Warwickshire, 1875. Emerald Pritchard has lived a privileged life with her parents and her younger sister Abigail in the stately Astley House on the outskirts of Nuneaton. But all that suddenly changes when her father disappears, leaving the family in debt. They are forced to throw themselves on the mercy of Emerald's uncle, who begrudgingly allows them a small cottage within the grounds of his farm. Desperate to find work, Emerald is forced to travel...

In 1901, the word bondmaid was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of lexicographers are gathering words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme's place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day, she sees a slip containing the...

Olifantshoek, Southern Africa, 1688. When the violent Cape wind blows from the south-east, they say the voices of the unquiet dead can be heard whispering through the deserted valley. Suzanne Joubert, a Huguenot refugee from war-torn France, arrives in search of her cousin who landed at the Cape of Good Hope more than 60 years before, then disappeared without a trace. Franschhoek, Southern Africa, 1862. Nearly 180 years after Suzanne's perilous journey,...

'If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?' England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith's son from Putney emerges from the spring's bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness...

Venice, 1486. Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here - like the glass the island's maestros spend their lives learning to handle. Women are not meant to work with glass, but Orsola Rosso flouts convention to save her family from ruin. She works in secret, knowing her creations must be perfect to be accepted by men. But perfection may take a lifetime. Skipping like a stone through the centuries, we follow Orsola as she hones her...

Reeling from his defeat at the hands of the Macedonians, Rome's furious General Flamininus gathers his legions for the final strike on King Philip's mighty phalanx. Both leaders know the victor will rule Greece, and both armies will do everything in their power to claim the ultimate prize. Fighting on opposing sides, Felix and Demetrios think they have survived the worst of the campaign. But between vicious infighting, unruly locals, and intense battle,...

July 1346. The Hundred Years' War has begun, and King Edward and his lords are on the march through France. But this war belongs to the men on the ground. Swept up in the bloody chaos, a tight-knit company from Essex must stay alive long enough to see their home again. With sword, mace and longbow, the Essex Dogs will fight, from the landing beaches of Normandy to the bloodsoaked field of Crecy. There's Pismire, small enough to infiltrate enemy camps....

1792. A tyrannical government is determined to make England a mighty commercial empire. In France, Napoleon Bonaparte begins his rise to power, and with dissent rife, France's neighbours are on high alert. Unprecedented industrial change sweeps the land, making the lives of the workers in Kingbridge's prosperous cloth mills a misery. Rampant modernization and dangerous new machinery are rendering jobs obsolete and tearing families apart. Now, as international...

This atlas presents an account of the social, geographical and political background of the entire region known as the Holy Lands, not only retelling the classic biblical stories but looking at archaeological evidence and providing an up-to-date account of what is known about these stories.