The bestselling novel which inspired the Hollywood movie starring John Mills. They served it ice-cold in Alex - pale amber Rheingold beer in tall, dewy glasses. This is the image that haunts Captain George Anson. Stationed in the North African desert just before the fall of Tobruk, an ice-cold lager seems a million miles away. When Anson is detailed to escort two nursing sisters to Alexandria, it looks as though his wish is finally about to come true - a routine assignment, with a lager at the end of it as his reward. But what starts out as a routine journey soon becomes an epic. Forced to drive further and further south in order to escape the advancing German Army, Anson and his small party are soon on the edge of the Great Sand Sea. As they battle with the physical agonies of a six-hundred-mile drive through the desert it soon becomes apparent that each member of the group has his or her own private struggles to resolve. Not only that, but with a Nazi agent in their midst, it is clear that not all of them are going to make it to Alexandria ...

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR, KATIE FLYNN 'Ellie's a true Flynn heroine with her compassion and bravery. A fine Mother's Day gift for fans' Peterborough Evening Telegraph 'Packed with romance and poignancy' Woman 'Romantic and poignant... Fans of historical fiction will love the details and warmth of Katie Flynn's wartime tale' Woman's Own ________________________________________ Liverpool, 1940: There comes a moment in every child's life when they must learn to stand on their own two feet. For fifteen-year-old Ellie Lancton, that time has come all too soon. The death of her mother and the increase in air raids leaves Ellie alone and in grave danger. It's not long before she is forced to leave her beloved Liverpool behind and cross the Mersey to seek refuge in the countryside. But as the war takes comforts away, so too does it bring new opportunities; for work, new friendships, and perhaps a little love... It will take all of Ellie's courage to find her way without her mother's guidance. But if Ellie can soldier on with grace and dignity, there might just be light at the end of the tunnel.

'A superb example of Deighton's craft' Robert Harris January 1942. Rommel's troops are at the gates of Egypt, soon to threaten Cairo itself. A spy has been leaking British secrets to the German commander, and Captain Albert Cutler has been sent to find them amongst the city's teeming streets and bazaars, before it is too late. But Cutler is not quite what he seems, and Cairo is a city of fool's gold, where nothing can be taken at face value. 'The pace of the story is compulsive ... it is a real pleasure to be swallowed up in Deighton's descriptions of wartime Cairo' Daily Telegraph 'A novel reminiscent in spirit to Casablanca. Play it again, Len' Kirkus Reviews

NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING TOM HANKS Discover the acclaimed wartime classic from C. S. Forester - originally published as The Good Shepherd 'Unbelievably good' James Holland, bestselling author of Normandy '44 It's 1942. America has just joined the war. Greyhound, an international convoy of thirty-seven allied ships, is in operation. Captain Krause must lead his first command of a US destroyer as the convoy ploughs through the icy, submarine-infested North Atlantic seas. For forty-eight hours, Krause will play a desperate cat and mouse game against the wolf packs of German U-boats. His mission looks doomed to fail. But armed with extraordinary courage and grit, hope may just be on the horizon. . . This is a riveting classic of naval warfare from the author of the legendary Hornblower series. 'High and glittering excitement' New York Times

A dazzling literary thriller set in Japan-occupied China from the most translated Chinese novelist of our time. China, 1941. At the height of the Second World War, Japan rules over China. In Hangzhou, a puppet government propped up by the Japanese wages an underground war against the Communist resistance. Late one night, five intelligence officers, employed as codebreakers by the regime, are escorted to an isolated mansion outside the city. The secret police are certain that one of them is a communist spy. None of them is leaving until the traitor is unmasked. It should be a straightforward case of sifting truth from lies. But as each codebreaker spins a story that proves their innocence, what really happened is called into question again and again. Praise for Mai Jia: 'A spy novel on a grand scale in which nothing is as it seems' The Times on The Message 'Jia's playful mix of tradecraft, puzzle-solving and human folly brings an original twist to the spy fiction canon' Sunday Times on The Message 'A page-turner with a gripping plot, otherworldy aura, and flamboyant detail' New York Times on Decoded 'A mix of spy thriller, historical saga and mathematical puzzle that coheres into a powerful whole' Financial Times on Decoded 'A literary superstar' Telegraph

'The sheer charge of the writing swept me into another world' The Times December 1943. A group of US fighter pilots is camped at a windswept air base in Norfolk. Their job is to escort bombers over Germany, and each mission could be their last. Among them are cocky Lieutenant Mickey Morse (nicknamed 'Mickey Mouse'), who is almost on his way to becoming a Flying Ace, and reserved Captain Jamie Farebrother, who is starting to fall in love with an English woman. All they have in common is their courage - until the day their lives converge in ways they could never have imagined. 'Truly astonishing in its recreation of a time and place ... it is a novel of memory, satisfying on every imaginable level' Washington Post

