Charlotte Strevens

On May 3rd, 1942, Alma Braithwaite and her fellow boarders at Goldwyn's school huddle in an air-raid shelter as bombs rain down on Exeter. When the girls emerge, the school is in ruins. Twenty-one years on, Alma teaches music at her old school. The arrival of a new student takes Alma back to that summer and the long shadow it cast on her life.

Vita’s gift shop would do better if she ran it as a business, but she’s pre-occupied with thoughts of her ex, Tim, even though he broke her heart. Tree-surgeon Oliver still loves the mother of his child - even after three years apart. When Vita and Oliver’s paths cross, there’s a chance of something blossoming. Will they grab it or walk away?

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 Welsh Borders, 1069. When Ashdyke Manor is attacked, Lady Christen is forced to witness her husband's murder and the pillaging of her lands at the hands of brutal Norman invaders. It seems the pain is finally over when Miles Le Gallois, Lord of Milnham-on-Wye, calls off the attack. But he has Christen's brother under armed guard and a deal to offer: her brother's freedom for her hand in marriage. Christen finds herself hastily married into the enemy side, with her brother swearing his vengeance on her new husband. Miles and Christen's precarious union invites enemies from all sides, and when Miles is summoned for a lengthy campaign by the king, Christen is left to watch his lands. In the midst of war, two enemies must somehow learn to trust one another if they are to survive....

When a comet appears in the sky over England in 1066, Ailith feels sure that it can only bode well. Yet, within a year, Ailith's joy turns to heartache as her husband and her child are taken from her and the conquering Normans advance. Ailith's grief turns to love for a brief period with Rolf de Brize, a handsome and womanising Norman invader but in the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings she discovers a betrayal she cannot forgive. Years later, the spirited and strong-willed Julitta is determined to find happiness and her quest takes her on a Pilgrimage to Compostella to a colourful horse fair in Bordeaux, to the terrors of piracy on the open sea

Italy, 1819. Emilia Barton and her mother Sarah live a nomadic existence, travelling from town to town as itinerant dressmakers to escape their past. When they settle in the idyllic coastal town of Pesaro, Emilia desperately hopes that, this time, they have found a permanent home. But when Sarah is brutally attacked by an unknown assailant, a deathbed confession turns Emilia's world upside down...

Cousin to Elizabeth I - and possibly Henry VIII's illegitimate granddaughter - Lettice Knollys had a life of dizzying highs and pitiful lows. Entangled in a love triangle with Robert Dudley and Elizabeth I, banished from court, plagued by scandals, embroiled in treason, Lettice would lose a husband and son to the executioner's axe. In the biography of this remarkable woman, Nicola Tallis takes us through her dramatic life and the grand sweep of the Tudor Age and the events that define it.

Having endured the Blitz, Edie feels utterly disillusioned with life in wartime London. The chance to work with the Secret Operations Executive offers a fresh start. Codenamed 'Yvette', she's parachuted into France. Back in London, Vera desperately needs to be made a UK citizen to erase the secrets of her past. Working at the foreign office presents an opportunity for blackmail. But when she loses contact with one agent in the field, codenamed Yvette, her loyalties are torn.

Moments after she is born, Tessa Barcussy is branded as 'trouble'. A Romany Gypsy makes a chilling prediction about Tessa's destiny. Her father Freddie finds it so disturbing that he writes it down and hides it in a sealed envelope. Sensitive and rebellious, Tessa grows up a misfit, difficult to handle and disruptive. Will the words of the Romany Gypsy come true? Or will they empower Tessa to finally become the person she was born to be?

1842. Stranded on Deception Island in the South Atlantic, her whaling captain husband lost at sea, Karina is destitute and desperate. Disguised as a cabin boy, she stows away on a British ship. But Karina is about to get a nasty surprise. As she grows closer to ship’s surgeon Joseph Hooker, Karina and the rest of the crew find themselves pushed to the limits both physically and emotionally as conditions worsen onboard. Engulfed in the chillingly hostile Antarctic landscape, something extraordinary happens – and Karina’s story becomes intertwined with some of the 20th century’s bravest Polar explorers.

In 1621, fifty-seven women undertook a three-month journey to Jamestown after responding to an advert placed by the Virginia Company, looking for wives for its tobacco planters in the New Colony. They travelled of their own free will, but the Company was effectively selling them at a profit, having set a bride price of 150lbs of tobacco for each woman. But what did the women want? Why did they make the perilous Atlantic crossing to a dangerous land, where six out of seven European settlers died within a few years?

