Søgeresultater: 80

Summary: For lovers of Downton Abbey. In this dazzling stand-alone sequel to The Fairbairn Girls, a new generation of the Fairbairn family must confront – and overcome – life's difficulties as war looms. 1913: The aristocratic Fairbairns are reunited for Christmas when Lady Rothbury's daughter Diana invites the whole family to her estate. Laura, now a successful dressmaker, is the first to arrive with her daughter, Caroline, followed by Lady Rothbury, her five other daughters and their families. But as the New Year approaches, the family's happy reunion is about to be shattered. Affairs, war and tragedy are all on the horizon for the Fairbairn girls, who must negotiate new heartbreak and hardship. Will Caroline, who shows great talent as a ballet dancer, find her moment to shine? Are separations as irrevocable as they appear? Love, loss, forgiveness and joy thread through the lives of the Fairbairn family – but who will get their happy ending?

Summary: A novel of love, death and aristocracy in twenties London. Consider Vivien in November 1922. She is twenty-four, and a spinster. She wears fashionably droopy clothes, but she is plain and – worse – intelligent. Fortunately, Vivien is rich, so she can bribe a man to marry her. What nobody knows is that Vivien is pregnant, and will die in childbirth in just a few months...

Summary: Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Herman Charles Bosman Prize Published on the centenary of the death of literary master, Henry James. 'Live all you can; it's a mistake not to.' This is the maxim of celebrated author Henry James and one which his typist Frieda Wroth tries to live up to. Despite her admiration for the great author, Frieda is marginalised and under-valued, lost between the faceless servants and the chattering guests. The arrival of the hypnotic Morton Fullerton brings Frieda into sudden focus. As she is drawn into his confidence she finds herself at the centre of an intrigue every bit as engrossing as the novels she types. Her loyalties tested, Frieda must choose between anonymity in the presence of a literary master and an uncertain love with a man she barely knows. Praise for The Typewriter's Tale '...a hugely refreshing South African novel... Heyns has a knack for building clear, expressive prose like a watchmaker fitting together the workings of a timepiece.' Sunday Times 'Heyns' first novel, The Children's Day, was impressive for its poignant lyricism; by contrast, his second novel, The Reluctant Passenger, was an acerbic romp. In The Typewriter's Tale he has fashioned an elegant combination of these apparently divergent styles.' Sunday Independent '...beams a brilliant light onto the world of Henry James, illuminating the language, manners and social mores of the early twentieth century. This exquisite account of the master and his amanuensis is a tour de force; her story, for all the confines of a typist's life in Rye, a triumph. Heyns is an important figure in South African letters; here he is profound and humourous. The Typewriter's Tale is a breathtaking work and, above all, a pleasure to read.' Zoe Witcomb author of Playing in the Light and October 'The Typewriter's Tale is admirable for its Jamesian inwardness and delicacy. It's a brilliant idea to explore the typewriter's view of the great writer she serves and to imagine so plausibly how she is drawn into his world.' Lyndall Gordon, author of Henry James: His Women and His Art 'What a great idea! The master-observer is observed by his stenographer. A delicious treat for Henry James aficionados, and also for those who may never have read a word. Sly, sympathetic, high-minded, involving, moving, funny. I loved it, and was very sorry to reach the last page. But Freida Wroth and Mr James and the other characters will live on in my mind.' Ronald Frame, author of The Lantern Bearers and Havisham

Summary: It is late summer in East Sussex, 1914. Amidst the season's splendour, fiercely independent Beatrice Nash arrives in the coastal town of Rye to fill a teaching position at the local grammar school. There she is taken under the wing of formidable matriarch Agatha Kent, who, along with her charming nephews, tries her best to welcome Beatrice to a place that remains stubbornly resistant to the idea of female teachers. But just as Beatrice comes alive to the beauty of the Sussex landscape, and the colourful characters that populate Rye, the perfect summer is about to end. For the unimaginable is coming – and soon the limits of progress, and the old ways, will be tested as this small town goes to war

Summary: On a delayed train, deep in the English countryside, two strangers meet. It is 1942 and they are both men of fighting age. As strangers do, they pass the time by sharing their stories. But walls have ears and careless talk costs lives...At Bletchley Park, Honey Deschamps spends her days transcribing decrypted signals from the German Army. One night, as she walks home in the blackout, she meets a stranger who has a package for her. The parcel, containing a small piece of amber, postmarked from Russia and branded with two censor's stamps, is the first of several. Someone is trying to get a message to her. Can Honey uncover who is sending these mysterious packages and why before it's too late?

