Rachel Atkins

After his mother dies in a car crash, little Felix retreats to the branches of a tree in the university’s Botanical Gardens. There he witnesses the dreams and dramas of the teachers and students who find sanctuary on the small patch of earth.

Meet the Bright Young Things, the rabble-rousing hedonists of the 1920s whose treasure hunts were a media obsession. One such game ends in tragedy as cruel, charismatic Adrian Curtis is pushed to his death from the church neighbouring the Mitford home. The police quickly identify the killer as a maid, Dulcie. But Louisa Cannon, chaperone to the Mitford girls and a former criminal herself, believes Dulcie to be innocent, and sets out to clear the girl's name . . . all while the real killer may only be steps away.

Alison lives her life under the radar. She has no ties, which is how she wants it. Because Alison used to be a teenager named Esme, who lived in a dilapidated house by a bleak estuary. One night, something unspeakable happened in the house, and Alison emerged the only survivor, and now she has cut herself off from her past.

Since Goronwy Rees's death, his daughter Jenny has had to cope with the frequently made allegation that her father was another of the spies recruited at Cambridge in the 1930s. He never disguised his friendship with Guy Burgess who, with Donald Maclean, had defected to Moscow in 1951, and in 1979 Rees helped Andrew Boyle unmask Anthony Blunt, the Fourth Man. 

So, was Rees himself actually a spy? The opening of KGB files has acted as a spur to Jenny Rees in her quest to exorcise the past. The result is full of unexpected revelation, made all the more moving as she discovers for the first time the secret life of her father.

Previously published as Looking for Mr Nobody. 

When the aristocratic Lady Isabel abandons her husband and children for her wicked seducer, more is at stake than moral retribution. Ellen Wood played upon the anxieties of the Victorian middle classes who feared a breakdown of the social order as divorce became more readily available and promiscuity threatened the sanctity of the family. In this novel the simple act of hiring a governess raises the spectres of murder, disguise, and adultery.

In 1045 the Normans were trying to wrest the English throne from the Anglo-Saxon barons - everything centres on who will succeed King Edward the Confessor. Earl Lovric of Mercia and his wife Godiva are pulled into the intrigue when edward uses their son as a pawn in his power play. Thus the stage is set for one of the most powerful stories in English history. X rated, explicit sexual content.

For more than a century, hopping was the main event in the East End calendar, with over 200,000 East Enders descending on Kent looking for casual work picking hops. 'Hopping' captures this period from the 20s to the 50s, and shows how each place was forever altered by the other.

When Zoe Walker sees her photo in the classifieds section of a London newspaper, she is determined to find out why it's there. There's no explanation: just a grainy image, a website address and a phone number. The next day the advert shows a photo of a different woman, and another the day after that. Is it a mistake? A coincidence? Or is someone keeping track of every move they make . . .

It is 1870: opening night at the Royal Opera House, where a huge, crystal chandelier sparkles magically with the light of 750 candles. Celeste, a theatre rat, wakes up in a costume basket from what she hopes is a bad dream, to find that everyone at the theatre where she works thinks she is someone else. When the chandelier falls, she is haunted by a strange girl who claims to know Celeste's past and why she must risk playing a game called the Reckoning to try to save the people she loves.

When an old television rival, Deirdre Shaw, is found dead at the Cotswolds manor house where she was catering for a prestigious shooting weekend, Prudence is asked to step into the breach. Prudence is only too happy to take up the position and soon she is working in the kitchens of Farleigh Manor.

But Farleigh Manor is the home to secrets, both old and new. The site of a famous unsolved murder from the nineteenth century, Farleigh Manor has never quite shaken off its sensationalist past. It's about to get a sensational present too. Because, the more she scratches beneath the surface of this manor and its guests, the more Prudence becomes certain that Deirdre Shaw's death was no accident. She's staring in the face of a very modern murder...

Book 1 in the Prudence Bulstrode series.

Jenny Tanner opens the box she has cherished for decades. Contained within are her most precious mementoes, amongst them a pebble, a carving and a newspaper cutting she can hardly bear to read. But Jenny knows the time is finally here. After the war, in a mountainside village in Italy, she left behind a piece of her heart. However painful, she must return to Cinque Alberi. And lay the past to rest.

After a troubled upbringing, Candice Barnes dreams of a future with the love of her life - but is he the man she believes him to be? When Candice is given the opportunity to travel to Italy with Jenny, she is unaware the trip will open her eyes to the truth she's been too afraid to face. Could a place of goodbyes help her make a brave new beginning?

Meet the Bright Young Things, the rabble-rousing hedonists of the 1920s whose treasure hunts were a media obsession. One such game takes place at the 18th birthday party of Pamela Mitford, but ends in tragedy as cruel, charismatic Adrian Curtis is pushed to his death from the church neighbouring the Mitford home.

