National Network for Equitable Library Service

Dorset, 1917. If it's not enough that a girl from a good background is forced to work as a maid, Livia Carr is then violated by the master of the house and becomes pregnant. Her only course is to marry the son of the house, Richard Sangster, a World War One hero who has returned home an invalid. He is not expected to live, and he offers Livia and the child legitimacy, as well as his name and estate. Livia grows to love Richard, and his death comes as a great blow to her. Into the breach steps Livia's first love, and Richard's friend, Denton Elliot.

In 1788 they first stepped from their prison ships onto a stunningly beautiful shore. Some were convicts; others were their keepers. But all would become part of an extraordinary undertaking: a heroic triumph of the human spirit...a dramatic struggle over nature's hardships and man's inhumanity...a magnificent victory over a wild, dangerous continent.

It is England, 1860 and Lieutenant Adam Vincent of the Royal Navy is being court-martialled and joins the 40th Foot Regiment. En-route to Australia he is shipwrecked and becomes embroiled in the Maori Wars in New Zealand.

In 1787 Lieutenant Daniel Rooke sets sail from Portsmouth with the First Fleet and its cargo of convicts, destined for New South Wales. As a young officer and a man of science, the shy and quiet Rooke is full of anticipation about the natural wonders he might discover in this strange land on the other side of the world. After the fleet arrives in Port Jackson, Rooke sets up camp on a rocky and isolated point, and starts his work of astronomy and navigation. It's not too long before some of the Aboriginal people who live around the harbour pay him a visit.

Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son and her sharp intelligence and audacious will alienate his old friends and the noble families of England. When the discarded Katherine dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice. At a word from Henry, Thomas Cromwell is ready to bring her down. Over three terrifying weeks, Anne is ensnared in a web of conspiracy, while the demure Jane Seymour stands waiting her turn for the poisoned wedding ring.

This novel continues the stories of five interrelated families who struggle with social, political, and economic turmoil in the mid-twentieth century, during which they witness the rise of Nazi Germany, the Spanish Civil War, and the horrors of World War II. It picks up right where the first book left off, and continues up to the explosions of the American and Soviet atomic bombs. Carla von Ulrich, born of German and English parents, finds her life engulfed by the Nazi tide until she commits a deed of great courage and heartbreak.

The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries are a set of six medieval works of art. Beautiful, intricate and expertly made, they are also mysterious in their origin and meaning. Weavers, patrons, designers, artists, merchants and apprentices were involved in their making - and behind them were the wives, daughters and servants who exercised influences over their men. Like the many strands of wool and silk woven together into one cloth, so these people came together in a complex dance to create the whole picture.

A romance in Egypt in 2000 BC. Tanus, ayoung warrior, loves Lostris, the daughter of Lord Istris, the grand vizier. But the father is against the match, wanting his daughter to marry Pharaoh Moamose. Thestory is told by Taita, a eunuch in Lostris' employ.

Sonia knows nothing of Granada's shocking past, but ordering a simple cup of coffee in a quiet cafe will lead her into the extraordinary tale of a family's fight to survive the horror of the Spanish Civil War. Seventy years earlier, in the Ramirez family's cafe, Concha and Pablo's children relish an atmosphere of hope. Antonio is a serious young teacher, Ignacio a flamboyant matador, and Emilio a skilled musician. Their sister, Mercedes, is a spirited girl whose sole passion is dancing, until she meets Javier and an obsessive love affair begins.

Wolf Among Wolves is a sprawling saga of the collapse of a culture - its economy and government - and the common man's struggle to survive it all. Set in Weimar Germany soon after Germany's catastrophic loss of World War I, the story follows a young gambler who loses all in Berlin, then flees the chaotic city, where worthless money and shortages are causing pandemonium. Once in the countryside, however, he finds a defeated German army that has deamped there to foment insurrection.