History

April 1941. When Bobby Bancroft arrived in Silverdale to take a job as a reporter on The Tyke magazine, the sleepy Yorkshire Dales village felt like a little pocket of a past long gone. While much of the country was suffering nightly bombing raids as the Blitz raged, life in isolated Silverdale c...

Created during the Second World War, the SAS was a small band of men brought together in the North African desert. They were the toughest and brightest of their cohort, the most resilient, most capable in close combat and most careful in surveillance. Winning approval for this radical new form of...

Daniel Lohr, sensing that the Nazis are closing in on the Jews, leaves his dying father in Berlin and boards a ship to Shanghai. His passage is dependent upon him delivering a package to his shady uncle, his father's brother, upon arrival. Daniel has no idea what the package contains. On board is...

1594. Ursula Blanchard is attending on her half-sister, Queen Elizabeth, when she receives an urgent summons from Sir Robert Cecil. Cornishman Master Roskilly was fished out of the sea by Sir Francis Godolphin, and has a shocking tale of being snatched by pirates and put on a slave vessel to Cons...

1949, County Durham. From the Shipyards of Sunderland to Lady of the Manor. When Angie marries her sweetheart Quentin and moves into Cuthford Manor to begin their new life together, she feels like the luckiest woman in the world. But Quentin falls victim to a tragic accident and Angie's life is l...

Rome, 1659. Months after the plague has ravaged Rome, men are still dying in unnatural numbers, and rumour has it that their corpses do not decay as they should. The Papal authorities commission prosecutor Stefano Bracchi to investigate, telling him he will need considerable mettle to reach the t...

The harsh seas of 1968. Three trawlers from Hulls fleet sink in just 3 weeks. 58 Dead. 1 Survivor. Enough is enough. Lilian Bilocca put down her filleting knife, picked up some sheets of paper and stormed into action. She started with a petition and this journey takes her Headscarf Revolutionarie...

Kathleen 'Kick' Kennedy, a recent arrival to England from Massachusetts, is already a huge hit in 1930s London society. Her status as the daughter of an ambassador puts her at the centre of the most elite social circles but being an American and a Catholic sets her apart, something she only comes...

In thirteenth-century Ireland, a woman with power is a woman to be feared. When a young Alice Kyteler sees her mother wither under the constraints of family responsibilities, she vows that she will not suffer the same fate. When she discovers she has a flair for making money, she soon builds a fl...

Rome, 1659. Months after the plague has ravaged Rome, men are still dying in unnatural numbers, and rumour has it that their corpses do not decay as they should. The Papal authorities commission prosecutor Stefano Bracchi to investigate, telling him he will need considerable mettle to reach the t...

When cycling commentator Ned Boulting bought a length of Pathé news film featuring a stage of the Tour de France from 1923 he set about learning everything he could about it - taking him on an intriguing journey that encompasses travelogue, history and detective story. In the autumn of 2020 Ned ...

On the morning of the 28th of January 1986, just seventy-three seconds into flight, the space shuttle Challenger exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all seven people on board. Like the assassination of JFK, the disaster is a defining moment in 20th century history - one that forever changed...

Based on four years of reporting; extensive travels with President Zelensky to the front; and dozens of interviews with him, his wife, his friends and enemies, his advisers, ministers and military commanders, 'The Showman' tells an intimate and eye-opening story of the President's evolution from ...

Adding to the already moving, richly told and gripping collection of historical fiction from Emma Donoghue, 'Learned By Heart' is the breathtaking story of two young girls on the margins of life, forging a connection that will last forever.