Time period: 19th century

London, 1877. Annie Besant and her confidant Charles Bradlaugh are on trial for the sordid crime of publishing and selling a birth control pamphlet. Remarkably - 45 years before the first woman will be admitted to the English bar - Annie is defending herself - declaring a woman's right to choose ...

Wakefield, Yorkshire 1871. Loretta Chambers has spent her life working at her father's boatyard down at the docks. She's tried hard to keep the business afloat, but with the railways taking trade away every day, Lorrie fears for the worst. The arrival of handsome Italian, Matteo Falcone brings a ...

In 1838, a young woman was given a diary on her wedding day. Collecting snippets of fabric from a range of garments she carefully annotated each one, creating a unique record of her life and times. Her name was Mrs Anne Sykes. Nearly two hundred years later, the diary fell into the hands of Kate ...

The Welsh borders, 1870s. On the cusp of adulthood, Eliza Mace is battling for her independence. Stuck in a crumbling manor house on the fringe of a small town, she is thwarted by powers that conspire to protect, control and deceive her. But when her father goes missing in mysterious circumstance...

Set in 1860s London, this is the story of Susan, a pickpocket who is persuaded to pose as a lady's maid and infiltrate the house of a young heiress. This novel explores the nature of identity and what people do with disguise.

Liverpool, 1848. When Meg's struggling family realise they can't feed all the children, Meg volunteers to go to the workhouse for one season, and she'll take her little sister, Rosie, with her. But Meg and Rosie are separated as soon as they enter the workhouse.

Have you ever found something mysterious? Something you had no idea what it was but you had this feeling it was important, that it held a secret? Mary Anning was a fossil hunter, scouring the cliffs and seashores of Lyme Regis for strange rocks and shells. Monstrous marine reptiles and dinosaurs ...

A graphic biography of female novelist George Sand, whose life and work championed women's rights, gender expression, and sexual liberation.

Haworth 1847 - Anne and Emily Bronte have had their books accepted for publication, while Charlotte's has been rejected everywhere, creating a strained atmosphere at the parsonage. At the same time, a shocking court case has recently concluded, acquitting a workhouse master of murdering his wife ...

In the genteel squares of late-Victorian Brighton, Ellen and Reynold Harper - twins, companions, colleagues - ply their trade as portrait photographers. But at the golden hour, the models arrive to pose for the lucrative - and illicit - photographs that really keep the Harpers' business afloat. T...

In 1881, US Army Lieutenant Adolphus Greely and his crew set sail for the Arctic. Their mission was to collect scientific data on the polar climate. They also had a second, secret goal: to achieve Furthest North, the record for highest latitude reached by explorers. But when resupply ships failed...

October, 1891. Butte, Montana. A hard winter approaches across the Rocky Mountains. The city is rich on copper mines and rampant with vice and debauchery among a hard-living crowd of immigrant Irish workers. Here we find Tom Rourke, a young poet and balladmaker, but also a doper, a drinker and a ...

1887. London, but not as you know it. The Industrial Revolution went further than anyone could have imagined, and the sprawling, chaotic metropolis of Even Greater London spreads across the southern half of England. The immense Tower casts electricity through the sky, powering the mind-boggling m...

Violet Hamilton is no ordinary lady. She is a Lady Detective, who spends her time solving mysteries and unveiling scandals in the bustling seaside town of St Leonards, a popular spot for the Victorian middle classes. But when the body of a local woman is found on the tourist railway, Violet's eff...

Bristol, 1896. Used to scraping a living as the young assistant to an ageing con artist, Cecily Marsden's life is turned upside down when her master suddenly dies. Believing herself to blame, could young Cec somehow have powers she little understands? Meanwhile Eadie Carleton, a pioneering early ...

The captivating story of the discovery of the dinosaurs and how it upended our understanding of the origins of the world - overturning the literal reading of the Bible, liberating science from the shackles of religion, and giving birth to the secular age.

'Izabela the Valiant' is a story of a vulnerable but resilient women caught up in extraordinary events - a story that must be told. In the late 18th century, Europe sat at a crossroads, the formerly rococo world shattered by the French Revolution and then transformed by Napoleon's agenda. Social ...

The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson's Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to esc...

From the outset, Caroline Lamb had a rebellious nature. From childhood she grew increasingly troublesome, experimenting with sedatives like laudanum, and she had a special governess to control her. As the niece of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, she was already well connected, and her courtly s...

Adding to the already moving, richly told and gripping collection of historical fiction from Emma Donoghue, 'Learned By Heart' is the breathtaking story of two young girls on the margins of life, forging a connection that will last forever.