There's a traitor in the pack... Who can you trust? The extraordinary final instalment of the Wolf Pack series. June, 1943. In Lyon, the capital of the French resistance, a secret meeting is held under orders from General de Gaulle. The objective is to unite all resistance factions. The future of France is on the line. But when the meeting is raided by the Gestapo under Klaus Barbie, the 'Butcher of Lyon', the plan disintegrates and the leaders are captured. The movement has been betrayed. There is a traitor in Lyon. British undercover agents Jack Miller and Sophia von Naundorf are sent to France. They must find the informer and save the resistance. But the Gestapo is on the hunt. More traitors emerging from the shadows. The net is closing. This unmissable espionage thriller from modern master Alex Gerlis is perfect for readers of Alan Furst, Charles Cumming and Rory Clements.

Night is one of the masterpieces of Holocaust literature. First published in 1960, it is the autobiographical account of an adolescent boy and his father in Auschwitz. Elie Wiesel writes of their battle for survival, and of his battle with God for a way to understand the wanton cruelty he witnesses each day. In the short novel Dawn (1961), a young man who has survived the Second World War and settled in Palestine is apprenticed to a Jewish underground movement, where the former victim is commanded to execute a British officer who has been taken hostage. In Day (previously titled The Accident, 1962), Wiesel questions the limits of the spirit and the self: Can Holocaust survivors forge a new life without the memories of the old? Wiesel's trilogy offers meditations on mankind's attraction to violence and on the temptation of self-destruction.

This "tender biography of a sickly marmoset that was adopted by Leonard Woolf and became a fixture of Bloomsbury society" (The New York Times) is an intimate portrait of the life and marriage of Leonard and Virginia Woolf from a National Book Award-winning author. In 1934, a "sickly pathetic marmoset" named Mitz came into the care of Leonard Woolf. After he nursed her back to health, she became a ubiquitous presence in Bloomsbury society. Moving with Leonard and Virginia Woolf between their homes in London and Sussex, she developed her own special relationship with each of them, as well as with their pet cocker spaniels and with various members of the Woolfs' circle, among them T. S. Eliot and Vita Sackville-West. Mitz also helped the Woolfs escape a close call with Nazis during a trip through Germany just before the outbreak of World War II. Using letters, diaries, memoirs, and other archival documents, Nunez reconstructs Mitz's life against the background of Bloomsbury's twilight years. This tender and imaginative mock biography offers a striking look at the lives of writers and artists shadowed by war, death, and mental breakdown, and at the solace and amusement inspired by its tiny subject--and this new edition includes an afterword by Peter Cameron and a never-before-published letter about Mitz by Nigel Nicolson. "In short, glistening sentences that refract the larger world, Ms. Nunez describes the appealingly eccentric, fiercely intelligent Woolfs during a darkening time." -The Wall Street Journal

"The Blackout Book Club is a fabulous novel that will warm the hearts of readers everywhere. Amy Lynn Green gives us a poignant look at life on the home front during WWII and how comfort and camaraderie can be found in the shared love of books. This will be a wonderful book club read!"--MADELINE MARTIN, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Bookshop in London In 1942, an impulsive promise to her brother before he goes off to the European front puts Avis Montgomery in the unlikely position of head librarian in small-town Maine. Though she has never been much of a reader, when wartime needs threaten to close the library, she invents a book club to keep its doors open. The women she convinces to attend the first meeting couldn't be more different--a wealthy spinster determined to aid the war effort, an exhausted mother looking for a fresh start, and a determined young war worker. At first, the struggles of the home front are all the club members have in common, but over time, the books they choose become more than an escape from the hardships of life and the fear of the U-boat battles that rage just past their shores. As the women face personal challenges and band together in the face of danger, they find they have more in common than they think. But when their growing friendships are tested by secrets of the past and present, they must decide whether depending on each other is worth the cost. Includes a book club discussion guide and The Blackout Book Club book list "A salute to the power of books and of friendship!"--SARAH SUNDIN, bestselling and award-winning author of Until Leaves Fall in Paris "The Blackout Book Club is an engaging story that illustrates the power of books to unite and encourage us in trying times. . . . A wonderful read."--LYNN AUSTIN, author of Long Way Home

The Iron Age is part-coming-of-age novel, and part-fairy-tale told from the perspective of a young girl growing up in the poverty of post-war Finland. On her family's austere farm, the Girl learns stories and fables of the world around her - of Miina, their sleeping neighbour; how people get depressed if pine trees grow too close to the house; that you should never turn away a witch at the door; and why her father was unlucky not to die in the war. The family crosses from Finland to Sweden, from a familiar language to a strange one, from one unfriendly home to another. The Girl, mute but watchful, weaves a picture of her violent father, resilient mother and strangely resourceful brothers. In this darkly funny debut, with illustrations throughout, folk tales and traditional custom clash with economic reality, from rural Finland to urban Stockholm.