When Renard, heir to Ravenstow, is summoned home to his ailing father, he brings Olwen with him, an exotic dancing girl whose sensuous beauty has ensnared him. Yet, in a political match made by their families, Renard is already betrothed to the innocent Elene. Renard's personal dilemma is set against a background of increasing civil strife, and his fate is soon placed in the hands of the two women..

Alice leaves her two-week-old baby at home with her husband David. When she returns two hours later, she insists that the baby in the crib is not her child. Despite her apparent distress, David is adamant that she is wrong. How can Alice make the police believe her before it's too late? Contains strong language.

Ellen enters into service at Markham Thorpe to find life below stairs full of backbiting and gossip. Then there’s the relationship between masters and servants, which is not as it should be. In the midst of all this is the formidable housekeeper Mrs Rundell.

Inge was German, half-Jewish, and a Holocaust survivor, all of which she chose to deny. Talented and able, charismatic and infuriating, she surged through life constantly reinventing herself. Sent out of Nazi Germany to the souks of Meknès, she fled a freezing attic in war-torn Brussels to land in a council estate in Birkenhead. London offered the escapee a new start... until her past caught up with her. Triumph finally came in France where nobody knew who she was - least of all the friends who adored her.

After her death, deep secrets emerged. Her daughters knew that she had always misled others - but not that they, too, might be collateral damage. Compelling, frank, and witty, this memoir is part detective story, part daughterly fury.

In search of a rural idyll, away from the bustle of inner London, David and Tessa retreat to a sleepy Welsh village. But things are not what they seem: a young woman is murdered and Tessa becomes the victim of a stalker.

A new life in Wales has not turned out to be the rural fantasy that social worker Jess imagined when she left London for a simpler, more fulfilling future. But it seems there is no escape from evil - even in such a beautiful landscape. A dark and disturbing tale. X rated, contains offensive language and explicit sex.

On a moonlit night in 1903, a mysterious young woman flees alone across the Canadian wilderness. Mary Boulton is 19 years old, half mad and widowed – by her own hand. She is desperate, and certain of only one thing – that two red-headed brothers lurch close behind her. She has murdered their brother and their lust for vengeance is unswerving.

Sally, married with a young family, hears the name of a man she spent the night with at a hotel on the TV news He is described as a widower whose wife has killed both herself and their daughter. But the man on the screen is not the Mark Bretherick she knows. Can Sally inform the police and keep her secret?

'I must stand up for myself more', so promises Maggie Storm who spends her days cleaning houses for people who often have more money than manners. Married to a man with as much sex appeal as Mr Blobby, she dreams of a life straight from the pages of a romantic novel.

Queen Victoria had over thirty surviving grandchildren, and to maintain and increase power in Europe, she hoped to manoeuvre them into dynastic marriages. This is a captivating exploration of the role in which Queen Victoria exerted most power and influence: her role as matchmaking grandmother.

After her husband dies, middle-aged Ellie, is looking for a new way of life. One spring she enrolls on a garden course in Tuscany where she meets fellow students Nerine (seventy and eccentric) and Max, who is much younger.

Mrs Laetitia Rodd, the impoverished widow of an Archdeacon, living modestly in Hampstead, is also a private detective of the utmost discretion. In winter 1850, Sir James Calderstone, a wealthy industrialist, asks Mrs Rodd to investigate the background of an 'unsuitable' woman his son intends to marry – a match he is determined to prevent. In the guise of governess, she soon discovers that the Calderstones have more to hide than most...

As children, Beth Powell and Susan Wright spent every August together in Stratford-upon-Avon. Both the products of unhappy families, they were happy together until fate intervened and separated them. Twenty-nine years later they meet again when Susan, a down and out, is on trial for murder and Beth is the lawyer allocated to defend her.

When Kate is faced with an 'empty nest' when her youngest daughter, Ella, leaves for university, she starts to wonder: what comes next?

Decades after abandoning her university hobby, Kate nervously joins a local ladies rowing team and is surprised to find how much she enjoys it!

More than anything, though, Kate finds that the team of strong women bring new adventures and unlikely friendships she hadn't even realised were missing from her life...