It’s May, 1951, and celebration is in the air with the Festival of Britain. For the first time in years the mood is one of hope rather than hurt. For Detective Constable Faye Smith, London is not as safe as it seems. The criminal underworld is gaining strength, enjoying a lively existence below the surface. […]
The Festival of Britain, 75 years ago
Julie Anderson looks back at the Festival of Britain, held 75 years ago this summer. Seen as a “tonic for the nation” after the Second World War and years of austerity, it’s the backdrop to her latest novel. It is 1951, six years after the end of World War Two. Rationing is still in place, […]
Elizabeth and Marilyn by Julie Owen Moylan
London, October, 1956. A glittering Royal Film Premiere. The whole world is watching. Tonight, Elizabeth II will formally greet an array of stars. Though she was not born to be Queen, this young mother and wife has embraced her patriotic duty and its unforgiving demands. A limousine pulls up. Out steps a vision in dazzling […]
Book of Forbidden Words by Louise Fein
In 1552, the printing press is quickly spreading new ideas across Europe, threatening the power of church and state and unleashing a wave of book burning and heretic hunting. When frightened ex-nun Lysbette Angiers arrives at Charlotte Guillard’s famous Paris printing shop with her manuscript, neither woman knows just how far the powerful elite will […]
The Edge of Darkness by Vaseem Khan
It’s India in 1951. After wilfully ignoring orders, Persis Wadia, India’s first female police detective, is exiled from Bombay to the wild and mountainous Naga Hills District. As India’s first post-Independence election looms, and tensions rise across the country, Persis finds herself banished to the Hotel Victoria, a crumbling colonial-era relic, her career in tatters. […]
City of Destruction by Vaseem Khan
Bombay, 1951, and a political rally ends in tragedy when India’s first female police detective, Persis Wadia, kills a lone gunman as he attempts to assassinate the divisive new defence minister, a man calling for war with India’s new post-Independence neighbours. With the Malabar House team tasked to hunt down the assassin’s co-conspirators — aided […]
The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge by Rachel Hore
Nancy Foster has harboured a devastating secret that shattered her professional and personal life. On meeting her, journalist Stef Lansdown realizes that she has the power to restore Nancy’s reputation and to heal the wounds, if only Nancy will trust her. But someone else wants to get to the bottom of the story first, someone […]
Chain Reactions by Lucy Jane Santos
Tracing uranium’s past, and how it intersects with our understanding of other radioactive elements, this book aims to disentangle our attitudes and to unpick the atomic mindset. Chain Reactions looks at the fascinating, often-forgotten, stories that can be found throughout the history of the element. Ranging from glassworks to penny stocks; medicines to weapons; something […]