Midsummer's Eve, 1648, and England is in the grip of civil war between renegade King and rebellious Parliament. Alinor, a descendant of wise women, crushed by poverty and superstition, waits in the graveyard under the full moon for a ghost who will declare her free from her abusive husband. Instead she meets James, a young man on the run, and shows him the secret ways across the treacherous marsh, not knowing that she is leading disaster into the...

Robert Merivel abandons his studies to revel in gluttony, indolence and buffoonery at the Court of King Charles II. He is banished from Court after falling in love with the youngest royal mistress.

London, 1670. Two young girls plot a murder by witchcraft. Soon afterwards a government clerk dies painfully in mysterious circumstances. His colleague James Marwood is asked to investigate - but the task brings unexpected dangers. Meanwhile, architect Cat Hakesby is working for a merchant who lives on Slaughter Street, where the air smells of blood and a captive Barbary lion prowls the stables. Then a prestigious new commission arrives. Cat must...

It is the winter of 1670. Holcroft Blood has entered the employ of the Duke of Buckingham, one of the most powerful men in the kingdom after the king. It is here that his education really begins. With a gift for numbers and decoding ciphers, Holcroft soon proves invaluable to the Duke, but when he's pushed into a betrayal he risks everything for revenge. His father, Colonel Thomas Blood, has fallen on hard times. A man used to fighting, he lives by...

1643: England is descending into a bloodier Civil War, and Beaumont, born a nobleman's heir but with a shadowy past as a mercenary turncoat and spy, has been hired against his will as agent to the King's new Secretary of State, the manipulative Lord Digby. Still in love with the bewitching Isabella Savage, Beaumont is sent by Digby into enemy-held London to track down his counterpart, Parliament's twisted spymaster, who nourishes his own, very personal...

Drawing on lost royal letters from a closed archive, 'White King' introduces us to Charles I as the monarch at the heart of a story for our times: a tale of populist politicians and the fall of the mighty, of religious hatreds and civil war, of the power of a new media and a maligned queen. The reign of Charles I is one of the most dramatic in history. Yet Charles the man remains elusive. Too often he is recalled as weak and stupid, his wife, Henrietta...

Three months on from the shattering events in St Paul's, Jem has swapped kitchen drudgery for the life of a young gentleman. But when Ann is kidnapped, Jem and Tolly are catapulted back into a world of threat and evil.

The smallest man. The biggest heart. The mightiest story. A compelling story perfect for fans of The Doll Factory and The Familiars. Nat Davy longs to grow tall and strong and be like other boys, but at the age of ten, he's confronted with the truth; he's different, and the day when the stares and whispers stop is never going to come. Narrowly escaping life in a freak show, he's plucked from his family and presented as a gift to the new young queen...

Spring 1661. The king's coronation brings hope - until a murderer strikes. After years of civil war followed by Oliver Cromwell's joyless rule as Lord Protector, England awaits the coronation of King Charles II. The mood in London is one of relief and hope for a better future. But when two respectable gentlemen are found in a foul lane with their throats cut, it becomes apparent that England's enemies are using the newly re-established post office...

This title tells the story of the most hedonistic, loose-living court in English history, from Charles II's youthful years and mistresses in France, to his tempestuous relationship with the hot-tempered, sexually and financially voracious Barbara Villiers.