Perfect for fans of THE TEA PLANTER'S WIFE 'This has everything - engaging characters, a thrilling story and beautiful scenery' KATIE FFORDE ________________________ The start of a war. The end of a dynasty. VIENNA, 1911. Greta Goldbaum has always dreamed of being free to choose her own life's path, but the Goldbaum family, one of the wealthiest in the world, has different expectations. United across Europe, Goldbaum men are bankers, while Goldbaum women marry Goldbaum men to produce Goldbaum children. So when Greta is sent to England to marry Albert, a distant cousin she has never met, the two form an instant dislike for one another. Defiant and lonely, Greta longs for a connection and a place to call her own. When Albert's mother gives Greta a garden, things begin to change. But just as she begins to taste an unexpected happiness, the Great War breaks out, threatening to tear everything away. For the first time in two hundred years, the family will find themselves on opposing sides. How will Greta choose between the family she's created and the one she was forced to leave behind?

As part of their project in commemoration of the Armistice which ended the First World War, the children of present day Caerleon in S Wales imagined the letters and poems they might have written to and from the Front during the war. Both primary schools, Charles Williams Church in Wales School and The Lodge Primary School, spent the 2018 summer term learning about life both at home and at the Front. In collaboration with Caerleon Remembers, which is co-ordinating the Remembrance Day events, 150 children were asked to try to compose letters and poems to imaginary WW1 servicemen fighting amongst the bomb craters, barbed wire and mud filled trenches of Flanders, sending the soldiers messages of hope and telling them about life back home in peaceful Caerleon. Some wrote letters to fathers at the Front, some chose to write home to families from the Front. Others wrote poems about the war, and many chose to illustrate their imaginings. Caerleon Remembers decided to include all contributions, in order to show the depth of knowledge these children have taken in about life in the trenches and at home. The result is this deeply moving book. As both Head Teachers say, `Fortunately, the children of Caerleon have not experienced the effects of war first-hand and we pray that this remains so. For our children, war and conflict is often confined to books and screens; it is something that happens elsewhere and it is something that only affects adults. This project has allowed our children to begin to understand that war, both in the past and present, affects all people everywhere, including the young, and that its legacy has long-lasting consequences. As imagined letters to and from the front were drafted, our children began to better appreciate the emotional cost of war, the love of family and the sanctity of peace. We would like to thank Caerleon Remembers for giving us this opportunity.'

From New York Times bestselling author Charles Todd comes a haunting tale that explores the impact of World War I on all who witnessed it-officers, soldiers, doctors, and battlefield nurses like Bess Crawford. Though the Great War is nearing its end, the fighting rages on. While waiting for transport back to her post, Bess Crawford meets Captain Alan Travis from the island of Barbados. Later, when he's brought into her forward aid station disoriented from a head wound, Bess is alarmed that he believes his distant English cousin, Lieutenant James Travis, shot him. Then the Captain is brought back to the aid station with a more severe wound, once more angrily denouncing the Lieutenant as a killer. But when it appears that James Travis couldn't have shot him, the Captain's sanity is questioned. Still, Bess wonders how such an experienced officer could be so wrong. On leave in England, Bess finds the Captain strapped to his bed in a clinic for brain injuries. Horrified by his condition, Bess and Sergeant Major Simon Brandon travel to James Travis's home in Suffolk, to learn more about the baffling relationship between these two cousins. Her search will lead this smart, capable, and compassionate young woman into unexpected danger, and bring her face to face with the visible and invisible wounds of war that not even the much-longed for peace can heal.

It's July 1917, and as the sun sets over No-man's-land so Joseph Reavley's heart sinks with it. As chaplain he must keep up the men's morale, but as rumours of mutiny grow stronger he is losing any chance of getting through to them. After the death of an officer, twelve soldiers are arrested, and it falls to Joseph to uncover the truth about their involvement. Joseph's brother Matthew, of the S.I.S, is also in pursuit of the truth, whilst struggling to come to terms with his part in the Peacemaker's death. Approached by a Junior Cabinet Minister who is being blackmailed, Matthew learns of a plot to destroy the only men who can bring about lasting peace. As he embarks on an investigation Matthew knows his own life is in danger but thinks it a small price to pay to secure the future of millions of people.

February, 1917. A lone German agent is despatched to Washington to prevent the British delivering a telegram to President Woodrow Wilson - by any means possible. For this is the Zimmermann telegram: it contains a devastating piece of news which is sure to bring the USA into the war on the side of Britain and her allies. Having fought in the trenches himself, Max Volkman knows that America's involvement will only prolong the slaughter of innocents and is implacable in his determination to kill the British envoy carrying the telegram. But when his pursuit of the Englishman leads him to the home of American heiress Catherine Fitzgerald, wife to one of Washington's most powerful politicians, he is presented with a terrible choice: loyalty to his comrades in the trenches or the loss of the one woman he has ever truly loved. His decision will determine the outcome of the First World War.

What really happened on the night of February 3, 1916, when a fire destroyed the centre block of the Canadian Parliament buildings?

Inspector Andrew MacNutt of the Dominion Police's Secret Service, his wife Katherine, and Count Jaggi know, since they were there in the reading room when the fire started.

Ever since the war began MacNutt has been struggling to secure Canada's borders against acts of sabotage organized by German military attaches based in New York City. The good news is that the Americans have finally ordered them back to Germany. The bad news is that Berlin has sent one of their best operatives, Count Jaggi, to replace them.

