Historical
The Thoughts & Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor of Superior Funerals – Wendy Jones
The Thoughts & Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor of Superior Funerals
Wendy Jones
Everyone has to make decisions about love. Wilfred Price, overcome with emotion on a sunny spring day, proposes to a girl he barely knows at a picnic. The girl, Grace, joyfully accepts and rushes to tell her family of Wilfred’s intentions. But by this time Wilfred has realised his mistake. He does not love Grace. On the verge of extricating himself, Wilfred’s situation suddenly becomes more serious when Grace’s father steps in.
Up until this point in his life, Wilfred’s existence has been blissfully simple, and the young undertaker seems unable to stop the swirling mess that now surrounds him. To add to Wilfred’s emotional turmoil, he thinks he may just have met the perfect girl for him. As Wilfred struggles in an increasingly tangled web of expectation and duty, love and lies, Grace reveals a long-held secret that changes everything…
Wendy Jones’s charming first novel is a moving depiction of love and secrecy, set against the rural backdrop of a 1920s Welsh village, and beautifully told.
Call The Midwife – Jennifer Worth
Call The Midwife: A True Story Of The East End In The 1950s
Jennifer Worth
Jennifer Worth came from a sheltered background when she became a midwife in the Docklands in the 1950s. The conditions in which many women gave birth just half a century ago were horrifying, not only because of their grimly impoverished surroundings, but also because of what they were expected to endure.
But while Jennifer witnessed brutality and tragedy, she also met with amazing kindness and understanding, tempered by a great deal of Cockney humour. She also earned the confidences of some whose lives were truly stranger, more poignant and more terrifying than could ever be recounted in fiction.
Attached to an order of nuns who had been working in the slums since the 1870s, Jennifer tells the story not only of the women she treated, but also of the community of nuns (including one who was accused of stealing jewels from Hatton Garden) and the camaraderie of the midwives with whom she trained.
Funny, disturbing and incredibly moving, Jennifer’s stories bring to life the colourful world of the East End in the 1950s. Continue reading »
The Collaborator – Margaret Leroy
The Collaborator
Margaret Leroy
The Channel Islands, June 1940.
The Nazis are bombing Cherbourg. In her secluded house on Guernsey, Vivienne de la Mare waits fearfully. And then the Occupation begins. Nothing is safe anymore. Vivienne’s husband is fighting on the frontline, and she has two young daughters and her mother-in-law to care for; and her new life is one where the enemy lives next door.
The Einstein Girl – Philip Sington
The Einstein Girl
Philip Sington
Two months before Hitler’s rise to power, a beautiful young woman is found naked and near death in the woods outside Berlin. When she finally wakes from her coma, she can remember nothing, not even her name. The only clue to her identity is a handbill found nearby, advertising a public lecture by Albert Einstein: ‘On The Present State of Quantum Theory’.
Psychiatrist Martin Kirsch takes the case, little suspecting that this will be his last. As he searches for the truth about ‘the Einstein Girl’, professional fascination turns to reckless love. His investigations lead him to a remote corner of Serbia via a psychiatric hospital in Zurich. There, the inheritor of Einstein’s genius – his youngest son, Eduard – is writing a book that will destroy his illustrious father and, in the process, change the world.
The Things We Cherished – Pam Jenoff
The Things We Cherished
Pam Jenoff
Roger Dykmans, a university student, is living with his brother Hans, an international emissary who’s secretly working against the Nazis. As time goes by, Roger finds himself increasingly drawn to Magda, Hans’ Jewish wife. But their secret world is turned upside down when Magda and her young daughter, Anna, are arrested by the Nazis.
The Gestapo make a deal with Roger: if he hands over information about Hans’ operations, they’ll set Magda and Anna free. Suddenly, Roger is faced with an impossible decision: should he betray his brother to save the woman they both love?
Spanning decades and continents, The Things We Cherished explores the strength of true love under the worst of circumstances.
Hamburg 1947 – Harry Leslie Smith
Hamburg 1947: A Place for the Heart to Kip
Harry Leslie Smith
Twenty-two years old and ready for peace, Harry Leslie Smith has survived the Great Depression and endured the Second World War. Now, in 1945 in Hamburg, Germany, he must come to terms with a nation physically and emotionally devastated. In this memoir, he narrates a story of people searching to belong and survive in a world that was almost destroyed.
