Elizabeth Charles

Jean and Vi are twins but couldn't be more different. As war breaks out, agonising decisions must be faced by the Liverpool family. All the traditional certainties are overturned. Then the twins' younger sister, singer Francine, returns home unexpectedly and stirs up the past, even in the midst of present danger.

Catherine Dessin is fifteen when the Germans enter Paris and she is taught by her family to hate the enemy. Two years later she falls in love with Klaus, a married German officer. Rejected by family and friends she has to cope with the aftermath of liberation, whilst Klaus also has to face a conflict of loyalties.

Alice boards a train at King's Cross heading home to her family in Scotland. Hours later she steps into traffic on a busy London road. As she lies in a coma we travel through her memories to discover what drove her to this desperate act.

Anna had two brothers but one, Jonas, died of AIDS and the other, Michael, disappeared in a land mine explosion in Bosnia. Anna's mother searched for Michael but could find no trace. One day a letter arrives and hints that Michael may still be alive, but can Anna believe it?

Polly Smith is struggling to make a living as an artist when her friend, Oliver, invites her to his father's house in the South of France. Polly asks for her birth certificate to get a passport...and her world changes. Fleeing to the Riviera, Polly finds the serenity and sunshine bring her paintings to life as never before. And even though Polly finds herself at the centre of a web of deception, her own future begins to take on a new and fascinating shape.

Gas lights and horse drawn buses, gin-soaked night clubs and fluttering lace curtains: enter the world of Autumn Alley. Here you'll find Maud, the formidable Irish-American suffragette and her neighbours, struggling to survive in a world of poverty in London's East End.

When Vicki Stowe arrives in Nantucket with her two young sons, her best friend and her sister, she is hoping for peace, rest and comfort. Although they have the best of intentions and plan to enjoy the summer together, the women soon find life in a cramped cottage with only one bathroom not quite the idyll they imagined.

Life as a sailor must be so exciting! But as Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth, I would never be allowed to try out my sea legs (I am supposed to be a prim and proper lady, you see). At least, that's what I thought - until my fellow Maid of Honour, Lady Sarah, disappeared.

The Court believes she ran away to marry a dashing sea captain, but I just know there's something odd about that note she left behind. And as her Majesty's very own secret investigator, I, Lady Grace, must find out the truth...

Tucked away in a corner of Ireland Corrie and Fee turn out batches of perfect Coolarney Blues and Golds. The magic that they weave in and out of the cheese vats is legendary but can their powers be used to turn unhappiness into love, or will the secret ingredient be lost forever?

Life is the strangest thing. One minute, Mrs Elner Shimfissle is up a tree, picking figs to make jam, and the next thing she knows, she is off on a strange adventure, running into people she never expected to see again, in the unlikeliest of places.

When the peaceful life in the Austrian Tyrol is disturbed by the threat of war, it becomes clear that the Chalet School must close. Then the girls at the Chalet School stand up against a Nazi crowd, and face terrible punishment unless they flee.

The Clockwork Crow is a mysterious gothic Christmas tale set in a frost-bound Victorian country mansion. When orphaned Seren Rees is given a mysterious package by a strange and frightened man on her way to her new home, she reluctantly takes it with her. But what is in the parcel? Who are the Family who must not be spoken of, and can the Crow help Seren find Tom, before the owner of the parcel finds her? 

In 1851 the Great Exhibition was held in London and captured the imagination of the public. In her diaries Lily Hicks, a housemaid, describes living in London when the exhibition is being designed by her master, and the opening of the 'Crystal Palace'.

Elza has managed her own little restaurant in the Hungarian city of Delibab for years, but lately her smile has become tired. She is weary of serving the same customers the same dishes, and as relationships in the kitchen sour, the food threatens to turn with them; not even Elza's strained composure can prevent the chaos that seems fated to engulf her.

Hollywood, 1945. Shipping heir Ward Thayer and screen star Faye Price are reunited after a chance meeting. Unable to forget the connection they shared, romance quickly sparks. But for Faye, the life she's heading for with Ward is a threat to her ambition. How can she decide between Hollywood and motherhood? Faye is on the brink of an impossible choice that will shape her life - and the lives of those she loves - in ways she could scarcely have imagined.

From the streets of London to the Welsh countryside, evacuee Iris Simantel tells of her desperate search for somewhere to belong. Finding the nurturing home she had always dreamt of in her adopted Welsh parents, she wonders what, when she returns to London after the war, will be waiting for her.