The police quickly identify the killer as a maid, Dulcie. But Louisa Cannon, chaperone to the Mitford girls and a former criminal herself, believes Dulcie to be innocent, and sets out to clear the girl's name... all while the real killer may only be steps away.

Book 2 in the Mitford Murders series.

It's 1919, and Louisa Cannon dreams of escaping her life of poverty in London. Louisa's salvation is a position within the Mitford household at Asthall Manor, in the Oxfordshire countryside. There she will become chaperone and confidante to the Mitford sisters, especially sixteen-year-old Nancy - an acerbic, bright young woman. But then a nurse is killed on a train in broad daylight, and Louisa and Nancy find themselves entangled in the crimes of a murderer who will do anything to hide their secret...

Book 1 in the Mitford Murders series.

The newly married and most beautiful of the Mitford sisters, Diana, hot-steps around Europe with her husband and fortune heir Bryan Guinness, accompanied by maid Louisa Cannon, as well as some of the most famous and glamorous luminaries of the era. But murder soon follows, and with it, a darkness grows in Diana's heart....

Book 3 in the Mitford Murders series.

It's 1941, and the Mitford household is splintered by the vicissitudes of war. To bring the clan together - maybe for one last time - Deborah invites them to Chatsworth for Christmas, along with a selection of society's most impressive and glamorous guests, as well as old family friend Louisa Cannon, a private detective.

One night, a psychic arrives, and to liven things up Deborah agrees she may host a séance. But entertainment turns to dark mystery as the psychic reveals that a maid was murdered in this very same house - and she can prove it.

Louisa steps forward to try to solve the cold case. But with a house full of people who want nothing more than to bury their secrets, will she be able to unmask the murderer? And how deep does the truth lie?

Book 6 in the Mitford Murders series.

It's former lady's maid Louisa Cannon's wedding day, but the fantasy is shattered shortly after when she is approached by a secretive man asking her to spy on Diana Mitford - who is having an affair with the infamous Oswald Mosley - and her similarly fascist sister Unity.

Thus as summer 1933 dawns, Louisa finds herself accompanying the Mitfords on a glitzy cruise, full of the starriest members of Society. But the waters run red when a man is found attacked, with suspects everywhere.

Back in London, the case is taken by lawyer Tom Mitford, and Louisa finds herself caught between worlds: of a love lost to blood, a family divided and a country caught in conflict.

Book 4 in the Mitford Murders series.

1937. War with Germany is dawning, and a civil war already raging in Spain. Split across political lines, the six Mitford sisters are more divided than ever. Meanwhile their former maid Louisa Cannon is now a private detective, working with her ex-policeman husband Guy Sullivan.

Louisa and Guy are surprised when a call comes in from novelist Nancy Mitford requesting that they look into the disappearance of her Communist sister Jessica, nicknamed Decca. It quickly becomes clear that Decca may have made for the war in Spain - and not alone.

As a second, separate missing person case is opened, Louisa and Guy discover that every marriage has its secrets - but some are more deadly than others...

Book 5 in the Mitford Murders series.

Jenny and Mark have been together since they were at school. They are now splitting up, but are determined theirs will be the perfect, truly amicable divorce. Their friends and family are less happy about this and things start to get messy and complicated.

On 24th November Yasmin and her deaf daughter Ruby arrive in Alaska, driving alone across a frozen wilderness, where nothing grows, no one lives, and where night will last for another fifty-four days. They are looking for Ruby's father, travelling deeper into a silent land. They still cannot find him, and someone is watching them in the dark... Richard & Judy Bookclub.

There is bitter enmity between the daughters of Henry VIII as each struggles for power. Hannah, a naïve looking, young woman from the court is sent by Robert Dudley to spy on Mary. Once there Hannah realises the depth of Mary's religious commitment which will have such tragic consequences later. This is a commercial recording published by Isis Audio Books 2003.

Pearl Winter hasn't been outside in forty-three years.

Since she arrived in Dartmoor as a teenager, her isolated cottage has been her whole world. A place of safety. But now Pearl is utterly alone - except for the postman, the local crows, and her memories of the summer when her life turned upside down.

Connor Matthews feels like a stranger in his own home.

Since his mother's death he's been adrift from his remaining family and the life that's always been mapped out for him.

But when Connor takes a summer job as Pearl's gardener, their unexpected friendship opens the door to a fresh start for them both. If they can just take the first step . . .

Gracie Burton, living quietly in Devon, has rarely left the village over the past forty years. But when she stumbles upon an advertisement for a weeklong cookery course in the heart of the Tuscan countryside, she cannot resist and ploughs her life savings into the trip. Her daughter Carina and 17-year old grandaughter Anastasia accompany her, but they have no idea that Gracie is harbouring the secret of an extraordinary life that preceded them…

It is 1933 and Sofia and her friend Anna are being held in a Soviet labour camp. When Anna falls seriously ill, Sofia escapes to find Anna’s lover, Vasily.