In the heart of a fractured Rome, as Pompey the Great triumphs in Hispania against a sea of rebellion, a fire stirs on the slopes of Vesuvius. Here, in the shadow of the mighty volcano, an unprecedented alliance of slaves and gladiators dares to challenge the very foundations of power. Their thirst for freedom is […]
Atlantic Furies by Midge Gillies
In the early 20th century, the dream of crossing the Atlantic by air was as potent as putting a man on the moon would be 50 years later. But many people believed women too fragile and lacking in the skills to endure the gruelling conditions of flying long distances. This book uncovers the stories of […]
Daughter of the Stones by Alexandra Walsh
When Caitlin King’s father collapses on the eve of the summer solstice, she’s drawn back into the tangled web of her already fragile family – and strange visions begin to haunt her. Visions of another life, another time and a woman who looks uncannily like herself. In Iron Age Britain, Cordelia is the third daughter […]
Why do we tell stories? Finding Cordelia
While writing her latest book, a reimagining of the story of Cordelia, Alexandra Walsh was struck by the way some figures reappear in different tales through the ages. Why, she wondered, do we tell and retell these stories? So she set about finding Cordelia. Towards the end of my new novel Daughter of the Stones, my […]
Barvick Falls by Rob McInroy
September 1939, and war is declared. For Bob and Annie Kelty, life will never be the same again, not least because they are forced to foster 12-year-old Ellen Laing, an evacuee from Finnieston in Glasgow. Amid growing tensions between the Glasgow evacuees and the residents of the sleepy village of Crieff, the feisty and quick-tempered […]
Degrees of Affinity by CF Dunn
By 1472, England has settled into an uneasy peace. The Lancastrian King Henry VI is dead and Yorkist Edward IV has been restored to the throne. Edward is supported by his younger brothers, George, Duke of Clarence and Richard, Duke of Gloucester. But the two men could not be more different. Meanwhile, Isobel Fenton has […]
The Peculiar Incident at Thistlewick House by Jenni Keer
Norfolk in 1895. When renowned spiritualist Edward Blackmore receives a desperate message from his cousin Barnabas, begging him to come to the coastal village of Thistlewick Tye, his first thought is to ignore the request. Despite his cousin’s insistence that his wife is possessed by a malevolent spirit, Edward has no time for the man […]
The August Uprising, 1924 by Eric Lee
For three years following the Russian Revolution, the small South Caucasian country of Georgia was a democracy. But Stalin later ordered the Red Army to invade and to bring the country back under Russian rule. Communist attacks on political opponents, trade unions, cooperatives, and even the church sparked resistance, and an armed uprising broke out […]