In 1950's Merham, Lottie Swift and Celia Holden were fascinated by a group of bohemians who took over Arcadia, an Art Deco house on the seafront. Now, nearly fifty years later, with Arcadia returning to life, several people are left questioning whether you can ever really leave your past behind.

Taking in the momentous events of 2012, including the Jubilee celebrations and preparations for the London Olympics, these diaries reveal the seldom-seen workings of state and reveal how an octogenarian is quietly ruling the world and still has time for a gin.

In 1941, when England is at its lowest ebb, MI5 realise that there is a double agent operating at its base, Eden Park. Poppy, Kate, Lily, Marjorie and Billy are all a part of Eden Park and all their lives are threatened as the spymasters attempt to identify the traitor.

Four mothers who have moved from pre-revolutionary China to San Francisco meet and form the Joy Luck Club to eat dim sum and to share stories. Forty years on they and their daughters tell stories of hope, loss and their struggle to come to terms with their cultural identity.

On a tropical island shattered by war, the eccentric Mr Watts is the only remaining white man. He starts to read Dickens’s Great Expectations to the island’s children, in the ruins of the schoolhouse. The adults, too, are drawn to listen and begin to share their own stories. Richard & Judy Bookclub

In her ancestor's castle, life for orphaned Maria is a challenge. She has discovered an island of tiny people. Also her governess is planning to cheat her of her inheritance. How can Maria save the Lilliputians when she herself is in grave danger?

Caroline Wimbley Levine returns to South Carolina to visit her eccentric mother, despite having vowed never to go home again. Home is Tall Pines, a lush modern-day plantation, where scandals, secrets and betrayals abound.

On his release from prison on a wrongful charge of murder, Joe Walowski heads to the East End of London to find the real killers. There he meets the mysterious Queenie, proprietor of the Ship and Castle pub, and as he falls under her spell, he gradually becomes entangled in London's underworld.

When Babe, the little orphaned piglet, is won at a fair by Farmer Hogget, he is adopted by Fly, the kind-hearted sheep-dog. Babe is determined to learn everything he can from Fly. He knows he can't be a sheep-dog. But maybe, just maybe, he might be a sheep-pig.

Summer 1968, and for Kathleen Slaven and the other children of a small, poor, Scottish village the school holidays beckon. They escape from the suffering and violence of the adult world by playing at Movie and TV heroes. Then Tony, a real American kid, arrives and leads them into adventures which will change their lives forever. X rated, contains graphic violence and explicit sex.

The Blakes are an ordinary family: Celia looks after the house and Thomas works at the family engineering business in Leicester. The book begins when he meets Mr Knight, a financier as crooked as any on the front pages of our newspapers nowadays; and tracks his and his family's swift climb and fall.

On a prospering Iowa farm in the 1970s, wealthy farmer Lawrence Cook announces his intentions to divide the farm among his daughters, setting off a family crisis reminiscent of Shakespeare's 'King Lear'.

Patty Murphy’s biological clock is ticking. The man she loves is sensitive, warm hearted, and gay. Patty refuses to give up on Ethan so in the meantime must content herself with waiting for the real thing to come along.

The Angelini Shoe Company, run so devotedly by Valentine and her grandmother Teodora, faces financial ruin. Juggling a romantic relationship with a dashing chef, her duty to her family, and a design competition for a prestigious department store, Valentine accompanies her grandmother to Italy in the hope of finding inspiration.

Nancy Wake, nicknamed 'the white mouse' for her ability to evade capture and the Gestapo's most wanted person, became one of the most highly decorated servicewomen of the war. After living and working in Paris in the 1930's, Nancy married a wealthy Frenchman. But her idyllic new life was ended by World War II and the invasion of France. During her lifetime, Nancy Wake was hailed as a legend. This is her story.

In Romney Marsh near Hastings, Meryon, Roger, Rissa and Tamzin are upset to learn the marsh they love is to be turned into a holiday camp, and the Merrow family to be thrown out of the farm they have lived in for decades. When the children learn of the legendary White Riders, smugglers who once rode the marsh disguised as ghosts, this seems a perfect weapon to combat the idea of a holiday camp.

After losing her job and her partner in one fell swoop, journalist Elspeth Reeves is back in her mother's house in the sleepy village of Wilsby-under-Wychwood, wondering where it all went wrong. Then a body is found in the neighbouring Wychwoods: a woman ritually slaughtered, with cryptic symbols scattered around her corpse. Elspeth recognizes these from a local myth of the Carrion King, a Saxon magician who once held a malevolent court deep in the forest. As more murders follow, Elspeth joins her childhood friend DS Peter Shaw to investigate, and the two discover sinister village secrets harking back decades.