World War England

About empty thrones, a lot can be said. Throughout history, both ancient and near modern, a lack of an heir and the sudden death of a beloved monarch always meant trouble. When the position of a king is up for grabs, a lot of eager hands come forward. Pretenders and would-be heirs, cousins and nephews, bastard sons and daughters - they all came forward staking their claim to the throne. In the history of Medieval England, such episodes were many.

AN ECONOMIST AND NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A fresh, exciting, “readable and informative” history (The New York Times) of seventeenth-century England, a time of revolution when society was on fire and simultaneously forging the modern world. “Recapture[s] a lost moment when a...

From a bestselling historian, a daringly revisionist history of World War I. “A rich and provocative book, evocative and heartbreaking.” — Atlantic The Pity of War makes a simple and provocative argument: the human atrocity known as the Great War was entirely England’s fault. According...

No one believed the invasion would come from Mars—until the first cylinder fell on Horsell Common. When strange objects begin crashing into the English countryside, curious onlookers gather to witness what appears to be an extraordinary astronomical event. Then the cylinders open. The beings...

Picking up where Fall of Giants, the first novel in the extraordinary Century Trilogy, left off, Winter of the World follows its five interrelated families—American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh—through a time of enormous social, political, and economic turmoil, beginning with the...

Set against the backdrop of post-WWII Oxford University, The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies is the irresistible debut from Kate Westbury that seamlessly layers mystery, romance, and a dash of academia to introduce the Crown’s newest undercover operatives. Oxford, England, 1951 - The...

After the death of her mother, Rebecca is sorting through her empty flat. Starting with the letters piling up on the doormat, she finds an envelope postmarked from Cornwall. In it is a letter that will change her life forever. A desperate plea from her mother’s elderly cousin, Olivia, to help save her beloved home. Rebecca arrives at Chynalls to find the house crumbling into the ground and Olivia stuck in hospital with no hope of being discharged until her home is made habitable.

If you love Jennifer Robson or The Crown you will love New York Times bestselling author Karen Harper’s novel about Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. 1939. As the wife of the King George VI and the mother of the future queen, Elizabeth—“the queen mother”—shows a warm, smiling face to the...

Eddie Chapman was a charming criminal, a con man, and a philanderer. He was also one of the most remarkable double agents Britain has ever produced. Inside the traitor was a man of loyalty; inside the villain was a hero. The problem for Chapman, his spymasters, and his lovers was to know where...

“An original book…about individuals who used ideas to change the world” (The New Yorker)—the fascinating exploration into the creation and history of the Paris Peace Pact, an often overlooked but transformative treaty that laid the foundation for the international system we live under...

Rosamunde Pilcher's The Shell Seekers is "a huge warm saga...A deeply satisfying story written with love and confidence" (Maeve Binchy in The New York Times Book Review). The Shell Seekers was adapted twice to film (1989 and 2006). An instant bestseller when it was first published, The Shell...

A lush and engrossing novel of one woman’s quest to keep Nazis from stealing priceless art during WWII, perfect for fans of The Rose Code. Paris, 1939: The Nazis think Éliane can't understand German. They’re wrong. They think she’s merely cataloging art in a Louvre museum and unaware...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 10 BEST BOOKS THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 2011 NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post The New Yorker Chicago Tribune The Economist Nancy Pearl, NPR Bloomberg.com Library Journal Publishers Weekly...

As heard on the New Yorker Radio Hour: The triumphant and "engaging history" (The New Yorker) of the young women who devised a winning strategy that defeated Nazi U-boats and delivered a decisive victory in the Battle of the Atlantic. By 1941, Winston Churchill had come to believe that the...

In the years before the First World War, the great European powers were ruled by three first cousins: King George V of Britain, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Together, they presided over the last years of dynastic Europe and the outbreak of the most destructive war...

From the author of the international bestsellers The Light Over London and The Whispers of War comes an enchanting novel that is “historical fiction at its very best” (Patti Callahan, New York Times bestselling author) as it follows five women living across three different times whose lives...

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...

Ken Follett’s magnificent new historical epic begins as five interrelated families move through the momentous dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women’s suffrage. A thirteen-year-old Welsh boy enters a man’s world in the mining pits. . . . An...

Bloomsbury presents I Hear A New World by Alan Moore, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. From New York Times bestselling author and legendary storyteller Alan Moore, the second book in the Long London Series, a daringly inventive fantasy novel about murder, mayhem, and magic. It’s 1958 and Dennis...

Sloan Thornton is the heir to Highcroft Hall, the family seat of the Earl of Wessex, in the quaint village of Thornton-on-Sea, on the southeast coast of England. He has always dreamed of finding his soul-mate. However, in a moment of weakness, just before he leaves to fight in World War II as an RAF pilot, he proposes to his childhood sweetheart, Anne Whitfield. There is no question how deep his devotion is to her, and how naturally they bring out the best in each other.