Summary: Only weeks into their marriage a young couple embark on a six-month period of separation. Tom Cavendish goes to Japan to build lighthouses and his wife Ally, a doctor, begins her work at the Truro asylum. As the couple navigate their separate professional trials, the foundations of their marriage begin to slip. An exquisite novel of the 1880s, told in alternating parts: two maps of absence—two distinct but conjoined portraits of loneliness and determination

Summary: In this stunning novel from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Kleypas one of the realm's most powerful men meets his match-in his lovely, innocent new wife. A ruthless tycoon Savage ambition has brought common-born Rhys Winterborne vast wealth and success. In business and beyond, Rhys gets exactly what he wants. And from the moment he meets the shy, aristocratic Lady Helen Ravenel, he is determined to possess her. If he must take her virtue to ensure she marries him, so much the better . . . A sheltered beauty Helen has had little contact with the glittering, cynical world of London society. Yet Rhys's determined seduction awakens an intense mutual passion. Helen's gentle upbringing belies a stubborn conviction that only she can tame her unruly husband. As Rhys's enemies conspire against them, Helen must trust him with her darkest secret. The risks are unthinkable . . . the reward, a lifetime of incomparable bliss. And it all begins with... Marrying Mr. Winterborne

Summary: Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of A Fever of the Blood by Oscar De Muriel, read by Andy Secombe. New Year's Day, 1889. In Edinburgh's lunatic asylum, a patient escapes as a nurse lays dying. Leading the manhunt are legendary local Detective 'Nine-Nails' McGray and Londoner-in-exile Inspector Ian Frey. Before the murder, the suspect was heard in whispered conversation with a fellow patient - a girl who had been mute for years. What made her suddenly break her silence? And why won't she talk again? Could the rumours about black magic be more than superstition? McGray and Frey track a devious psychopath far beyond their jurisdiction, through the worst blizzard in living memory, into the shadow of Pendle Hill - home of the Lancashire witches - where unimaginable danger awaits... A Fever of the Blood includes an exclusive interview with the author which is only available to audiobook listeners. * * * Praise for The Strings of Murder : 'This is wonderful . A brilliant , moving , clever , lyrical book - I loved it . Oscar de Muriel is going to be a name to watch .' Manda Scott ' One of the best debuts so far this year - a brilliant mix of horror, history, and humour. Genuinely riveting with plenty of twists, this will keep you turning the pages. It's clever , occasionally frightening and superbly written - The Strings Of Murder is everything you need in a mystery thriller .' Crime Review

Summary: The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers—soon to be a Showtime/Paramount+ series starring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov From the #1 New York Times -bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose

Summary: Grantchester Mysteries 5 _______________ 'Those who would like an engaging summer read should pack James Runcie's latest tale of clerical detection, Sidney Chambers and the Dangers of Temptation ' - Alexander McCall Smith, Observer 'Runcie has honed his style of light, escapist, small-town crime stories to something approaching perfection' - Herald 'There is no reason at all why this series should not run and run and why Sidney Chambers should not occupy the same place in the pantheon as Miss Marple or Poirot' - Catholic Herald _______________ Now a major, prime-time six-part series Grantchester for ITV Archdeacon Sidney Chambers is beginning to think that the life of a full-time priest (and part-time detective) is not easy. So when a bewitching divorcee in a mink coat interrupts Sidney's family lunch asking him to help locate her missing son, he hopes it will be an open and shut case. The last thing he expects is to be dragged into the mysterious workings of a sinister cult, or to find himself tangled up in another murder investigation. But, as always, the village of Grantchester is not as peaceful as it seems... From the theft of an heirloom to an ominous case of blackmail, Sidney is once again rushed off his feet in this fifth instalment in The Grantchester Mysteries series

Summary: Shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Fiction Prize Winner of the Kirkus fiction prize 'You and I are family. Blood and treasure. Listen to me, I created this world with my own two hands, and I am going to leave it all to you' Hellsmouth, an indomitable thoroughbred filly, runs for the glory of the Forge family, one of Kentucky's oldest and most powerful dynasties. Henry Forge has partnered with his daughter, Henrietta, in an endeavour of raw obsession: to breed the next superhorse. But when Allmon Shaughnessy, an ambitious young black man, comes to work on their farm after a stint in prison, the violence of the Forges' history and the exigencies of appetite are brought starkly into view. Entangled by fear, prejudice, and lust, the three tether their personal dreams of glory to the speed and grace of Hellsmouth. A spiralling tale of wealth and poverty, racism and rage, The Sport of Kings is an unflinching portrait of lives cast in shadow by the enduring legacy of slavery. A vital new voice, C. E. Morgan has given life to a tale as mythic and fraught as the South itself – a moral epic for our time

Summary: 'Beautifully written and gripping'. Sunday Mirror When Mata Hari arrived in Paris she was penniless. Soon she was feted as the most elegant woman in the city. A dancer who shocked and delighted audiences, as a confidante and courtesan she bewitched the era's richest and most powerful men. But as paranoia consumed a country at war, Mata Hari's lifestyle brought her under suspicion. In 1917 she was arrested in her hotel room on the Champs Elysees and accused of espionage. Told in Mata Hari's voice through her final letter, The Spy is the unforgettable story of a woman who dared to break the conventions of her time, and paid the price