Hamburg 1947 recounts Smith’s youthful RAF days as part of the occupational forces in post-war Germany. A wireless operator during the war, he doesn’t want to return to Britain and join a queue of unemployed former servicemen; he reenlists for long term duty in occupied Germany. From his billet in Hamburg, a city razed to the ground by remorseless aerial bombardment, he witnesses a people and era on the brink of annihilation. This narrative presents a street-level view of a city reduced to rubble populated with refugees, black marketers, and cynical soldiers.
At times grim and other times amusing, Smith writes a memoir relaying the social history about this time and place, providing a unique look at post-WWII Germany. Hamburg 1947 is both a love story for a city and a passionate retailing of a love affair with a young German woman.
The Duke Is Mine – Eloisa James
The Duke is Mine
Eloisa James
Tarquin, the powerful Duke of Sconce, knows perfectly well that the decorous and fashionably slender Georgiana Lytton will make him a proper duchess. So why can’t he stop thinking about her twin sister, the curvy, headstrong, and altogether unconventional Olivia? Not only is Olivia betrothed to another man, but their improper – albeit intoxicating – flirtation makes her unsuitability all the more clear.
Determined to make a perfect match, he methodically cuts Olivia from his thoughts, allowing logic and duty to triumph over passion… until, in his darkest hour, Tarquin begins to question whether perfection has anything to do with love. To win Olivia’s hand he would have to give up all the beliefs he holds most dear, and surrender heart, body and soul – but it may already be too late.
The Red Queen – Philippa Gregory
The Red Queen
Philippa Gregory
The second book in Philippa’s stunning new trilogy, The Cousins War, brings to life the story of Margaret Beaufort, a shadowy and mysterious character in the first book of the series – The White Queen – but who now takes centre stage in the bitter struggle of The War of the Roses. The Red Queen tells the story of the child-bride of Edmund Tudor, who, although widowed in her early teens, uses her determination of character and wily plotting to infiltrate the house of York under the guise of loyal friend and servant, undermine the support for Richard III and ultimately ensure that her only son, Henry Tudor, triumphs as King of England. Through collaboration with the dowager Queen Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret agrees a betrothal between Henry and Elizabeth’s daughter, thereby uniting the families and resolving the Cousins War once and for all by founding of the Tudor dynasty.
The Courtesan’s Lover – Gabrielle Kimm
The Courtesan’s Lover
Gabrielle Kimm
Francesca Felizzi, former mistress of the Duke of Ferrara, is now an aspiring courtesan. Astonishingly beautiful and ambitious, she revels in the power she wields over men.
But when she is visited by an inexperienced young man, it becomes horribly clear to Fracesca that despite her many admiring patrons, she has never truly been loved. Suddenly, her glittering and sumptuous life becomes a gaudy facade.
And then another unexpected encounter brings with it devastating implications that plunge Francesca and her two young daughters into the sort of danger she has dreaded ever since she began to work the streets all those years ago.
The House of the Wind – Titania Hardie
The House of the Wind
Titania Hardie
A legendary ruin. An ancient mystery. Will unveiling the past transform the future?
San Francisco, 2007. Madeline Moretti is grieving for her fiancé. Nothing brings her joy any more, and Maddie’s grandmother, a fiery Italian, sends her to Tuscany to heal. Here, Maddie is immersed in the mystery of a ruined villa. Destroyed centuries ago in a legendary storm on the Eve of St Agnes, it has been known ever since as the Casa al Vento – the House of the Wind.
Tuscany, 1347. Mia hasn’t spoken since her mother’s death, and lives in silence with her beloved aunt. One dark night, a couple seek refuge in their villa. Used to welcoming passing pilgrims, Mia is entranced by the young bride’s radiance and compassion, but mystified by her reluctance to reveal even her name. Where has she come from, and why must her presence be a secret?
Centuries apart, each searching for a way to step into her future, Mia and Maddie will be haunted by the myth of the woman who walked unscathed from the ruins of the House of the Wind.
