We may well be ‘a nation of shopkeepers’, but for generations England was a country dominated by its middling families, rooted on their land, interested in turning a profit from their property. Adam Nicolson’s riveting new book concentrates on 14 families with a time-span from 1400 to the present day, providing a chronological picture of the English, seen through these intimate, passionate, powerf... More >

Women are dying in their millions. Some blame scientists, some see the hand of God, some see human arrogance reaping the punishment it deserves. Jessie Lamb is an ordinary girl living in extraordinary times: as her world collapses, her idealism and courage drive her towards the ultimate act of heroism. If the human race is to survive, it’s up to her. But is Jessie heroic? Or is she, as her father ... More >

A passenger jet crashes Colorado, with no survivors. In Glasgow, Alex Cahill is surprised to hear from the wife of his former colleague in the US Secret Service – a man who was supposedly on the doomed plane. But there is no record of his name on the passenger list. Determined to uncover the truth behind his friend’s disappearance, Cahill and Logan Finch head to Denver and a confrontation with the... More >

Cathy Kelly has created her first collection of short stories, charming tales of life, love and the everyday dilemmas that we all face. From two spinster sisters who must break free from their mother’s powerful personality, to Alice, who is facing having to open her home and her heart to the one visitor that she doesn’t want this Christmas; from a captivating family story triggered by a letter, to... More >

When Eva’s film star sister Katrina dies, she returns to Cornwall to scatter Katrina’s ashes. But the house where she stayed as a child is home not only to her friends the Halletts, but also to the people who lived there in the 18th century. When Eva accepts that she can slip between centuries, she begins to question her place in the present, and comes to realise that she must decide where she rea... More >

Three men are found dead in a locked office of a Honolulu building. In the forests of Oahu, groundbreaking technology has ushered in a revolutionary era of biological prospecting. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, seven graduates are dispatched to a mysterious lab in Hawaii, where they are promised access to tools that will open a whole new scientific frontier. But once in Oahu, they find themselves pr... More >

It is winter in London. Eliza Cummings, a ceramics restorer at the V&A Museum, is leaving work when she receives a phone call which draws her back 25 years – to the night Rose died. But why does Rose’s father want her to visit him when they both know that he blames her for what happened to his daughter? Grief and guilt cast terrible shadows, but as this beautifully wrought story unfolds we learn t... More >

Ann Prentice falls in love with Richard Cauldfield and hopes for new happiness. Her only child, Sarah, cannot contemplate the idea of her mother marrying again and wrecks any chance of her remarriage. Resentment and jealousy corrode their relationship.... More >

A woman wades into the waters of Morecambe Bay in a drunken bid to commit suicide. She finds herself instead saving the life of a young Chinese cockle picker, a survivor of a tragic mass drowning. Wen and Angie share neither language nor experience, but she agrees to let him stay with her and disappear. Within a short time their unlikely pairing blossoms into something darkly passionate. But Wen i... More >

Georgia, 1177. For 20 years King Giorgi has defended his fragile kingdom. Now he faces a grave new threat: he has no son to succeed him. There is only his daughter, Tamar. When a revolt threatens her life, Tamar is sent to live in the mountains, disguised as a boy, until a devastating betrayal places her in the hands of her enemies. Her courageous escape convinces Giorgi she should be his heir, bu... More >

Paul Craddock is still young when he is invalided out of the army after the Boer War and he discovers the neglected estate of Shallowford in a secluded corner of Devon. It seems remote from the march of progress. But as storm clouds gather over Europe, Paul learns that no part of England, however remote, can escape the challenge of the times.... More >

On the night of 14 April 1912, the seemingly unsinkable ship RMS Titantic hit an iceberg and nose-dived to the bottom of the North Atlantic. Over 1,500 people died that night. But who were they? Bringing together over 2,000 passengers and crew from every class and five continents, Titanic Lives tells their stories, re-creating the complexities, disparities and tensions of life 100 years ago.... More >

