Lancaster, 1943. As the war rages on, the Red Cross girls will do whatever it takes to bring their boys home. But can they find happiness in such troubling times? When Livvy receives her orders for war work, she's desperate for a new beginning. Most of her friends have been sent to munitions factories, so she is delighted to be working for the Red Cross, who are making secret packages that can help prisoners of war escape. Arriving at her lodgings, she soon meets fellow Red Cross workers R...

Manchester, 1920. As a mannequin in an exclusive fashion salon, Kate Hunter lives for the moments she can step into a beautiful gown and leave her worries behind.But when Kate is cheated out of her home and then suffers a terrible accident, she suddenly loses everything: her job, her independence and her future.Miss Hawes, the well-to-do owner of Calico House, provides her with a chance beyond her wildest dreams. Could Kate use her eye for fashion to secure...

In the first volume of this epic new series, Alison Weir strips away centuries of romantic mythology and prejudice to reveal the lives of England's queens in the century after the Norman Conquest. Beginning with Matilda of Flanders, who supported William the Conqueror in 1066, to the turbulent life of the Empress Maud, who claimed to be queen of England in her own right and fought a bitter war to that end, the five Norman queens emerge as hugely influential figures and fascinating characte...

Three women destined to find each other and forge a new path to happiness.Mellissa Knight thought she had a happy life in Devon—until Geoff, her husband of twenty-five years announces he’s off to take the gap year he never had. Within days, he’s gone. Reeling, Mel seizes an unexpected chance to house-sit in Antibes on the French Riviera, hoping distance might bring clarity.Evie Sampson, an American journalist named after her great-grandmother Evelyn, arrive...

Thirty-nine-year-old Enora Andresson is a successful actress and a woman in her prime. But tests have revealed an aggressive brain tumour that could kill her. Already struggling with the wreckage of her marriage and a strained relationship with her teenage son, Malo, she hasn't anticipated the appearance of investigative journalist Mitch Culligan. Mitch is writing a book about entrepreneur and one-time drug baron Hayden Prentice – a multi-millionaire who once crossed paths with Enora, and ...

Staffordshire, 1911. Money is in short supply For Ginnie Jones's family and she is sent to Haddon Workhouse. When she meets Clara and Sam, she hopes that she has made friends for life… until tragedy strikes. Three years later, Ginnie finds work as a mouldrunner at the Potteries, but never stops thinking about her friends. When Sam and Ginnie are reunited, their bond is as strong as ever, until Sam is sent to fight in the war. Can Ginnie find the joy that she's never had?

When she receives a wedding invitation from one of her former patients, forensic psychiatrist Dr Claire Roget is more than a little alarmed. Highly intelligent and manipulative, Jerome Barclay suffers from a severe personality disorder. Although she has never been able to prove it, Claire believes him to be highly dangerous, responsible for at least three suspicious deaths – and she fears for the safety of his new bride. What's more, Jerome seems to know rather too much about Claire's pers...

Tells the story of the married life of Nevis Falconer, a young woman novelist, and Simon Quinn. Temperamentally unsuited, they live this superficial existence for three years, until one day Nevis meets Marcus Chard, her American publisher, who has just arrived in London. Soon friendship develops into love. Nevis finds herself caught in a whirl of circumstances over which she has no control.

WWI is over and now living in Cambridge with husband Edmond, Amy Derwent is settling into her new life as wife and mother. Edmond's cousin, Vicky spends her days tending to the soldiers suffering the after-effects of their time on the battlefield. Meeting Maxim Duclos, a young Frenchman, fills her heart with joy. But he's hiding something. Vicky must choose to either follow her heart's desire and risk her family's disapproval or remain a dutiful daughter?

Tom is a teenager and blends into the background of life. After a row with his dad, and facing an unhappy future at the dog food factory, he escapes to the library. Tom unwittingly ends up with a bagful of romance novels and comes under the suspicion of Maggie. Maggie is a pensioner and has been happily alone for ten years, at least that's what she tells herself. When Tom comes to her rescue, a friendship develops that could change her life. . .They each set out to prove that the library i...

July 1914. Britain is in turmoil as WW1 begins to change the world. While the young men disappear off to foreign battlefields, the women left at home throw themselves into jobs meant for the boys. Hiding her privileged background and her suffragette past, Constance Copeland signs up to be a Clippie on the trams in Staffordshire, despite her parents' disapproval. Constance, known as Connie, soon makes fast friends with lively fellow Clippies, Betty and Jean, as well as growing closer to the...

When irascible farmer Guy Beardon meets a very dirty death in his own farmyard, it seems like an accident initially – despite the fact that he was widely disliked. Only his daughter Lilah is prepared to defend his memory. And when, slowly, Lilah begins to suspect foul play, no one is eager to help her investigate. Suspicion becomes certainty when two more deaths occur – and both of them are unmistakably murder. There is certainly no shortage of suspects and it falls to local policeman Den ...