England Society

Does a sinister cabal actually control international affairs? Were William Shakespeare and Abraham Lincoln secretly involved with a group founded to discover and preserve the principles of alchemy? Has an ancient mystical religion really been reduced to a length of red string that sells for a dollar an inch? Secret societies surround us, yet they often remain a mystery. Their secrecy suggests sacrilege and crime, and their loyalties stand accused of undermining the world's governments. They generate fear, suspicion, and - above all - fascination.

Lady Augusta Colebrook, “Gus,” is determinedly unmarried, bored by society life, and tired of being dismissed at the age of forty-two. She and her twin sister, Julia, who is grieving her dead betrothed, need a distraction. One soon presents itself: to rescue their friend’s goddaughter, Caroline, from her violent husband. The sisters set out to Caroline’s country estate with a plan, but their carriage is accosted by a highwayman. In the scuffle, Gus accidentally shoots and injures the ruffian, only to discover he is Lord Evan Belford, an acquaintance from their past.

What if everything you admired about the Victorians—was built on denial? Beneath the lace gloves and gaslight of 19th-century England lay a darker world—one of public executions and private abuses, imperial brutality and official denial, moral posturing and systemic hypocrisy. The Dark Side of the Victorian Era pulls back the velvet curtain to reveal the crimes, cover-ups, and contradictions that polite society worked hard to ignore. From child migrants sent overseas under the banner of Christian charity to the macabre spectacles of execution day, from Parliament’s strategic silences ...

National Bestseller A New York Times Editor’s Choice Pick Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2025 by NPR, TIME, LitHub, Paste, and PopVerse One of PEOPLE'S Best Books of August 2025 The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides in this haunting debut about five sisters in a small village in...

Laid off, cheated on, mugged: what else can go wrong in Maeve Stephens’ life? So when she learns her birth mother has left her a house, a vintage VW Beetle, and a marauding cat in the small town of Timber Creek, Washington, she packs up to discover the truth about her past. She arrives to the sight of a cheerful bulldog abandoned on her front porch, a reclusive but tempting author living next door, and a set of ready-made friends at the St. Francis Society for Wayward Pets, where women knit colorful sweaters for the dogs and cats in their care.

Exploring the folk customs and magical traditions of guilds and rural fraternities such as the Shoemakers and Horsemen and the secrets guarded by the Free Gardeners, Witches, Toadmen, and Bonesmen, Nigel Pennick shows how the common working people of the Fens belonged to secret societies based on their specific trade. He details the hidden aspects of rural life most historians ignore - the magical current that flowed through the lives of working people - and describes the secret rites, ceremonies, oaths, and initiation rituals of the guilds and fraternities to which the folk belonged.

One hundred and fifty years ago, Chawton was the final home of Jane Austen, one of England's finest novelists. Now, it's home to a few distant relatives and their diminishing estate. With the last bit of Austen's legacy threatened, a group of disparate individuals come together to preserve both Jane Austen's home and her legacy. These people - a laborer, a young widow, the local doctor, and a movie star, among others - could not be more different and yet they are united in their love for the works and words of Austen.

In this boldly drawn portrait of 18th-century England, Roy Porter defines a nation from its princes to its paupers, from its metropolis to its smallest hamlet. The topics covered run the gamut, covering diet, housing, prisons, rural festivals, bordellos, plays, paintings, and work and wages.

At the age of 21, Edith Chaplin married one of the most eligible bachelors of the day, the eldest son of the sixth marquess of Londonderry. Her husband served in the Ulster cabinet and was air minister in the National Government of 1934-5. Edith founded the Women's Legion during the First World War and was also an early campaigner for women's suffrage. She created the renowned Mount Stewart Gardens in County Down that are now owned by the National Trust.

The three novels that make up The Forsyte Saga chronicle the ebbing social power of the commercial upper-middle class Forsyte family through three generations, beginning in Victorian London during the 1880s and ending in the early 1920s. Galsworthy's masterly narrative examines not only their fortunes but also the wider developments within society, particularly the changing position of women.

