1950s London. Bloomsbury Books on Lamb's Conduit Street has resisted change for a hundred years, run by men and guided by the manager's unbreakable rules. But after the turmoil of war in Europe, the world is changing and the women in the shop have plans. The brilliant and stylish Vivien Lowry, still grieving her fiance who was killed in action, has a long list of grievances, the biggest of which is Alec McDonough, the head of fiction. Loyal Grace Perkins is torn between duty and dreams of her own while struggling to support her family following her husband's breakdown. Fiercely bright Evie Stone was one of the first female Cambridge students to earn a degree, but was denied an academic position in favour of a less accomplished male rival. Now she plans to remake her own future. As these Bloomsbury Girls interact with literary figures of the time, among them Daphne du Maurier, Samuel Beckett and Peggy Guggenheim, Vivien, Grace and Evie plot out a richer and more rewarding future.

It's only a few months since the war ended but the little village of Chawton is about to be hit by another devastating blow. The heart of the community and site of Jane Austen's cherished former home, Chawton estate is in danger of being sold to the highest bidder.

Eight villagers are brought together by their love for the famous author's novels, to create The Jane Austen Society. As new friendships form and the pain of the past begins to heal, surely they can find a way to preserve Austen's legacy before it is too late?

And there may even be a few unexpected surprises along the way...

A heartbreaking and uplifting novel of hope, loss and love. Perfect for fans of Miss Austen by Gill Hornby and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer.

Two pairs of siblings, devotees of Jane Austen, find their lives transformed by a visit to England and Sir Francis Austen, her last surviving brother and keeper of a long-suppressed, secret legacy.

In Boston, 1865, Charlotte and Henrietta Stevenson, daughters of a Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice, have accomplished as much as women are allowed in those days. Chafing against those restrictions and inspired by the works of Jane Austen, they start a secret correspondence with Sir Francis Austen, her last surviving brother, now in his nineties. He sends them an original letter from his sister and invites them to come visit him in England.

In Philadelphia, Nicholas & Haslett Nelson―bachelor brothers, veterans of the recent Civil War, and rare book dealers―are also in correspondence with Sir Francis Austen, who lures them, too, to England, with the promise of a never-before-seen, rare Austen artifact to be evaluated.

The Stevenson sisters sneak away without a chaperone to sail to England. On their ship are the Nelson brothers, writer Louisa May Alcott, Sara-Beth Gleason―wealthy daughter of a Pennsylvania state senator with her eye on the Nelsons―and, a would-be last-minute chaperone to the Stevenson sisters, Justice Thomas Nash.

It's a voyage and trip that will dramatically change each of their lives in ways that are unforeseen, with the transformative spirit of the love of literature and that of Jane Austen herself.

A surprise phone call from her late fiance's family sends Vivien Lowry of Bloomsbury Girls off on her next adventure. Struggling as a playwright, she moves to Italy both to reckon with her past and create a new future as a script-writer at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome. Here she encounters the greatest male bastion of them all, the Vatican. Vivien ends up entangled between the church and the censors, while romantically caught between two men: an enigmatic American film financier who is not who he says he is, and a socialist Italian prince and independent filmmaker who ends up under house arrest over a censored screenplay. Each of them has a wartime experience from their past that they must revisit in order to move on - Vivien most of all.

1950s London. Bloomsbury Books on Lamb's Conduit Street has resisted change for a hundred years, run by men and guided by the manager's unbreakable rules. But after the turmoil of war in Europe, the world is changing and the women in the shop have plans. The brilliant and stylish Vivien Lowry, still grieving her fiance who was killed in action, has a long list of grievances, the biggest of which is Alec McDonough, the head of fiction. Loyal Grace Perkins is torn between duty and dreams of her own while struggling to support her family following her husband's breakdown. Fiercely bright Evie Stone was one of the first female Cambridge students to earn a degree, but was denied an academic position in favour of a less accomplished male rival. Now she plans to remake her own future. As these Bloomsbury Girls interact with literary figures of the time, among them Daphne du Maurier, Samuel Beckett and Peggy Guggenheim, Vivien, Grace and Evie plot out a richer and more rewarding future.

1950s London. Bloomsbury Books on Lamb's Conduit Street has resisted change for a hundred years, run by men and guided by the manager's unbreakable rules. But after the turmoil of war in Europe, the world is changing and the women in the shop have plans. The brilliant and stylish Vivien Lowry, still grieving her fiance who was killed in action, has a long list of grievances, the biggest of which is Alec McDonough, the head of fiction. Loyal Grace Perkins is torn between duty and dreams of her own while struggling to support her family following her husband's breakdown. Fiercely bright Evie Stone was one of the first female Cambridge students to earn a degree, but was denied an academic position in favour of a less accomplished male rival. Now she plans to remake her own future. As these Bloomsbury Girls interact with literary figures of the time, among them Daphne du Maurier, Samuel Beckett and Peggy Guggenheim, Vivien, Grace and Evie plot out a richer and more rewarding future.