Time period: 20th century

This title tells the astonishing story of how Britain's intelligence operatives, experts, and special operations teams contributed to the Allies' victory in the Second World War. The work of the Bletchley Park codebreakers in breaking the German Enigma cipher is estimated to have cut the length o...

In 1953, Burroughs began an expedition into the jungles of South America, ostensibly to find yage, the fabled hallucinogen of the Amazon. But Burroughs also cast his eye over the local regimes to record trademark vignettes of political and psychic malaise. The book was completed by the addition o...

A lifelong dream to live in Provence becomes reality in this funny, evocative and spellbinding account of an idyll - including how to build it! Peter Mayle's story is now continued in Toujours Provence and Encore Provence. Enjoy an irresistible feast of humour and discover the joys of French rura...

John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their daughter fall ill. At first they thought it was flu, then she was placed on life support. Days later, the Dunnes were sitting down to dinner when John suffered a massive and fatal coronary. This book is Didion's 'attempt to make sense of the weeks and ...

'The Year of Magical Thinking' is an intensely personal and harrowing memoir from revered American essayist and prose stylist Joan Didion.

1912. Released from the Secret Service, Wiggins sets out for New York and his lost lover Bela. But after an altercation on board, he finds himself among the low-life of Britain's poorest city, Dublin. Wiggins falls in with gangster Patrick O'Connell and is soon driving the boss's girlfriend aroun...

Ian Buruma examines the seven months (in Europe) and four months (in Asia) that followed surrender of the Axis powers, from the fate of Holocaust survivors liberated from the concentration camps, and the formation of the state of Israel, to the incipient civil war in China, and the allied occupat...

'The Years', by bestselling French author Annie Ernaux, is a personal narrative of the period 1941 to 2006 told through the lens of memory, impressions past and present - even projections into the future - photos, books, songs, radio, television and decades of advertising, headlines, contrasted w...

What really makes the British royal family tick? It's a question that royal watchers have pondered for as long as there has been a royal family. And the answer? Well, surprisingly, it's not the royal family's devotion to duty, it's not their wealth or their status, it's not even their popularity ...

Based on the author's own experiences, this is the fascinating story of one young nurse who enters training in 1952 and eventually progresses to become ward sister.

Based on the author's own experiences, this is the fascinating story of one young nurse who enters training in 1952 and eventually progresses to become ward sister.

In this book, Diana Athill looks back on her 1920s childhood, which was unfashionably filled with happiness - a Norfolk country house, servants, the pleasures of horses, and the unfolding secrets of adults and sex.

On 14 June, 1919 John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown took off from Newfoundland in their open-cockpit Vickers Vimy converted bomber to attempt a non-stop crossing of the Atlantic. Some 16 hours later they landed in Connemara, Ireland, to become national heroes. Here, Brendan Lynch discusses one ...

Set in London's Shepherd's Bush in the 50s and 60s, Pamela Evans' powerful new saga tells the story of Ruth Brooks, as she struggles to bring up her illegitimate daughter and find happiness as an independent woman in a changing world.

Life is hard on the farm for the Fothergill's. Bob Fothergill has set his sights on buying his own farm instead of renting the one they currently hold. Sally, his teenage daughter, wishes her father would see that she could help more with the farm, but he believes that a girl's place is in the ho...

Life is hard on the farm for the Fothergill's. Bob Fothergill has set his sights on buying his own farm instead of renting the one they currently hold. Sally, his teenage daughter, wishes her father would see that she could help more with the farm, but he believes that a girl's place is in the ho...

Claire Lorrimer's autobiography is a whole rich tapestry of a life overflowing with adventure, humour, tragedy, love, joy and disaster. She tells of her childhood with her mother, author Denise Robins, and of how she entertained pre- and post-war literati at her weekend country house parties.

Lorrimer's memoir is a rich tapestry of a life overflowing with adventure, humour, tragedy, love, joy and disaster. She tells of her childhood with her mother and of how she entertained pre- and post-war literati at her weekend country house parties.

Claire Lorrimer's autobiography is a whole rich tapestry of a life overflowing with adventure, humour, tragedy, love, joy, and disaster. She tells of her childhood with her mother, author Denise Robins, and of how she entertained pre- and post-war literati at her weekend country house parties.