July, 1914, and in their sunlit Hampshire workshop, Alice Dalton mixes paints for the stained-glass artwork she and Edmund are working on, pausing only to joyfully cradle the soft swell of her stomach. But the looming war threatens her hard-won happiness. A knock at the door announces the arrival of Victor, her estranged brother, returning […]
A Beautiful Rival by Gill Paul
By 1915, Elizabeth Arden has been New York’s golden girl since her beauty salon opened its famous red door five years before. Against all odds, she’s built an empire. Enter Helena Rubinstein: ruthless, revolutionary – and the rival Elizabeth didn’t bargain for. With both women determined to succeed – no matter the personal cost – […]
The Lodger by Helen Scarlett
London in 1919, a city of ghosts and absences. Grace Armstrong believes that she has come to terms with her own loss, the death of her fiancé, the brilliant and dazzling best friend of her brother. He was declared Missing in Action during the Battle of the Somme, but he starts to reappear both in […]
The women left behind by Scott’s Antarctic expedition
Anne Fletcher’s latest book, Widows of the Ice, “brings a new perspective to a story that we thought we already knew” by focussing on the three women widowed by Scott’s Antarctic expedition – and sidelined by its ‘heroic tragedy’ narrative. The idea for this book came when I was on holiday and thinking about the […]
Rotten to the Core by TE Kinsey
Summer 1911, and a scorching heatwave engulfs the quiet town of Littleton Cotterell and brings about an unusually early harvest. The villagers are thrilled, but events quickly turn sour when one of them turns up dead in an apple orchard, stabbed through the heart. Amateur sleuth Lady Hardcastle and her trusty lady’s maid, Flo, suddenly […]