War Stories

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'.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The dramatic account of an English woman's work with a group of resistance fighters in World War 2;

It is 1942 in Cairo and Rommel is advancing steadily. All the Allies' best efforts are being thwarted by a Nazi spy and Bert Cutler, a police inspector, is sent to find the traitor.

A writer visits his retired grandparents in Florida to document their experience during the infamous siege of Leningrad. His grandfather reluctantly co-operates and the result is something of a coming-of-age tale set in a city at war surrounded by the German army, in the middle of a bitter winter. X rated, contains graphic violence and explicit sex.

It's 1814, and the war against Bonaparte rages to its bloody end upon the field of Waterloo. Cornet Matthew Hervey, of the 6th Light Dragoons, suddenly finds himself allotted a hero's role which will change the course of his life, and possibly the outcome of Waterloo...

Expelled from the Faulconer Legion, Starbuck must join the shadowy war of betrayal and espionage, where nothing is certain and no one can be trusted. Starbuck’s journey will take him across the blood-sodden battlefields of Virginia and into the deadly high command of the northern army.  Book 2 of series.

Jack, a mongrel sheepdog, is found guarding his dying master after a bloody World War 1 battle. He transfers his loyalty to Captain Daly and the Dublin Fusiliers. Jack's presence and bravery brings hope to the young soldiers.

May 1940: Sergeant Jack Tanner has been posted to a training company on the southeast coast of England where the mysterious deaths of two Polish refugees lead him to believe there has been foul play. But Tanner must first deal with an enemy far more deadly than the Germans.... Book 2 of the series.

Bill Sarratt is a civil servant working on the war effort. Thwarted at every turn by bureaucracy and the vested interests of big business, the seemingly unflappable Bill is also on the verge of losing his wife Marcia to a literary poseur named Stephen. As the bombs continue to fall, Bill must decide whether he his willing to compromise his principles and prevent his life from crumbling before his very eyes.

CONTENT WARNING: This book contains language and views that reflect the attitudes of its time.

In 1915, two spirited Australian sisters join the war effort as nurses, escaping the confines of their father's dairy farm. But nothing could have prepared them for what they confront, yet they find courage in the face of extreme danger and become the friends they never were before.

The year is 1912 and Britain is gripped by fear of war with Germany. Headstrong Leonora Malham Brown with the feisty Victoria Langford decide to head to Bulgaria to offer their assistance on the battlefield, but neither of them are fully prepared for the grim realities of war. As well as danger, fear and excitement, Leo will find unexpected and passionate romance.  Book 1 of series.