‘One to Watch’ Good HousekeepingThis year marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.Young nurse, Gemma, is struggling with the traumas she has witnessed through her job in the NHS. Needing to escape from it all, Gemma agrees to help renovate a rundown farmhouse in Doullens, France, a town near the Somme. There, in a boarded-up cupboard, wrapped in old newspapers, is a tin that …
Personal stories from the men and women who volunteered to fight for a cause they passionately believed in.The Spanish Civil War, which raged from 1936-9, was a brutal and intense war which claimed well over 500,000 lives. Rightly predicting that the rise of Fascism in Spain could develop into a more global conflict, almost 2500 British volunteers travelled to Spain under the banner of the Interna…
Lest we forget… A poignant tale of love and loss for fans of Nadine Dorries and Katie Flynn.It's 2003 and at over 100 years old, Selma Dixon is the last link to the hidden truth behind her village's refusal to honour its war dead.1914 saw the Yorkshire village of West Sharland send its men off to fight, including Selma's brothers and her sweetheart Guy. But when Guy is badly wounded and returns ho…
Nicknamed ‘The Anarchy' for its unprecedented levels of chaos and disorder, the succession crisis that followed the death of King Henry I in 1135 resulted in England's first civil war.‘The Medieval Anarchy: History in an Hour’ neatly covers all the major facts and events giving you a clear and straightforward overview of the plots and violence that ensued during the the nineteen-year conflict. ‘Th…
Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour. Elizabeth II is the longest lived and, after Queen Victoria, second longest reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. From her coronation in 1953 to her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, Queen Elizabeth II has stood on the world stage as the figurehead for Britain. The Queen: History in an Hour tells the story of the Queen Elizabeth II’s life and long re…
Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.The sinking of the Titanic 100 years ago in 1912, and the subsequent deaths of over 1,500 passengers, sent shock waves around the world. Never before or since has a maritime disaster in a time of peace had such an impact.TITANIC: HISTORY IN AN HOUR is an entertaining and well researched account of the events leading up to the sinking of this ‘u…
A stirring Second World War tale of love and loss set in Yorkshire from the author of The Linden Walk and A Scent of Lavender.Set during World War 2, TURN LEFT AT THE DAFFODILS tells two love stories – those of Nan and Carrie.Nan meets Charles, a gauche, young airman at a dance. Despite his stammer and inability to dance, Nan is captivated by her first romance, and takes him under her wing. When N…
Two women. One house. Centuries of secrets.East Sussex Coast, 1855Violet Hargreaves is the lonely daughter of a widowed industrialist, and an aspiring Pre-Raphaelite painter. One day, the naïve eighteen-year-old meets the mysterious and handsome Edwin on the beach. He promises her a world beyond the small coastal village she’s trapped in. But after she ignores warnings about Edwin, a chain of terr…
Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.Britain has invaded Afghanistan twice before in the nineteenth century. Both times tenacious Afghan fighters defended their country to humiliating British defeats. The Soviet Union also discovered what a tough enemy the Afghans are after nearly a decade of conflict from 1979 to 1989. When not fighting foreign invaders, Afghanistan was torn apar…
From the author of THE DISCOVERY OF CHOCOLATE – a romantic historical quest set in Renaissance Florence and China surrounding the search for ultramarine.THE COLOUR OF HEAVEN is a fictional account of a young man who travelled to what are now Afghanistan and China to discover lapis lazuli, the precious stone that when turned into ultramarine changed the history of painting – allowing artists to aba…
A stunning historical saga set in the early decades of the twentieth century which follows the lives and loves of one extraordinary family.We first meet the Goold Verschoyle children in 1915. Though there is a war going on in the world outside, they seem hardly touched by it – midnight swims, flower fairies and regatta parties form the backdrop to their enchanted childhood. But as they grow older,…
HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.‘Why can't people have what they want? The things were all there to content everybody; yet everybody has the wrong thing.’Just before the First World War, two young couples meet in Germany. The seemingly perfect yet brittle relationship of the Ashburnhams soon gives way to unhappiness and betrayal, and respect…
Now seen as one of the great English comic novels, Tristram Shandy caused a stir on publication in polite 18th-century English society. The novel broke with conventions of form and structure, foreshadowing Postmodern authors by 200 years, and scandalized with bawdy descriptions and rambling prose. Hugely influenced by Francis Bacon, Rabelais, and Jonathan Swift, clergyman Lawrence Sterne manages t…
HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.‘I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself.’Heralded as one of the first instances of feminist literature and rejected at its time of publication by the literary set on grounds of moral distaste, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening caused constern…
LONGLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME TRUST BOOK PRIZE 2012While carrying out historical research at an Ontario asylum, psychiatrist Harry Karlinsky comes across a familiar surname in the register. Could the “Thomas Darwin of Down, England” be a relative of the famous Charles Darwin?In a narrative woven from letters, photographs, historical documents and illustrations, what emerges is a sketch of Thomas’s l…