The Winter Ghosts – Kate Mosse
The Winter Ghosts
Kate Mosse
The Great War robbed a generation of friends, lovers and their gilded youth. In Freddie Watson’s case, it took his beloved brother and at times, his peace of mind. Haunted by his loss and fearing for his sanity, he still seeks some sort of resolution.
In the winter of 1928, Freddie is travelling through southern France – which has also seen too much bloodshed over the years – when his car spins off the road during a storm. Shaken, he stumbles into the woods and takes refuge in an isolated village. There he meets Fabrissa, a beautiful young woman also mourning a lost generation.
Over the course of a single night, Fabrissa and Freddie share their stories. And by the time dawn breaks, he finds himself holding the key to a heartbreaking mystery.
By turns thrilling, poignant and haunting, The Winter Ghosts is a story of lives touched by war, transformed by courage and redeemed by love.
The Quincunx – Charles Palliser
The Quincunx
Charles Palliser
John Huffam was to learn a great many things before he got very old: he would know why humans toiled under inhuman conditions, why the poor scavenged in rotting sewers and why both the sane and the mad starved in asylums. Yet he did not know why an unnamed menace had haunted his childhood, hounded his mother and now threatened his own life.
The answer lay in a document written half a century before, a document that had provoked avarice, hatred, murder and lunacy, that had determined the fates of five families and had set the pattern of John’s own life. A pattern that was woven around, and would be unravelled within, the mysterious symbol of five – the Quincunx.
The Gargoyle – Andrew Davidson
The Gargoyle
Andrew Davidson
The nameless and beautiful narrator of The Gargoyle is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and wakes up in a burns ward, undergoing the tortures of the damned. His life is over – he is now a monster. But in fact it is only just beginning.
One day, Marianne Engel, a wild and compelling sculptress of gargoyles, enters his life and tells him that they were once lovers in medieval Germany. In her telling, he was a badly burned mercenary and she was a nun and a scribe who nursed him back to health in the famed monastery of Engelthal. As she spins her tale, Scheherazade fashion, and relates equally mesmerising stories of deathless love in Japan, Greenland, Italy and England, he finds himself drawn back to life – and, finally, to love.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Bronte
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Anne Bronte
Gilbert Markham is deeply intrigued by Helen Graham, a beautiful and secretive young woman who has moved into nearby Wildfell Hall with her young son. He is quick to offer Helen his friendship, but when her reclusive behavior becomes the subject of local gossip and speculation, Gilbert begins to wonder whether his trust in her has been misplaced. It is only when she allows Gilbert to read her diary that the truth is revealed and the shocking details of the disastrous marriage she has left behind emerge…
Told with great immediacy, combined with wit and irony, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a powerfully involving read.
Readers
|
|
Sponsors
Recent Reviews
- True Whit: Designing a Life of Style, Beauty and Fun – Whitney Port
- Win Carole Matthews’ new book – Summer Daydreams!
- Into the Darkest Corner – Elizabeth Haynes
- Taking Charge – Mandy Baggot
- The Senator’s Wife – Sue Miller
- Kissing the Cotton Clouds – Michela O’Brien
- The Love Letter – Fiona Walker
- Swallow the Swell – Keddy Flett
- The Thoughts & Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor of Superior Funerals – Wendy Jones
- Pear Shaped – Stella Newman
Most Discussed
- One Day - David Nicholls (22)
- Room - Emma Donoghue (16)
- One Moment, One Morning - Sarah Rayner (14)
- Taking Charge - Mandy Baggot (11)
- The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (10)
- The Woman He Loved Before - Dorothy Koomson (8)
- Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen (8)
- Mini Shopaholic - Sophie Kinsella (7)
- I Heart New York - Lindsey Kelk (7)
- The Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins (7)
Recent Comments
- Aileen Russell commented on Win Carole Matthews' new book - Summer Daydreams!
- Candyh commented on Win Carole Matthews' new book - Summer Daydreams!
- Tracey commented on Win Carole Matthews' new book - Summer Daydreams!
Read More at Twelve52
For interviews, features and book-related gossip read our Editor's monthly book column at Twelve52.
Most recent column:
Escape with a Book
Buy the Books We Love
.
Search: Genre
Search: Author
Search: Reviewer
Link to Us
