War Stories

1936. Civil war in Spain. A world on the brink of chaos . . .

21-year-old Lucy feels content with her life in Hertfordshire - not least because she lives next door to Tom and Jamie, two very different brothers for whom she has equally great affection.

But her comfortable life is turned upside down when Tom decides he must travel to Spain to fight for the Democratic party in the bloody Spanish Civil War. He is quickly followed by Jamie who, much to Lucy's despair, is supporting General Franco and his Fascist party.

To the dismay of her irascible father, Lucy decides that the only way to bring her boys back safely is to travel to Spain herself to persuade them to come home.

Yet when she sees the horrific effects of the war, she quickly becomes immersed in the lifesaving work the Quakers are doing to help the civilian population, many of whom are refugees.

As the war progresses and the situation becomes increasingly perilous, Lucy realises that the challenge going forward is not so much which brother she will end up with, but whether any of them will survive the carnage long enough to decide . . .

Central Africa, 1914; Rose Sayer, a thirty-three year-old English woman, is left alone when her missionary brother dies. She becomes allies with Charles Allnutt, disreputable skipper of the steam-powered launch 'African Queen'. Marooned in German Central Africa during World War I, they fight their way downriver 'to strike a blow for England'.

This novel tells the story of two warring French families from 1911 to 1940. With its themes of war, love and money the novel brings home with great clarity how close the two conflicts were.

It is 1914 and a group of German schoolboys are persuaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the 'glorious war'. With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up, but soon they are experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.

In 1943 an Indian princess is parachuted into France to join the Resistance as a radio operator. She and John Sutherland, a British Commando, are to join the Prosper network in Paris, she to furnish London with information and he to blow up a railway station and discover a spy. Based on the true story of SOE agent, Noor Inayat Khan.

This wartime romance captures the danger and excitement of Britain during WWII. A sweeping story of heroic deeds and painful separations; illicit love and battles at sea; and above all, the poignancy of longing and loss.

Berlin, 1940, is a city filled with fear. At 55 Jablonski Strasse, the various occupants try to live under Nazi rule in their different ways: nervous Frau Rosenthal; bullying Hitler loyalists the Persickes; retired Judge Fromm, and the unassuming working-class couple Otto and Anna Quangel.

The village of Alvesdon has been home to the Castells for generations. But the year is 1939 and the peace and tranquillity there is about to be shattered once more by the storm clouds of war in Europe.

As three generations of the family gather, they must all face the prospect of their lives being transformed beyond recognition the moment Britain declares war on Germany. When the inevitable happens and Britain finds itself at war, the younger members of the family and farm workers are called up to fight and those who remain must battle to keep the home fires burning and the farm afloat.

On 3rd September 1939, Amy Browning starts to write a diary. It is Amy's 18th birthday and Great Britain goes to war with Germany. Amy's fears grow for her brother, fighting in France, and her boyfriend Ian, in the RAF. Quick Reads.

Captain Tom Barnes is leading British troops into a war zone when he is gravely injured by an exploding IED. This devastating moment and the transformative months that follow are narrated here by forty-five objects, telling one unforgettable story.

During the First World War a military execution in France is a key event in this story of duty, loyalty and love. Far away in north-east England orphaned Joshua is led into the world of a wounded Army officer, an army deserter and Dolly Weston, three people he comes to admire and love.

In 1955 Cyprus is torn apart by a military campaign. Ariadne and young British officer Stephen Allenby meet and fall in love, but when it becomes known, he is sent home. In 1998 his daughter, Cressida, now 36 travels to Northern Cyprus to seek answers to the pain-filled memories of her father's disappearance.

Set in 1943, this is the dramatic story of an impossible love between a German soldier and a French Resistance fighter in occupied Paris. X rated, contains graphic violence and explicit sex.

Amid the Great War in 1918 England, munitions worker Rosalind Graham is desperate to escape the arranged marriage being forced on her by her ruthless guardian.  Seizing the chance to escape, she assumes a new identity, taking a supervisory position in Gretna, Scotland, as Miss Tilly Lockhart.

RAF Captain Alex Baird is returning home to Gretna on a secret mission to uncover the saboteur suspected in the Chilwell explosion. Fearing for his family's safety, he's also haunted by guilt after failing to protect his brother. Alex is surprised to discover a young woman, Miss Lockhart, renting his boyhood room, but the two eventually bond over their mutual affection for his family - until Alex receives orders to watch her…

Imprisoned at Auschwitz, Daniel feels his former identity as a craftsman slipping away. When a mysterious stranger visits the camp, Daniel’s skill as a maker of violins is revealed and a cruel wager sees him trying to recapture his lost art, knowing only too well the consequences of failure.

Daniel Pitt was an RAF fighter in the First World War and an espionage agent for the SOE in the Second. Now the conflicts he faces are closer to home. Daniel's marriage has fractured beyond repair and Daniel's relationship with his son, Bertie, has been a failure since Bertie was a small boy. But after his brother Archie's death, Daniel is keen for new perspectives. He first travels to Peshawar to bury Archie in the place he loved best, and then finds himself in Canada, avoiding his family and friends back in England. But some bonds are hard to break. Daniel and Bertie's different experiences of war, although devastating, also bring with them the opportunity for the two to reconnect. If only they can find a way to move on from the past.

In Spring 1944 with invasion plans imminent, Steve and Barbara fall head over heels in love and get married. Can the marriage survive the strain of war?

Captain Nate Starbuck has to survive and win with his ragged Company in a bitter struggle, not only against the formidable Northern army but equally in opposition to his own superiors - who would like nothing better than to see Starbuck dead and dishonoured…  Book 3 of series.

