Time period: 20th century

On Boxing Day 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, in a pool of blood, he was horrified to realise he had lost the use of his limbs. He could no longer walk, write or wash himself. He could do nothing without the help of others, and required constant care in a hospital. So b...

On Boxing Day 2022, in Rome, Hanif Kureishi had a fall. When he came to, in a pool of blood, he was horrified to realise he had lost the use of his limbs. He could no longer walk, write or wash himself. He could do nothing without the help of others, and required constant care in a hospital. So b...

Croydon, 1964. Helen Hansford is in her thirties and an art therapist in a psychiatric hospital where she has been having a long love affair with Gil: a charismatic, married doctor. One spring afternoon they receive a call about a disturbance from a derelict house not far from Helen's home. A 37-...

Croydon, 1964. Helen Hansford is in her thirties and an art therapist in a psychiatric hospital where she has been having a long love affair with Gil: a charismatic, married doctor. One spring afternoon they receive a call about a disturbance from a derelict house not far from Helen's home. A 37-...

Worthing, 1930. Raised in the grandeur of Muntham Court, young Millicent has always felt like the black sheep of her family. Between a vindictive mother and a conceited older sister, her only ally is her doting father, Charles. Brought up in the traveller community and always on the move, Lena's ...

In April 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army captured Burma, closing the only ground route from India to China. Supplies now had to be flown over the treacherous Himalayas, on the world's most dangerous air route. This is the story of the Allied troops who braved this perilous journey, flying unreli...

The Royal Waterloo Hospital, London in the 1960s. Six young women lie asleep on low beds. Day and night no longer exist, extinguished by a potent cocktail of antipsychotic, sedative and anti-depressant drugs. The women are taken from their beds by the nurses and given electroconvulsive therapy be...

In 1995, a scandal erupted when the New York Times revealed that the Smithsonian possessed a century's worth of nude 'posture' photos of college students. In this history, Beth Linker tells why these photos were only a small part of the incredible story of 20th-century America's largely forgotten...

Rosa Roshkin is five years old when her family are murdered in a pogrom and she is forced to leave behind everything she knows with only a suitcase of clothes and her father's violin.

The Summit - a mansion buried deep in the countryside, on the Welsh Borders. Somewhere outside, a murderer lurks in the darkness. Four young women have already been killed, and each murder has been closer to the house than the last. Now a storm is coming. Professor Warren decides to batten down t...

Michael Morpurgo has lived on a farm deep in rural Devon for more than forty years. In 'Spring', he observes the season unfold around him, as fragile new shoots emerge, buds turn to blossom and grey skies give way to blue. As the natural world shakes off a long winter, Michael watches lambs being...

This is the forgotten tale of MI6's top spy in Nazi Germany and his bid to stop the Second World War. In the world of espionage, where the accounts of renowned spies often dominate the narrative, this is a rare gem - an untold story of a completely unknown spy. Baron William de Ropp, a Baltic Ger...

This title tells the fascinating story of how the authors helped Johanna, now 99, find her real son, who is now married with children and grandchildren and living close to the orphanage in Bohemia where she left him in 1945.

This title explores how, in 1970, a communist rebellion in the south of Oman threatened not only the stability of the Arabian Peninsula but more importantly the vital oil routes through the Persian Gulf. Within six months, the SAS arrived to lead a fierce secret war against the rebels.

In 1943, the Soviet Union's most revered author, Konstantin Paustovsky, started out on his masterwork - a grand, sprawling memoir of a life lived on the fast-unfurling frontiers of Russian history. Originally published in six volumes, it would cement Paustovsky's reputation as the voice of Russia...

On 1 February, 1910, vivacious musichall performer, Belle Elmore, suddenly vanished from her north London home, causing alarm among her circle of female friends, the entertainers of the Music Hall Ladies' Guild who demanded an immediate investigation. They could not have known what they would pro...

October 1933. With a population of 500 souls, isolated Sark has a reputation for being 'the island where nothing ever happens'. Until, one day, the neatly folded clothes of an unknown man and woman are discovered abandoned at a coastal beauty spot. As the search for the missing couple catches the...

Under the shadow of the ongoing blitz in London, the willful grandchildren of Sir Richard Marsh have gathered for the finalising of the patriarch's will. Frustrated with the disrespectful behaviour of his heirs, Marsh seems to resolve to cut them all out of their inheritance and descends to his o...

In 1950, at the first Formula One Grand Prix in Britain after World War II, 150,000 spectators, including the royal family, watch in dismay as Italy's Alfa Romeos take the first three places - ahead of seven more Italian Maseratis. In Paris, at the Salon d'Auto, Pininfarina's breathtakingly styli...

A fiercely ambitious TV talk show host finds she must choose between national stardom in New York and a husband and child in San Francisco. Caught in the middle is their longtime friend, a gay man whose own future is even more uncertain. Wistful and compassionate yet subversively funny, 'Sure of ...