Showing titles in World War I

March, 1941. World War Two is well underway and the Blitz is taking its toll on Central London with bombs raining down almost every night. Inspector Coburg and his trusted Sergeant Lampson are just recovering from the devastating bomb attack on the Café de Paris when they get a call asking them to go to the disused Lord's Underground station. Once there, they are taken to see the body of a man on the former platform. He's been beaten to death by blows on the back of his head, by what Dr Welbourne believes to have been a cricket bat.

Sally Harper is busy juggling running London’s Oxford Street Store Harpers and looking after her beautiful new-born daughter, whilst husband Ben is overseas on another dangerous mission; this time to rescue a friend in need. Young Becky Stockbridge finds herself in a difficult situation, which could bring shame to her and her family. Will Becky, with the help of her friends, find her happy ever after and keep her secret? Marion Jackson is blessed with a son as she eagerly awaits the return of her husband, Reggie. But all is not right when Reggie returns.

Following the breakdown of her marriage, Theo has bought a tumbledown cottage on the banks of the river Tamar which divides Cornwall and Devon. The peace and tranquillity of Boatman’s Cottage, nestled by the water, is just what she needs to heal. Yet soon after her arrival, Theo discovers a stash of hidden letters tied with a ribbon, untouched for more than a century. The letters—sent from the battlefields of France during WWI—tell of a young servant from the nearby manor house, Abbotswood, and his love for a woman he was destined to lose.

Working at the Foyles bookshop was Molly Cooper's dream job. But with the country at war, she's determined to do her bit. She must face the tribulations of being the 'new girl' at Silvertown munitions factory, as well as the relentless physical work. The happy-ever-afters Molly read about in the pages of her beloved books have been lost to the war. And yet the munitions girls unite through their sense of duty in the most unlikely of settings....

1918. In the last week of the First World War, a uniformed soldier is arrested in Durham Cathedral. When questioned, it becomes clear that he has no memory of who he is or how he came to be there. The soldier is given the name Adam and transferred to a rehabilitation home. His doctor, James, is determined to recover who this man once was. But Adam doesn’t want to remember. Unwilling to relive the trauma of war, Adam has locked his memory away, seemingly for good.

In 1915 three women start work at a toffee factory in the market town of Chester-le-Street, Durham. Anne works for the enigmatic owner Mr Jack. She is highly efficient and whips Mr Jack's disorganised office - and Mr Jack himself - into shape. However, behind her business-like façade, Anne hides a heart-breaking secret. Elsie is feisty, fun and enjoys a good time. However, her gadabout ways get her into trouble when she falls for the wrong man in the sugar-boiling room. And there's dependable Hetty, who's set to marry her boyfriend when he returns from the war.

From the time of William the Conqueror, the Beaumonts have enjoyed the privileges of wealth and position. Their pleasure is to be nothing more than farmers and knights of the realm. Nevertheless, with the dawn of the 20th century, a stray artillery shell slays the current baronet and Thomas Beaumont finds himself the new incumbent, but with no farming knowledge, his first instinct is to run. However, the family motto reads: Where there is a will, there is a way. Sir Thomas finds his way, and by the end of the war, the future looks brighter. Then another deadly crisis rears its head.

May 1915. As zeppelin bombs fall on London and with the sinking of the Lusitania, anti-German hysteria reaches fever pitch and attacks on German immigrants surge. Not even the West End of London is immune. Jacob Stein's bespoke tailoring business comes under brutal attack, leaving his safe ransacked, his daughter, Ruth, raped and Jacob dead.

Born into the Scottish working class, Kate McLaren is a servant in a wealthy household. Young and ambitious, determined to rise above her station in life, she moves to London, marries, and seeks her place in society.

Rosie Burrows loves being part of the Foyles team, and outwardly, she’s a happy young woman, engaged to the love of her life. But inside, Rosie faces a horrible dilemma. When Alfie enlisted, she promised to wait for him to return from France. And she has waited, quietly preparing for him to come home so they can marry. But for years her letters to him have gone unanswered, and now she doesn’t know where she stands. To keep occupied, Rosie starts volunteering at the local school.