A three AM knock at the door of 221B Baker Street, soon sends Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson out into the blanketing fog of a cold London night, where they are led by Inspector McPherson of Scotland Yard to an empty building, where four bodies, each the victim of a different manner of foul play, lie discarded like so much refuse. Amid the room the clues Holmes uncovers are strange, even contradictory, and seem to lead to more questions than answers, as he finds himself set about solving a mystery that taxes even the considerable powers of his brain, and leads to a conclusion as horrifying ...

When Catherine Morland, a country clergyman's daughter, is invited to spend a season in Bath with the fashionable high society, little does she imagine the delights and perils that await her. Captivated and disconcerted by what she finds, and introduced to the joys of "Gothic novels" by her new friend, Isabella, Catherine longs for mystery and romance. When she is invited to stay with the beguiling Henry Tilney and his family at Northanger Abbey, she expects mystery and intrigue at every turn.

Plantaganet Palliser, Prime Minister of England - a man of power and prestige, with all the breeding and inherited wealth that goes with it - is appalled at the inexorable rise of Ferdinand Lopez. An exotic impostor, seemingly from nowhere, Lopez has society at his feet, while well-connected ladies vie with each other to exert influence on his behalf - even Palliser’s own wife, Lady Glencora.

The Yarn Studio’s Seaside Knitters have their hands full designing new classes for vacationers, as well as testing each other’s originality by creating a single blanket together. Birdie’s teenage granddaughter is also visiting for the season. Meanwhile, the Lazy Lobster and Soup Café’s local fare is gaining newfound attention with the addition of a well-known Boston chef. It’s sure to be another beautiful, busy time in their tight-knit town… Until Birdie spots a huge blaze from her balcony one evening, frighteningly close to knitter Cass’s lobster business.

Middlemarch is a recognized masterpiece that explores the complex social world of 19th century England. It is concerned with the lives of several ordinary people, albeit ones with high social standing. The novel explores the very fabric of Victorian society in the 1800s, showing how various human passions, heroism, egotism, love, and lust, interrelate within this society.

Heartwarming Regency romances filled with mystery, intrigue, surprising twists, and of course, love! An Earl’s Agreement An arranged marriage turns dangerous when he will stop at nothing to make her his bride! Will her hero prevail? Married to a Marquess After her wedding day, Alice never saw her husband again. She must now take charge of her own life if she is to ever know happiness! A Viscount’s Second Chance Henry is thrilled to have a second chance at love, but he risks losing Eleanor again when a scandal threatens to tear them apart! A Duke for Christmas Isabella did not want to ...

In this completely revised and updated edition of international best seller Watching the English, anthropologist Kate Fox takes a revealing look at the quirks, habits and foibles of the English people. Now with new survey data to add weight to her original fieldwork findings, and more extensive field-research and experiments to back up earlier observations, Kate Fox has deciphered yet more enigmatic behaviour codes, adding new rules, new subcultures, new chapters and more than 100 updates.

In a grand adventure on the high seas, Joshua Erik Rossi brings forth his full-length epic gay romance, The Captain and His Cabin Boy, Under The Stars! Charlie Sinclair is a poor servant boy. He's used and ignored. As he services the men at the Whitehorse Tavern, he yearns for a great escape. On an ordinary autumn afternoon in Yorktown, Virginia, a single chance comes Charlie’s way, and he takes the risk. He stows away on a ship belonging to the Royal Navy, happy to leave his horrid past behind him. However, in the dead of night when the British flag is taken down and the Jolly Roger is ...

‘Hannah of Harpham Hall’ was shortlisted for The Romantic Novelists’ Association’s category award – The Love Story of the Year. This engaging romantic novella has been newly edited to delight further. Harpham Hall, North Yorkshire, England, 1817 Hannah is headstrong and blinkered to life’s dangers beyond the boundaries of the Harpham Hall estate. She spends little time with Lord Harpham, her father, or her aloof stepmother. Reluctant to leave her carefree childhood behind, she is prone to irresponsible actions. Into her life steps handsome young tenant, Tobias Jenkins, when ...

From award-winning author Nghi Vo comes Don't Sleep with the Dead, a standalone companion novella to The Chosen and the Beautiful, her acclaimed reimagining of The Great Gatsby. "[Narrator Greg D. Barnett's] incisive performance enhances [Nghi] Vo's lush, lyrical prose and the novel's surreal...