Brought to you by Penguin.On Boxing Day 1962, when Juliet Nicolson was eight years old, the snow began to fall. It did not stop for ten weeks. The drifts in East Sussex reached twenty-three feet. In London, milkmen made deliveries on skis. On Dartmoor 2,000 ponies were buried in the snow, and starving foxes ate sheep alive.It wasn't just the weather that was bad. The threat of nuclear war had reached its terrifying height with the recent Cuban Missile Crisi...

Brought to you by Penguin.Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, 2015When Noel Bostock - aged ten, no family - is evacuated from London to escape the Blitz, he winds up in St Albans with Vera Sedge - thiry-six, drowning in debts. Always desperate for money, she's unscrupulous about how she gets it.The war's thrown up all manner of new opportunities but what Vee needs is a cool head and the ability to make a plan. On h...

Brought to you by Penguin.Discover the heartwarming, witty, and poignant new historical novel about changing (sometimes reluctantly) with the times set in the aftermath of WW2, perfect for fans of Maggie O'Farrell and Rachel Joyce.It's 1945, and Corporal Valentine Vere-Thissett, aged 23, is on his way home.But ‘home’ is Dimperley, built in the 1500s, vast and dilapidated, up to its eaves in debt and half-full of fly-blown taxidermy ...

In this witty, charming follow-up to the acclaimed Crooked Heart, the life of lies a small time scammer and her adopted son have constructed in London becomes endangered during the tumultuous final months of World War II.It’s late 1944. Hitler’s rockets are raining down on London with vicious regularity and it’s the coldest winter in living memory. The Allies are gaining ground, but victory is certainly dragging its feet.In a large house next to Ha...

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Slack-Tide by Elanor Dymott, read by Lucy Briers.‘By midsummer the thing between us was finished, and it was as if a storm had torn the roof from over me.’It is four years since the loss of a child broke her marriage, and Elizabeth is fiercely protective of her independence. She meets Robert – exuberant, generous, apparently care-free – and they fall in love w...

Brought to you by Penguin.It’s late 1944. Hitler’s rockets are slamming down on London with vicious regularity and it’s the coldest winter in living memory. Allied victory is on its way, but it’s bloody well dragging its feet.In a large house next to Hampstead Heath, Vee Sedge is just about scraping by, with a herd of lodgers to feed, and her young charge Noel ( almost fifteen ) to clothe and educate. When she witnesses a road accident and finds herself in ...

Brought to you by Penguin.Five lives overlap across two centuries. School teacher Geoffrey’s war takes him to the brink of sanity; Billy’s fortitude lifts him from the Victorian slums in London; Elena and Jeanne interrogate the notion of the soul, from opposite points of view, a century apart. And for Anya, a young American singer-songwriter, only her producer Jack can understand the depths of their bond as art and life collide.In a symphony of fiction,

During the six long years of the Second World War the British psyche was changed irrevocably. British men and women on both the war front and at home were forced to take life-altering decisions, independently. What no-one could predict was the consequences on the family and on society of these independent journeys by husbands, wives, children, mothers, fathers, siblings. Nobody would ever be the same.We Shall Never Surrender takes us through key moments in that six- year conflict t...

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Old Baggage written by Lissa Evans, read by Joanna Scanlan.'The work of a novelist in her prime' Daily Telegraph'Wise and witty' Sarah Hughes, Observer'Essential . . . Evans is a brilliant storyteller' StylistWhat do you do next, after you’ve changed the world?It is 1928. Matilda Simpkin...

*Chosen by Waterstones as one of their best Nature Writing Books of 2024, and by The Economist as one of their best books of 2024*'A heartwarming guide to these fascinating giants of nature . . . A book that is full of surprises . . . Highly empathetic and informative' Independent'A global arboreal odyssey' Guardian‘Marvellous' The Economist'Enlightening, it ...

**Brought to you by Penguin.The unforgettable memoir of life in a family like no other, and their extraordinary, eccentric part in half a century of espionage . . .**‘It has always been inculcated into me that no good could ever come of having anything to do with my father …’As a boy, Alistair Wood lived within the (very high) walls of a Secret Intelligence Service – or MI6 – training camp, surrounded by some of the most senior - and colourful - cha...

Winner of 'Best Book' and 'Impact for Change' True Crime Awards 2025The shocking true story of one of Britain’s most secretive, groundbreaking and successful police covert operationsBristol, 1979.An attacker roams the streets…Young women are warned not to go out alone…Enter the Decoys.For several years, a prolific predator haunted Bristol. Avon and Somerset Police had tried all th...