France, 1944. Dropping silently behind enemy lines, Sylvia Crichton, codename Monique, is determined to fight for the country of her birth and tear it from its Nazi stranglehold. As one of the dancers at the nightclub Mirabelle, Sylvie’s mission is to entertain the club’s German clientele and learn their secrets. In a world of deception and lies, she can trust no one.

In 1938, as the Third Reich is just beginning its reign of terror, hundreds of Jewish orphans are hidden away in Austria, in the midst of their underground escape to Palestine. The only man who knows their location is killed, leaving the children with precious little time to survive. The dead man leaves a single set of instructions: Find US Department of War agent Neil Reuter - he will save the children.

In 1950s Dublin, life is hard and jobs are like gold dust. Nineteen-year-old Nell Flynn is training to be a nurse and planning to marry her boyfriend, Liam Connor, when her mother dies, leaving her younger sisters destitute. To save them from the workhouse, Nell returns to the family home - a mere two rooms at the top of a condemned tenement. Nell finds work at a biscuit factory and, at first, they scrape through each week.

In the tradition of epic novels like Exodus and Cast a Giant Shadow, Isaac’s Beacon is a sweeping historical tale based on the real events of Israel’s founding - bringing alive the power and complexities of the birth of the Jewish state out of the ashes of the Holocaust. Best-selling author David L. Robbins, called “the Homer of World War II”, turns his mastery of the historical novel to another defining moment of the 20th century: the birth of the state of Israel.

Riga, 1943. Cycling the streets to deliver fresh loaves, Zenta passes empty houses, curtains open, doors unlocked, their occupants forced out by Russian or German hands. Above the newly built town hall, a Nazi flag waves in the breeze. Since her brother became a soldier and her sister joined the resistance, Zenta is all her parents have left. Then one morning her sister returns. Tired, worn, with a newly rounded belly, Estere is as determined as ever to fight for their freedom.

Connecting across a century through one little girl, two women will discover a kinship that springs in even the darkest of times. In this tale of hope and survival, Sera and Kája must cling to the faith that sustains them and fight to protect all they hold dear—even if it means placing their own futures on the line.

The liberation of occupied France is long overdue, but the operation requires the combined efforts of the resistance groups across Europe. Jeremy returns to France to prepare for the Allied invasion. An occupied country is a dangerous terrain to navigate, and as Jeremy works to set the plan in motion, even the smallest mistake can come at a fatal price. At Bletchley Park, Claire decodes a troubling message from German high command. Hitler is moving his secret weapons development resource from Norway to Bavaria.

Tuscany, 1943. Stranded in war-ravaged Italy, Beatrice’s dream of an escapist year teaching English is shattered. Granted shelter at the Villa delle Colombe, she seeks refuge in Francesca and Edoardo’s beautiful walled garden, hidden from the outside world, with an elaborate cypress maze at its heart. But Beatrice is not the only one seeking an escape here. Francesca has brought children to the safety of the house, as well as other adults, all of them seeking sanctuary on the estate with its mysterious maze.

Hanna Tillich cherishes her work as an archaeologist for the Third Reich, searching for the Holy Grail and other artifacts to bolster evidence of a master Aryan race. But when she is reassigned to work as a museum curator in Nuremberg, then forced to marry an SS officer and adopt a young girl, she begins to see behind the Nazi facade. A prayer labyrinth becomes a storehouse for her secrets, but as she comes to love Lilly as her own daughter, she fears that what she’s hiding—and what she begins to uncover—could put them both in mortal danger.