Taking deep breaths of the cold city air, Katherine whispered, 'This isn't the London I know.' East-End London, 1858. In London's twisting streets, it's hard to tell friend from foe. And for Katherine Martin, arriving back in London after years away, the city is far crueller than she remembers. Her eyes opened to the plight of London's poor, Kate i...

1803. Tensions are escalating again between England and France. Smugglers, perilous storms and a treacherous coastline all threaten to overcome HMS Teazer as her men fight to gain control of the seas. Meanwhile an unlikely rival is seeking her captain's heart. The beautiful admiral's daughter could be the key to realising all Kydd's career ambition...

It is 1788. Twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth is hungry for life but, as the ward of a Devon clergyman, knows she has few prospects. When proud, scarred soldier John Macarthur promises her the earth one midsummer's night, she believes him. But Elizabeth soon realises she has made a terrible mistake. Her new husband is reckless, tormented, driven by som...

With the threat of Mussolini's army looming, recently orphaned Hirut struggles to adapt to her new life as a maid. Her new employer, Kidane, an officer in Emperor Haile Selassie's army, rushes to mobilise his strongest men before the Italians invade. Hirut and the other women long to do more than care for the wounded and bury the dead. When Emperor...

Violet is 38. The First World War took everything from her. Her brother, her fiancé – and her future. She is now considered a ‘surplus woman’. But Violet is also fiercely independent and determined. Escaping her suffocating mother, she moves to Winchester to start a new life –a change that will require courage, resi...

'Paints a vivid picture of life aboard the mighty ship-of-the-line' - Daily ExpressAn Admiralty summons to England cuts short Thomas Kydd's service in the turquoise waters of the Caribbean. While the crew of L'Aurore can look forward to liberty and prize money, a shadow hangs over their captain: the impending court martial of his one...

The greatest naval trial in the Georgian period is underway at Portsmouth with the court-martial of Sir Home Popham, Captain Sir Thomas Kydd's commanding officer in the doomed occupation of Buenos Aires. Kydd has some sympathy for Popham's unauthorised action, but his support for his former commander leaves him athwart some very influential people...

In the heyday of the British Raj, Anahita becomes Princess Indira's official companion, and accompanies her to England just before the outbreak of the Great War. There, she meets the young Donald Astbury – reluctant heir to a magnificent, estate—and his scheming mother. Eighty years later, Rebecca Bradley, a young American film star, ha...

1811. The Adriatic, the 'French Lake', is the most valuable territory Napoleon Bonaparte possesses. The Admiralty summons Thomas Kydd to lead a squadron of frigates into these waters to cause havoc and distress to the enemy. Kydd is dubbed 'The Sea Devil' by Bonaparte who personally appoints one of his favourites, Dubourdieu, along with a fleet tha...

1811. The Adriatic, the 'French Lake', is the most valuable territory Napoleon Bonaparte possesses. The Admiralty summons Thomas Kydd to lead a squadron of frigates into these waters to cause havoc and distress to the enemy. Kydd is dubbed 'The Sea Devil' by Bonaparte who personally appoints one of his favourites, Dubourdieu, along with a fleet tha...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Confessions of Frannie Langton read by Sara Collins. They say I must be put to death for what happened to Madame, and they want me to confess. But how can I confess what I don't believe I've done? 1826, and all of London is in a frenzy. Crowds gather at the gates of the Old Bailey to watch as Frannie La...

A fictionalised retelling of Commodore (later Admiral) Anson's fateful circumnavigation of the globe in 1740, which precedes O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series. Peter Palofox, son of a poor Irish parson, signs on as a midshipman, never before having seen a ship. Together with his lifelong friend Sean, Peter sets out to seek his fortune, embarking upon...

Set in 17th-century France against a backdrop of terror and religious frenzy. Juliette seeks refuge in a remote abbey - and reinvents herself as Soeur Auguste. Then her past turns up to haunt her in the guise of a man she has every reason to fear.

Captain Jack Aubrey sets sail for the South China Sea with a new lease of life, having earned reinstatement to the Royal Navy through his exploits as a privateer. Now he shepherds Stephen Maturin on a diplomatic mission to prevent links between Bonaparte and the Malay princes which could put English merchant shipping at risk. The thirteenth book in...

This is the story of Ruth bas Elazar Saul, a Jewish midwife who returns to her home of Deutz, outside Cologne in Germany. Imbued with the radical ideas of Spinoza and with the ancient Hebrew Kabbalism, Ruth's revolutionary methods of dealing with illness lead to accusations of witchcraft and imprisonment. Her love affair with Detleff von Tennen, a...

Patrick O'Brian's first novel about the sea, 'The Golden Ocean', took inspiration from Commodore Anson's ill-fated voyage around the globe in 1740. With this audiobook, O'Brian returns to this rich source to recount the adventures of two young men - midshipman Jack Byron and naive surgeon's mate Tobias Barrow - aboard the Wager, which was parted fr...

In this audiobook Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are stranded on an uninhabited island in the Dutch East Indies, attacked by ferocious Malay pirates. They contrive their escape, but after a stay in Batavia and a change of ship, they are caught up on a chase in fiercely tidal waters and then embroiled in much more insidious conflicts on the terrify...

As the book opens, Captain Jack Aubery sails away from the hated Australian prison colonies in his favourite vessel the Surprise, pondering on middle age. He soon becomes aware that he is out of touch with the mood of his ship: to his astonishment he finds that, in spite of a lifetime's experience, he does not know what the foremost hands or even h...

London 1792. The Kellaways move from familiar rural Dorset to the tumult of a cramped, unforgiving city. They are leaving behind a terrible loss, a blow that only a completely new life may soften. Against the backdrop of a city jittery over the increasingly bloody French Revolution, a surprising bond forms between Jem, the youngest Kellaway boy, an...

It is February 1818, and Adam Bolitho longs for marriage and a safe personal harbour. But with so much of Britain's fleet redundant, he knows he is fortunate to be offered H.M.S. Onward, a new 38-gun frigate whose first mission is not war but diplomacy, as consort to the French frigate Nautilus. Under the burning sun of North Africa, Bolitho is kee...

It's July 1917, and as the sun sets over no-man's-land so Joseph Reavley's heart sinks with it. As chaplain he must keep up the men's morale, but as rumours of mutiny grow stronger he is losing any chance of getting through to them. After the death of an officer, twelve soldiers are arrested, and it falls to Joseph to uncover the truth about their...