Uhtred of Bebbanburg has won back his ancestral home, but, threatened from all sides by enemies both old and new, he doesn't have long to enjoy the victory. In Mercia, rebellion is in the air as King Edward tries to seize control. In Wessex, rival parties scramble to settle on the identity of the next king. And across the country, invading Norsemen...

1521. Young Mary Boleyn arrives at court, maid in waiting and favourite of Queen Katherine of Aragon. Yet Mary catches the eye of the capricious king, and - propelled by the ambitions of the powerful Boleyn family - she betrays her queen and takes her place as Henry VIII's new mistress. But while Mary is in childbed, a rival comes to court: her sis...

Devon School, an exclusive prep school for boys in New Hampshire, is a world unto itself. But it's the summer of 1942 and the massive thundercloud of World War II threatens the school's peaceful environment. Paralleling the war, where enemies real and imagined are sometimes collaborated with and sometimes destroyed, is the friendship between Gene a...

All she has is her reputation ... When Emma Robinson discovers she is carrying Paul Greenslade's child, there are harsh consequences after he disappears rather than marry a common shop-girl. Forced by her tyrannical father to marry Richard Gillows, Emma learns quickly that a jealous husband is a violent one. How can Emma escape the ties that bind h...

Emma Reece is slowly adjusting to her husband's return from the war, even though his appalling injuries mean their marriage is in name only. But then tragedy strikes, and Emma finds she cannot turn to Jack Harvey, her long-standing friend and one-time lover-for while he still loves her, he is now a married man...The final instalment in Rosie Clarke...

1807: Though Britain's Navy remains imperious, as succession of battles has seen Napolean victorious on mainland Europe. In an attempt to prevent the French from taking control of Denmark's navy, Captain Thomas Kydd's great friend Nicholas Renzi, now Lord Farndon, is sent on a desperate diplomatic mission to persuade the Danes to give up their flee...

1807: An old passion is reawakened when Captain Sir Thomas Kydd meets Persephone Lockwood, a beautiful and determined admiral's daughter from his past. To win her hand, he must enter the highest echelons of London society. Mixing with aristocracy and royalty brings other responsibilities. The Prince of Wales asks him to take a temporary comand of t...

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. All the slaves lead a hellish existence, but Cora has it worse than most; she is an outcast even among her fellow Africans. When Caesar, a slave recently arrived from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they take the perilous decision to escape to the North, embarking on a harrowing...

It is 1914, and the world has been on the brink of war so often, many New Yorkers treat the subject with only passing interest. Eliza Ferriday is thrilled to be traveling to St. Petersburg with Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanovs. The two met years ago one summer in Paris and became close confidantes. Now Eliza embarks on the trip of a life...

Catherine de Valois, daughter of the French King, is brought up in the unstable environment of the royal court, where her only friend is the poet Christine de Pizan. Married to Henry V as part of a treaty, she is terrified at the idea of being married to a man who is a foreigner, an enemy and a rough soldier. Within two years she is widowed, and mo...

The year is 1527. Hans Holbein makes his first visit to England under the patronage of Sir Thomas More. As a guest in the splendid More house in Chelsea, Holbein begins to paint their first family portrait. Little could he know that in a few short years, the family, Tudor society and England itself would have changed beyond recognition. More's hous...

Evie, a rebellious young American, leaves New York in search of art and adventure in jazz-age Paris, where her grandmother lives. But on arrival, her grandmother's sudden death leaves Evie compelled to carry out her dying wish: to find a man from her past called Zhenya. The quest leads Evie deep into the heart of the Russian ‚migr‚ community of Par...

On the icy edge of Soviet Russia, bold and reckless Nina Markova joins the infamous Night Witches - an all-female bomber regiment - wreaking havoc on Hitler's eastern front. But when she is downed behind enemy lines and thrown across the path of a lethal Nazi murderess known as the Huntress, Nina must use all her wits to survive. British war corres...

As the Wars of the Roses draw slowly to a close, England is a place of turmoil. Edward IV is on the thrown but his position is unstable and he finds himself challenged by a man who would become Henry VII. But Isabel, a silk weaver to the court and mistress to Richard II, can cut through the turmoil with her clever ways and her pretty smile. Her sis...

Fourteenth century England. The country is in turmoil. The King is in debt to the City, and the old order had broken down. The King's mistress, Alice Perrers, becomes the virtual ruler of the country. Dislaked and despised by the Black Prince, her strong connections to the merchants maker her a natural ally for the King's ambitious second son, John...

Lancashire, 1934. When Tam Crawford is unexpectedly bequeathed some money, he can finally realise his dream of settling down in the beautiful village of Ellindale. Tam knows he can be impulsive - his nickname isn't Crazy Tam for nothing! - but this time he is determined not to be ruled by his big heart and hot head. Yet somehow, within just one day...

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...

As the First World War shatters families, destroys friendships and kills lovers, a young Palestinian dreamer sets out to find himself. Midhat Kamal picks his way across a fractured world, from the shifting politics of the Middle East to the dinner tables of Montpellier and a newly tumultuous Paris. He discovers that everything is fragile: love turn...

The long-awaited sequel to Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, the stunning conclusion to Hilary Mantel's Man Booker Prize-winning Thomas Cromwell trilogy. 'If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?' England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains ar...

Dissatisfied and discontent, Florent-Claude Labrouste begrudgingly works as an engineer for the Ministry of Agriculture, and is in a self-imposed dysfunctional relationship with a younger woman. When he discovers her ongoing infidelity, he decides to abandon his life in Paris and return to the Normandy countryside of his youth. There he contemplate...

From the internationally best-selling author Pam Jenoff, The Lost Girls of Paris is an emotional and powerful journey through friendship and betrayal during the Second World War, inspired by true events. 1940s. With the world at war, Eleanor Trigg leads a mysterious ring of female secret agents in London. Twelve of these women are sent to aid the r...