British War Fiction

The first in an action-packed spy series introducing Lieutenant Dragan Kelly. It is 1942. HMS Visigoth has been torpedoed off the coast of German occupied Norway. Sole survivor Lieutenant Dragan Kelly finds himself behind enemy lines, unsure who to trust. The Norwegian resistance share rumours about a mysterious Nazi plant where an Armageddon weapon of terrifying power is under construction. Should Kelly escape to Russia or stay and investigate it? And what of the stunningly beautiful but enigmatic resistance fighter Sybilla? Kelly falls in love with her, but is she all she claims to be? ...

A thrilling tale of post–World War II London, where the peace proves as tricky to navigate as the past, from the #1 international bestselling author of Life After Life. “[Atkinson] boasts an immaculate prose style, a dry wit and a taste for narrative legerdemain. This splendid historical...

Portsmouth, England. A ten-year-old boy. A British warship. The boy already knows what hunger can make someone do. When he is caught stealing food for his family, prison should end his troubles. Instead, it is only the beginning. Taken from his cell and forced aboard the British warship HMS Progress, the boy becomes a cabin boy under a brutal captain. Trapped at sea and subjected to unimaginable cruelty, he learns one lesson above all others: survive. Three years later, Boston changes everything. Then the ship reaches Boston. When fire tears through the city, the boy sees his chance. He ...

Based on the remarkable true story of Irish convict John Graham, WHITE SPIRIT is an epic historical adventure set in 19th Century Australia. After escaping from the notorious Moreton Bay Penal Settlement, Graham finds refuge with the Kabi, a tribe of Aborigines who eventually accept him as one of their own. Attempts to recapture Graham are orchestrated by a variety of contrasting characters working for the all-pervasive British Empire. They include Moreton Bay's tyrannical, opium-addicted commandant Lord Cheetham, the dashing yet warlike Lieutenant Hogan, native tracker Barega and the penal...

Temeraire * Book 3 After their fateful adventure in China, Capt. Will Laurence of His Majesty’s Aerial Corps and his extraordinary dragon, Temeraire, are waylaid by a mysterious envoy bearing urgent new orders from Britain. Three valuable dragon eggs have been purchased from the Ottoman Empire...

PELLEW: FLEET ACTION Midshipman Gerry Pellew escaped a French prison with nothing but the clothes on his back and a debt to the men who didn't make it out. Now, aboard HMS Lark, he's determined to become the officer his late father would have been proud of — if the war doesn't take him first. The blockade off Brest is a slow grind of fog, storms, and waiting — until Lark crosses paths with the Junon, a French frigate captained by a man as skilled and honorable as any Gerry has faced. Twice they meet, first in the fog and then in a squall. The third time, there will be nowhere left to ...

March 1879. Zululand burns, and the fate of the frontier will be decided on the blood-red heights of Kambula. Second Lieutenant William Blackwood, marches north with the Monmouthshire Fusiliers as Her Majesty’s forces prepare to strike a hammer blow against the enemy. Assigned to Colonel Evelyn Wood’s elite flying column on the untamed frontier, Blackwood is swept into a relentless campaign of raids, skirmishes, and mountain warfare. Here, loyalty is measured in blood, and every patrol could be a man’s last. From the shattered ridges of Hlobane to the storm-wracked heights of Kambula,...

Pellew: Boarders Away Gerald Pellew is fourteen years old, the son of a dead admiral, and newly turned over to the Ardent when she sails straight into a trap off Ushant. Out-gunned by the combined fleets of France and Spain, the ship strikes her colours, and Gerry is marched into a French prison to rot. What follows is hunger, fever, and the slow dying of the men around him, but a boy who has been well taught does not lie down. When a winter storm tears open the prison wall, Gerry and a small powder-boy slip into the flooded river with nothing but a hidden coat and a promise to keep. They ...

From New York Times bestselling author Stephen R. Lawhead comes the first installment in the beloved Song of Albion Trilogy--an epic blend of myth, history, and adventure that transports readers beyond the boundaries of the modern world. Lewis Gillies is an American graduate student in Oxford...

Selected by Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of the century, Brideshead Revisited is a stunning exploration of desire, duty, and memory. "Evelyn Waugh's finest achievement." —New York Times The wellsprings of desire and the impediments to love come brilliantly into focus in Evelyn...

1st Place in the Readers Choice Awards 2022 - "A compelling and captivating read.” The friendship that changed the destiny of a nation… In the waning years of the thirteenth century, two young noblemen form a bond that forever changes their destiny and that of Scotland’s. Their shared pledge of honor would endure for a lifetime to secure power in the Isles for Angus Og Macdonald and a crown for Robert Bruce. This is the story of their friendship, their times and the battle that secured their future. Standing beside them would be two women from Ireland, Áine O’Cahan, the dark-haired...

It's 1814, and Napoleon is hard-pressed to defend France from a combination of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Britain. Nor is he the only one in a quandary. Matthew Hervey, a young British cornet, is in a rather unusual situation. As far as he knows, it's highly irregular to be arrested on a...

What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon...

The third entry in the critically acclaimed Culture series, from British Science Fiction author, Iain M. Banks. The man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks and military...

A scandalous affair. A power struggle for the throne. A sensational rivalry between an English queen and an American social climber. In this electrifying novel, the New York Times bestselling author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue tells the story of the Abdication of Edward VIII—and the two women...

Kurt is an English evacuee with a difference, his father is a Nazi. As Kurt grows into an adult and is forced to pretend he is someone he isn’t for his own protection, can he survive in the hostile world in which he finds himself? And with his enemies closing in, will even the woman he loves believe who he really is? Sent to a small town deep in the English countryside to escape the bombing of London during the Second World War, Kurt should have been safe but a chance discovery will change his life in ways he could never have imagined when the war finds him and challenges both his ...

It is very early in Jack Ryan’s career—so early that he has not yet even become an analyst for the CIA. But a series of nasty encounters with an IRA splinter group has brought Ryan to the attention of the CIA’s Deputy Director and his British counterpart. They offer him his first job as a...

Wilbur Smith returns to his legendary Courtney Series with a brand new World War II thriller. 1943. The tide of the Second World War is turning. The Russian victory at Stalingrad - the bloodiest battle in history - has opened the door for the Allies. Now, they must strike decisively at the heart...

1879. The British Empire marches into Zululand, and disaster. Newly commissioned and untested, Second Lieutenant William Blackwood arrives from Monmouthshire to the wild frontier of South Africa, as Her Majesty’s forces prepare to crush the Zulu Kingdom. For Blackwood, it is meant to be the beginning of a proud military career: clean uniforms, sharp commands, and the steady march of empire. Instead, he finds confusion, chaos, and the first bitter lessons of war. Tasked with reinforcing a remote column of British and colonial troops, Blackwood is plunged into a campaign of dust-choked ...

BEN MACINTYRE'S NEXT AUDIOBOOK, REDWOOD, IS AVAILABLE TO BUY NOW THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER An exciting Cold War story about a KGB double agent, by one of Britain's greatest historians and the ultimate gift for anyone who loves a good spy thriller! On a warm July evening in 1985, a...