It’s September 1940 and the London Blitz has begun. For the four girls living at No 13 Article Row, life must go on. Agnes is working to deal with the huge influx of people seeking safety in her underground station, while Dulcie tries to make peace with her mother. Nurse Sally returns to Liverpool and gets a shocking reminder of the past. Could he be the one to mend her broken heart? As the bombs ... More >

America in 1968 is in turmoil and the leafy Holloman suburb of Carew is being silently terrorised by a series of vicious and systematic rapes. When finally one victim finds the courage to speak out and go to the police, the rapist escalates to murder. For Captain Carmine Delmonico, it seems to be a case with no clues. As the killer makes his plans, Carmine and his team must use every resource at t... More >

Seven portraits. Seven artists. Seven girls and women reading. A young orphan poses nervously for a Renaissance maestro, and a servant girl in 17th-century Amsterdam loses herself in tales of knights and battles. A young woman reading in a bar catches the eye of a young man who takes her picture, and a Victorian medium holds a book that she barely acknowledges while she waits for the exposure. Eac... More >

Kublai Khan – an extraordinary man who should be remembered alongside Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte – dreams of an empire stretching from sea to sea. But to see it built, this scholar must first learn the art of war. He must take his nation’s warriors to the ends of the known world. And when he is weary, when he is wounded, he must face his own brothers in bloody civil ... More >

While everyone else in the early 1980s was reading Derrida, Madeleine Hanna was happily absorbed with Jane Austen and George Eliot. But after Madeleine enrolls in a semiotics course things will never be the same. Not after she falls in love with charismatic loner Leonard Morten, who introduces her to the ecstasies of immediate experience. And certainly not after Mitchell Grammaticus – resurfaces i... More >

1952. It is more than a decade since humiliation at Dunkirk brought an end to Britain’s war and the beginning of an uneasy peace with Hitler. In Africa, the swastika flies from the Sahara to the Indian Ocean. The brutal presence of the SS is visible everywhere. Now, however, the demonic plans of Walter Hochburg – architect of Nazi Africa – threaten Britain’s ailing colonies. In England, ex-mercena... More >

When Henry Cavendish attends an old friend’s funeral, he little expects to be offered a handsome sum to retrieve a document that was in his friend’s possession when he died – a letter from Sir Walter Raleigh. Four centuries earlier, another quest is playing out. Thomas Harriot, once a member of the mysterious School of Night, has shut himself off from the world, devoting himself secretly to his ex... More >

As the 9th century wanes, King Alfred is dying and his passing threatens the island of Britain to renewed warfare. Alfred wants his son, Edward, to succeed him but there are other Saxon claimants to the throne. As the king’s warrior, Uhtred knows that he will either be the means of making Alfred’s dream of a united and Christian England come to pass or be responsible for condemning it to oblivion.... More >

Roald Dahl is one of the greatest storytellers of all time. He pushed children’s literature into uncharted territory and almost 20 years after his death his popularity continues to grow. In this masterly biography, written with exclusive access to his private papers and manuscripts as well as with reference to hundreds of newly-discovered letters, Donald Sturrock reveals many hitherto hidden aspec... More >

When pirates attack a cargo ship off the Somalian coast and one of them is found to be a British-born Pakistani, MI5 Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle is brought in to establish how and why a young British Muslim could go missing from his family in Birmingham and end up onboard a pirate skiff in the Indian Ocean, armed with a Kalashnikov. After an undercover operative connected to the case turns up... More >

Glasgow, not too far in the future. A new punishment has been devised for the perpetrators of serious crimes. The process is known as halfheading: the offender’s lower jaw is removed and they are lobotomized. But for one halfhead, it seems the lobotomy hasn’t quite succeeded. Six years after her surgery, Dr Fiona Westfield ‘wakes up’ surrounded by the remains of a man she has just killed. Willia... More >

When reclusive photographer Rob Fossick’s mother dies, he is presented with an intriguing problem to solve – minutes before her death, he discovers that she was hoping to deliver a package to an enigmatic character called Mr Satoshi. So begins a quest that plunges him into the urban maelstrom of Tokyo. With the help of an octogenarian amateur detective; a beautiful ‘love hotel’ receptionist; and a... More >