Using his cover as a Belgian Relief representative, Count Jaggi visits Ottawa, where he meets and is attracted to Katherine, who is helping him organize a local fundraiser.

Unaware that Inspector MacNutt has intercepted his secret messages and is hot on his trail, Count Jaggi takes a final trip to Ottawa to see Katherine, with tragic consequences.

Robert Ross, a sensitive nineteen-year-old Canadian officer, went to war - the War to End All Wars. He found himself in the nightmare world of trench warfare; of mud and smoke, of chlorine gas and rotting corpses. In this world gone mad, Robert Ross performed a last desperate act to declare his commitment to life in the midst of death.The Wars is quite simply one of the best novels ever written about the First World War.

Two stories in parallel... It is 1914. As war engulfs the British Empire, Royal Navy gunner, George Royal awaits his next ship in his home port where his best friend has fallen in love with beautiful Carrie, a woman with secrets. When she is attracted to George, she brings the two men into conflict. Unprepared for war, Britain's leadership is being severely tested. Even during Cabinet meetings, at which his bickering warlords make fate-changing decisions, the Prime Minister is preoccupied with his love for a young woman. George Royal epitomises the young men who collectively brought Great Britain safely through the conflict and never questioned or knew of the circumstances of the warlords who worked in white stone buildings in London and placed them in danger every day throughout the war. Through the personal lives of Britain's leaders and George's coming-of-age, love triangles at home and ferocious battles at sea, the story reveals how the machinations of leaders influenced the course of the Great War and the fate of those fighting it. Puppet masters, puppets, through tragedy, bravery, life and death, the message they all carried was that it would all be Over By Christmas Reviewers' Comments: - "Written by an ex Naval Officer this well researched book brings fact and fiction together and I would suggest also his own naval experiences. The battle scenes are first class." (CB) "An engrossing novel about cataclysmic events" (RNM) "A very absorbing read, which held my attention throughout" (RRJ) "A superb novel in which real events, imagined histories, human relationships and politics intertwine" (PS) "Highly recommended" (RNM)

A deserting soldier treks through the torn-up countryside and abandoned villages, trying to distance himself from the atrocities of war. An elderly man sits beneath lime trees, remembering his first sexual encounter one summer night with a female stranger who whispered another man's name. A young woman takes up a job in a care home, spending monotonous days scrubbing floors and yearning to dance at the local nightclub. The artist Franz Marc lives on in an imagined life as a patient at an asylum, before falling victim to Hitler's policy of Gnadentod. Finally, a young Jewish girl, the life she once knew destroyed, holds her memories close as she finds refuge in wreckage of her homeland. And throughout there is the shadowy presence of Viktor - one man or many? A looming figure in Germany's own reckoning with its past. Through these five interconnected stories, Philippe Claudel reflects on Germany's complex history and the experiences of its people, dismantling the idea of "a nation" or "a people" and exploring the malleability of memory.

Anne Perry's magnificent Victorian mysteries established her as one of the world's best known and loved historical novelists. Now, in her vividly imagined World War I novels, Perry's talents "have taken a quantum leap" (The Star-Ledger), and so has the number of her devoted readers. We Shall Not Sleep, the final book in this epic series featuring the dedicated Reavley family, is perhaps the most memorably enthralling of all Perry's novels.
After four long years, peace is finally in sight. But chaplain Joseph Reavley and his sister Judith, an ambulance driver on the Western Front, are more hard pressed than ever. Behind the lines, violence is increasing: soldiers are abusing German prisoners, a nurse has been raped and murdered, and the sinister ideologue called the Peacemaker now threatens to undermine the peace just as he did the war.
Then Matthew, the third Reavley sibling and an intelligence expert, suddenly arrives at the front with startling news. The Peacemaker's German counterpart has offered to go to England and expose his co-conspirator as a traitor. But with war still raging and prejudices inflamed, such a journey would be fraught with hazards, especially since the Peacemaker has secret informers everywhere, even on the battlefield.
For richness of plot, character, and feeling, We Shall Not Sleep is unmatched. Anne Perry's brilliantly orchestrated finale is a heartstopping tour de force, mesmerizing and totally satisfying.

"From the Hardcover edition."

The unputdownable historical novel by the acclaimed and bestselling author of WAKE and EXPECTATION: a devastating story of love and madness at the brink of the Great War. 'Absolutely heart-breaking. One of the best books I've ever read' DINAH JEFFERIES, author of The Tea-Planter's Wife 'Compelling, elegant, insightful' OBSERVER 1911: Inside an asylum at the edge of the Yorkshire moors, where men and women are kept apart by high walls and barred windows, there is a ballroom vast and beautiful. For one bright evening every week they come together and dance. When John and Ella meet it is a dance that will change two lives forever. Set over the heatwave summer of 1911, the end of the Edwardian era, THE BALLROOM tells a rivetting tale of dangerous obsession, of madness and sanity, and of who gets to decide which is which. It is a love story like no other. ***************************************** Praise for Anna Hope's The Ballroom: 'Beautifully wrought, tender, heartbreaking' Sunday Express 5/5 'Moving, fascinating' Times 'A tender and absorbing love story' Daily Mail 'Unsentimental and affecting' Sunday Times 'Exquisitely good' Metro 'Absolutely fantastic . . . I'm in real awe of her writing' ELIZABETH MACNEAL, author of The Doll Factory ______________