With the Great War behind them, four friends are ready to live again. Lydia, a society beauty, has everything—wealth, status and a husband who survived the War. All she has to do now is provide an heir. Widowed Sarah cares for her wounded brother, certain that no one will ever replace her brave husband. Younger sister Beatrice finds it hard to shine, especially when there are so few men left to shine for. And independent Ava—who can light any room—is determined to seize the freedom of being a single woman.

1916. As thousands of Brits are fighting on the Front Line, a new breed of women emerges to hold the Home Front together. Fiercely independent and fiery-spirited, the munitionettes, or ‘canaries’, are easily recognisable with their chemically-stained yellow faces. Among the raucous group of women is Florrie Duncan, who plans to celebrate her birthday in style at the Golden Goose pub. But the celebrations are cut short when all but one are killed in a brutal explosion.

The sixth and final book in the War at Home series by the author of The Morland Dynasty novels. Set against the evocative backdrop of World War I, this is an epic family drama featuring the Hunters and their servants.

Oxford Street, London 1915. Sally Harper quietly battles to keep Harpers afloat in the difficult days of the war, whilst husband Ben is working all hours for the War Office. Beth Burrow is fighting concern for her husband, Jack, now at sea with the Merchant Navy, and the fear she may never see him again and be blessed with a child. Driven to exhaustion, Maggie Gibbs, is now working as a nursing assistant on the battlefields in France. With the everyday horrors of the casualties of war to contend with she suffers her own personal tragedy when her fiancé's plane ditches in the sea.

From the moment Len came into their lives, everything changed for Millie and Elsie. Both fell in love with him, but he chose Millie because of her attractive legacy - the Jam Factory. Millie’s expecting Len’s baby, and it should be the happiest time, but her husband’s true colours have come to the fore - and Millie is forced to leave the marriage. Now Millie is desperate to save her child from Len’s clutches. Will Len ever allow her to find happiness?

Vienna, 1913. Lysander Rief, a young English actor, sits in the waiting room of the city's preeminent psychiatrist as he anxiously ponders the particularly intimate nature of his neurosis. When the enigmatic, intensely beautiful Hettie Bull walks in, Lysander is immediately drawn to her, unaware of how destructive the consequences of their subsequent affair will be. One year later, home in London, Lysander finds himself entangled in the dangerous web of wartime intelligence - a world of sex, scandal and spies that is slowly, steadily permeating every corner of his life....

Workers in the Clarks shoe factory, at the heart of the village, have left for the army in droves, and news from the Front seems to grow darker by the day. When lifelong friends Louisa, Jeannie and Kate receive the news they had been fearing, all hope seems lost. And Louisa’s world will be rocked further when she makes another discovery, one that will see her cast out by her family, changing her life forever.

Edvard grows up on a remote mountain farmstead in Norway with his taciturn grandfather, Sverre. The death of his parents, when he was three years old, has always been shrouded in mystery—he has never been told how or where it took place and has only a distant memory of his mother. But he knows that the fate of his grandfather's brother, Einar, is somehow bound up with this mystery. One day, a coffin is delivered for his grandfather long before his death—a meticulous, beautiful piece of craftsmanship. Perhaps Einar is not dead after all.

1915. May and Naomi are extended family, their grandmothers’ lives inseparably entwined on a Virginia plantation in the volatile time leading up to the Civil War. For both women, the twentieth century promises social transformation and equal opportunity. May, a young white woman, is on the brink of achieving the independent life she’s dreamed of since childhood. Naomi, a nurse, mother, and leader of the NAACP, has fulfilled her own dearest desire: buying a home for her family. But they both are about to learn that dreams can be destroyed in an instant.

1918: As the Great War rages, Jessie Carson takes a leave of absence from the New York Public Library to work for the American Committee for Devastated France, a group of women determined to rebuild devastated French communities just miles from the front. Upon arrival, Jessie strives to establish something that the French have never seen - children's libraries. She turns ambulances into bookmobiles and trains the first French female librarians. Then she disappears.