The Battle of Jutland exposed the battlecruisers’ weakness: its armour could be pierced by a single shell. In 1943, as Britain prepares to invade occupied Europe, Captain Guy Sherbrooke takes command of HMS Reliant, one of only two battlecruisers to have survived. He knows he could be her last captain.

In the heat of the French summer, young Englishman Stephen Wraysford travels to France and falls in love with his host's wife, Isabelle Azaire. When the world stops, their affair falters, and Stephen signs up. In a maze of tunnels under the trenches, Stephen finds the courage this war demands from the men in his command. And it is here that he will fight for everything he has ever known and loved. A contemporary classic, Birdsong has moved millions of readers all over the world. It is an epic story of passion, survival and redemption from a master storyteller.

When World War II broke out, no one could predict the impact it would have on their lives. As the conflict begins to take its toll, the lives of four families become entwined, while the world around them is torn apart. Families become fragmented, love is found and the young are forced to grow up too quickly - but all are determined to remain defiant and united against the upheaval.

Crete, 1941. In the face of a German invasion, Sergeant Jack Tanner is embroiled in a deadly game of survival that will test his resolve more than ever before. Not only has he fallen out with his commander but he has mortally offended Alopex, a powerful local chieftain.

As if that wasn't enough, Tanner and the rest of his battalion are caught in vicious close-quarter fighting against crack German paratroopers. Before long, they find themselves in bitter retreat to the mountainous interior where only one man can help them - Alopex.

Although whether he will come to their rescue or not remains to be seen...

Book 4 of the 'Starbuck' series. Nate Starbuck, fighting for the rebel South, is given command of a punishment battalion; a despised unit of shirkers and cowards. His enemies expect it to be his downfall, as Starbuck must lead this ramshackle unit into a battle that will prove to be the bloodiest of the Civil War.

1945, and in the newly liberated Paris there is a man hunt for Harry Cole. East End charmer, Resistance hero, but could he also be a traitor? Was he giving away the secrets of the French Resistance and the British Security Services, and do MI9 and Airey Neave have a good reason for wanting him silenced? Contains strong language.

Josie has just finished her last term at school when the country hears of the heroic evacuation of the troops from Dunkirk. Her mother, worried about a possible invasion, decides to send Josie from London, to stay with an aunt and uncle in the country. There she meets the Peterson brothers, and is drawn into a tangled web of romance.

31 June, 1943. An RAF crew prepare for their next bombing raid on Germany. It is a night that many will never forget. Len Deighton's devastating novel is a gripping minute-by-minute account of what happens over the next twenty-four hours. Told through the eyes of ordinary people in the air and on the ground - from a young pilot to the inhabitants of a small town in the Ruhr - Bomber is an unforgettable portrayal of individuals caught up in the wreckage of war.

In 1942, Eva is forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children escaping to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva realises she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember their own identities.

When Rémy disappears and the resistance cell they work for is betrayed, the records they keep in The Book of Lost Names become even more crucial to remembering the truth...

A present day discovery of the book leaves researchers fascinated by its origins and desperate to decipher its codes. Only Eva holds the answer but will she have the strength to face old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?

Joanna Trollope writing as Caroline Harvey tells an enchanting story which captures the warmth and romance of Malta as well as the dramatic sufferings during World War 2.

Charles Thorogood has joined the Assault Commandos and is on a tour of duty in Northern Ireland. He and his men have the task of patrolling the tension-filled streets and experience all the tragedy and terror that this entails.

The story of three POWs who endure the hell of the Japanese camps on the Burma-Siam railway - Colonel Nicholson, a man prepared to sacrifice his life but not his dignity; Major Warden, a modest hero, saboteur and deadly killer; Commander Shears, who escaped from hell but was sent back.

Joss Lambert was always a loner, but at school he becomes friendly with Guy Liddell, and through him the whole Liddell family. Their home is the only place he is happy, but with war looming this happiness can't last. Joss joins the RAF and fights for his life in the Battle of Britain and again in the heat of North Africa.

When Captain Antonio Corelli, an Italian officer, is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia in 1941 he is ostracised by the locals, but he proves to be a civilised and far from fanatical soldier and an accomplished musician. However, his attraction for the local doctor’s daughter is soon threatened as the lines are drawn between invader and defender. Contains some strong language and explicit sex.

The war is over, but Mary, a nurse living in mid Wales knows her job is in danger if they find out she is living with Peter, a German ex-POW. Her best friend Jean is doing her best to get Mary to leave Peter and come back to Lancashire. Mary is sure this will never happen, but she has no idea of the secret Peter is keeping from her.

In 1942 Charlotte Grey conceives a passion for an English airman. When he goes missing she travels to France on an errand to help the Resistance and to seek news of the airman. Some explicit sexual content.

Alex Ehren is a poet, a prisoner and a teacher in block 31 in Auschwitz-Birkenau, the children's block. He spends his days trying to survive while illegally giving lessons to his young charges while shielding them as best he can from the impossible horrors of the camp. But trying to teach the children is not the only illicit activity that Alex is involved in. Alex is keeping a diary…

In 1939, a young girl sits alone in a station waiting room in Marseilles. Half-Jewish Ilse has been sent out of Nazi Germany to safety in Morocco by her mother. But her journey takes her back to France, where she cannot escape the Nazi occupation. Blown about by circumstances beyond her control, she must grow up alone in a demi-monde of refugees, whores and freedom fighters.

In Germany, Nicolai struggles against his destiny in the Hitler Youth. His only comfort is the friendship of Ilse’s mother, who works as a nanny in his affluent household.

The war eats up their youth. Though hope grows in France, a dark tableau is unfolding in Germany, and this reluctant soldier and brave young girl must fight for their survival.