'Probably the best thing ever written about the wartime air campaign against Germany' Max Hastings 'Magnificent ... rich with historical detail' The Times 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. 'A superbly mobilised tragedy of the machines which men make to destroy themselves. Masterly' Spectator

1941, Estonia. As Stalin's brutal Red Army crushes everything in its path, Katarina and her family survive only because their precious farm produce is needed to feed the occupying forces. Fiercely partisan, Katarina battles to protect her grandmother's precious legacy - the weaving of gossamer lace shawls stitched with intricate patterns that tell the stories passed down through generations. While Katarina struggles to survive the daily oppression, another young woman is suffocating in her prison of privilege in Moscow. Yearning for freedom and to discover her beloved mother's Baltic heritage, Lydia escapes to Estonia. Facing the threat of invasion by Hitler's encroaching Third Reich, Katarina and Lydia and two idealistic young soldiers, insurgents in the battle for their homeland, find themselves in a fight for life, liberty and love.

**A NATIONAL BESTSELLER** "Readers will be on the edge of their seats.... A brilliant tale of resistance, courage and ultimately hope." -Kelly Rimmer, New York Times bestselling author of The Warsaw Orphan From the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Bookshop in London comes a moving new novel inspired by the true history of America's library spies of World War II. Ava thought her job as a librarian at the Library of Congress would mean a quiet, routine existence. But an unexpected offer from the US military has brought her to Lisbon with a new mission: posing as a librarian while working undercover as a spy gathering intelligence. Meanwhile, in occupied France, Elaine has begun an apprenticeship at a printing press run by members of the Resistance. It's a job usually reserved for men, but in the war, those rules have been forgotten. Yet she knows that the Nazis are searching for the press and its printer in order to silence them. As the battle in Europe rages, Ava and Elaine find themselves connecting through coded messages and discovering hope in the face of war. "Uplifting, inspiring and suspenseful, this is one to savor!" -Natasha Lester, New York Times bestselling author of The Riviera House "Madeline Martin is a fantastic author. The Librarian Spy is a stunning tour de force of historical fiction." -Karen Robards, author of The Black Swan of Paris For more historical fiction from Madeline Martin, don't miss The Last Bookshop in London.

It was said that Stalingrad had been burning since August, ever since the first German bombs were dropped...Sven Hassel and his comrades are plunged into the maelstrom of Stalingrad. Radio Moscow reports that one German soldier dies every minute. Trapped by the Russian counter-attack, starving soldiers must resort to cannibalism to survive. But 'Tiny', Porta, the Legionnaire and Sven attempt to break out, to fight their way across the frozen steppe. Their leader: an SS general who takes no prisoners...

Sven Hassel's iconic novel about the Battle for Monte Cassino. The thunder of the guns could be heard in Rome, 170 miles away... Having survived the horrors of the Eastern Front, the 27th Penal Regiment are posted to Italy. Hitler has ordered that every position must be held to the last, and every lost position recaptured by counter-attack. Monte Cassino - a major look-out post on the German defensive line - is under attack. In the face of overwhelming Allied firepower, Sven Hassel and his comrades are ordered to hold the fortress at all costs... MONTE CASSINO is a classic Sven Hassel novel, a no-holds-barred account of frontline combat. Sven Hassel based his unflinching narrative on his experiences in the German army. He ended the Second World War in a prisoner of war camp, where he wrote his first novel LEGION OF THE DAMNED.

A moving and nostalgic saga about post office girls in wartime London. Perfect for readers of Katie Flynn, Kitty Neale and Dilly Court. It is autumn 1940 and, as the bombs rain down on London, a close-knit community struggles to survive. Working at the local post office, Bessie Green does her best to keep her customers' spirits up, but when she receives a telegram addressed to her parents, there's nothing she can do to prevent the heartache that lies ahead. Then Bessie hears that eleven-year-old Daisy Mason has been orphaned in a blast, and she's sure that taking Daisy into their home is just what her parents need to help them overcome their grief. At first, Daisy won't settle, then her handsome brother Josh comes back on leave and things look up for all of them. But the war brings further challenges for Bessie and her friends - with more hearts broken and loved-ones lost - before they can dare to dream of a brighter future... Readers love Pam Evans heartwarming family sagas: 'A touching novel' Daily Express 'An unforgettable tale of life during the war' Our Time 'Nostalgia, heartbreak, danger and war: all the ingredients of an engrossing novel' Bolton News 'There's a special kind of warmth that shines through the characters' Lancashire Evening Post 'This book touched me very, very much. It's lovely' North Wales Chronicle