One coach ride home was all it took. By morning, Juliet Ferrers was ruined, and the man who did it had vanished.She went to Devon to wait out the scandal. Within a fortnight, there were flowers on the gate — and the gate had been oiled. Within a month, a gentleman had rented the cottage past the wood.Charles Wray did not ruin Juliet by accident. He ruined her so thoroughly that no one else would ever want her, and then he came to live at the edge of her land, patient as wea...

**AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 WRITERS' PRIZE FOR FICTION*Named a Best Book of 2023 by The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, and Publishers WeeklyFrom acclaimed and bestselling novelist Zadie Smith, a kaleidoscopic work of historical fiction set against the legal trial that divided Victorian England, about who gets to tell their story—and who gets to ...

As the acknowledged "Queen of Crime," P. D. James was frequently commissioned by newspapers and magazines to write a special short story for Christmas--and here, together, are four of the best.P. D. James's understanding of human nature illuminates each of these stories, making them ideal reading for the darkest days of the year. Each treats the reader to her masterfully atmospheric storytelling, a mystery to be solved, and enjoyable puzzles to keep the reader guessing. With wry hu...

FROM THE CREATOR OF DOWNTON ABBEY and THE GILDED AGEA SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'A modern classic that will fill any Downton-shaped hole' Daily Express'A delicious thoroughbred delight' Stephen Fry'A brilliantly malicious portrait of upper-class society and all those who long to be accepted by them' Jilly CooperEdith Lavery is a woman on the mak...

The second book to feature the classic crime-solving detective, Chief Inspector Wexford.The discovery of Elizabeth Nightingale's broken body in the woods near her home could not have come as a bigger shock. Called in to investigate, Chief Inspector Wexford quickly determines that the Nightingales were considered the perfect couple - wealthy, attractive and without an enemy in the world.However, someone must have been alone with Elizabeth that night in the woods. Someone who...

Born to rough cloth in working-class London in 1748, Mary Saunders hungers for velvet and lace—a desire that leads her to a life of prostitution, where she encounters a freedom unknown to virtuous young women. In the end, it is clothes, their splendour and their deception, that bring Mary to the brink of disaster. Slammerkin is both a brilliant evocation of another era and a timeless tale of the rage of adolescence.

Arriving at the great houses of 1920s London, fifteen-year-old Margaret’s life in service was about to begin…As a kitchen maid – the lowest of the low – she entered an entirely new world; one of stoves to be blacked, vegetables to be scrubbed, mistresses to be appeased, and even bootlaces to be ironed. Work started at 5.30am and went on until after dark. It was a far cry from her childhood on the beaches of Hove, where money and food were scarce, but warmth and laughter never were....

'Cleverly plotted . . . Walsh's pitch-perfect re-creation of the charismatic leads is a delight' - Publishers Weekly'Delicious' - BooklistLord Peter Wimsey is delighted to discover that along with a dukedom he has inherited the duties of 'visitor' at an Oxford college. When the fellows ask him to resolve a college dispute, he and Harriet are all too keen to spend some time in Oxford.But the dispute quickly turns sou...

Lydia Wraxhall is on her best behavior every day of the year—except one: the annual Bickerton Christmas Poultry Show. On that day, she brushes her birds, sharpens her tongue, and engages in the closest thing the village knows to war.Harriet Boyne is a soldier’s widow reeling from the worst years of her life. She and her friends have inherited a manor on the village outskirts, and Harriet is looking forward to a quiet holiday far from the anguish of the battlefield.But a dis...

The Anatomy of Ghosts is a gripping historical mystery from the bestselling author of The Ashes of London1786, Jerusalem College, Cambridge.The ghost of murdered Sylvia Whichcote is sighted prowling the grounds by commoner Frank Oldershaw. Worried her son is descending into madness, Frank's anxious mother employs rationalist John Holdsworth to investigate the sighting, throwing the uneasy status quo at the college into cha...

EPISODE 1 IN A MAJOR BBC DRAMA STARRING TIMOTHY SPALL, DAVID WALLIAMS AND JENNIFER SAUNDERSClarence has to get his pig eating again or lose the fat-pig prize to his arch nemesis.Lord Clarence Emsworth’s pride and joy, the prize-winning pig Empress of Blandings refuses to eat when Cyril the pig-man is jailed by Clarence’s conniving rival Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe.With the prize’s weigh-in only two-weeks away, Clarence and his gambling, spe...

A gripping tale of murder and mystery in eighteenth century England.Across the still, dark English Channel come the smugglers. But tonight they carry an unusual cargo: a coffin. Several miles inland, a respected banker holds a birthday party for his wife. Within days, one of the guests is found shot dead.What links this apparently senseless killing to the smugglers lurking in the mists? Why has the local bank been buying and hoarding gold? And who was in th...