Historical Fiction

Historical Fiction

Filter results

From the acclaimed, bestselling author of The Henna Artist, this captivating novel follows a young Anglo-Indian nurse who embarks on a journey from her home in Bombay to uncover a mystery and prove her innocence after a famous painter dies in her care. 1937. Young nurse Sona is drawn to the renowned, feisty, scandalous painter Mira Novak when they meet while the latter is recovering at a Bombay hospital, and the two women bond over their half-Indian identities. But when Mira dies suddenly and mysteriously, Sona falls under suspicion. The key to proving Sona's innocence may lie in a cryptic note and four paintings Mira left in her care, sending the young woman across a tumultuous Europe to meet Mira’s former lovers and friends. As Sona travels from Bombay to Istanbul, Prague, Paris, Florence and London uncovering Mira's life story, she learns that behind the charming facade was a complicated, troubled woman with dangerous secrets. But will Sona discover them in time to clear her name?
*PRE-ORDER NOW* Published 27 Aug 2026 Julius Caesar is dead, and the lives of two teenaged boys are about to be changed forever. One is Caesar’s 17-year-old nephew, Octavius, whom he has made his heir. The other is Octavius’s closest friend, Agrippa. To claim Octavius’s inheritance, they must fight the giant figures of the Roman Empire – and, against all odds, they win. Octavius becomes the Emperor Augustus. For twenty years, they rule the world together. Now Agrippa is fifty. Ailing and alone, betrayed by his wife’s infidelity, he takes refuge in his house on the Bay of Naples and begins to write his memoirs. Yet to stir up the past can be dangerous. From his earliest meetings with Julius Caesar, through the epic conflict with Mark Antony and Cleopatra, the great naval battle of Actium and the endless wars to expand the empire, he describes how one man has dominated his life: the cunning, ruthless, unknowable Octavius. When it comes to power, does friendship exist at all?'
From the author of Reese's Book Club Pick The Henna Artist, the final chapter in Alka Joshi’s New York Times bestselling Jaipur trilogy takes readers to 1970s Paris, where Radha’s budding career as a perfumer must compete with the demands of her family and the secrets of her past. Paris, 1974. Radha is now living in Paris with her husband, Pierre, and their two daughters. She still grieves for the baby boy she gave up years ago, when she was only a child herself, but she loves being a mother to her daughters, and she’s finally found her passion—the treasure trove of scents. She has an exciting and challenging position working for a master perfumer, helping to design completely new fragrances for clients and building her career one scent at a time. She only wishes Pierre could understand her need to work. She feels his frustration, but she can’t give up this thing that drives her. Tasked with her first major project, Radha travels to India, where she enlists the help of her sister, Lakshmi, and the courtesans of Agra—women who use the power of fragrance to seduce, tease and entice. She’s on the cusp of a breakthrough when she finds out the son she never told her husband about is heading to Paris to find her—upending her carefully managed world and threatening to destroy a vulnerable marriage. The Jaipur Trilogy Book 1: The Henna Artist Book 2: The Secret Keeper of Jaipur Book 3: The Perfumist of Paris
They knew they were changing history.  They didn’t know they would change each other. Oxford, 1920.  For the first time in its 1,000-year history, the world’s most famous university has admitted female students. Giddy with dreams of equality, education and emancipation, four young women move into neighbouring rooms on Corridor Eight and find themselves thrust into an unlikely, life-affirming friendship. They have come here from all walks of life, but Dora, Beatrice, Otto and Marianne all long to move on from the Great War, whose ghosts, grief, and secrets still feel very real indeed. But Oxford is a place caught between tradition and change, where centuries of misogyny and exclusion clash with the promise of new freedoms. And as the group navigate this tumultuous moment in time under the city’s dreaming spires, their friendship will become more important than ever.  The Eights is a captivating debut novel about sisterhood, self-determination, courage, and what it means to come of age in a world that is forever changed.
'One of the greatest storytellers of our time' - Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school in England. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Left alone in the beautiful California house which was once a home, Annie comes to the painful realization that the years have eroded not just her confidence but also her self-esteem, and she's no longer the woman she once was. Devastated, Annie retreats to Mystic, the remote lakeside town in the Pacific Northwest where she grew up, hoping that she can start to rebuild her life and rediscover herself. There, she is reunited with her first love, Nick Delacroix, recently widowed and trying to cope with his emotionally scarred young daughter. Together, the three of them begin to heal. But just when Annie believes she's been given a second chance at happiness, her world is turned upside down again and she is forced to make a choice that no woman in love should ever have to make.
*** THE FINAL EPIC IN THE NERO TRIOLOGY *** The throne is never safe ... especially in Rome AD 60. Rome stands at the height of its power glittering with wealth, drowning in intrigue. On Palatine Hill, Nero Claudius Caesar rules as Emperor, a young man adored for his beauty and brilliance, feared for his temper, intoxicated by his own power. His empire stretches from the wilds of Britain to the deserts of Parthia, yet his enemies are never far: generals who command legions, senators who whisper in corridors, a people who cheer him in the circus but curse him on the streets. Nero has learned that power is never shared, only seized. He has seen off enemies before, not least his mother, Agrippina. Yet now Boudicca, queen of the Iceni, leads a revolt in the North. Closer to home, Gaius Julius Vindex, Roman by office but Gallic by blood, denounces Nero s corruption and declares open rebellion against the Emperor from Gaul. Rome is a city that devours its rulers. As the first sparks of revolt alight beyond its walls, an empire built on fire begins to burn from within . .
Travel to the heart of a Roman dynasty beset by power struggles and betrayal in this latest chapter of the tale of Nero The boy Nero lives. His mother Agrippina has married her way to power, tangling the Emperor Claudius in her skirts. The emperor may have a son and heir of his own, but Agrippina sees no obstacles to her ambition. Rome is a path through a marsh, lit by torches. Those who walk it are always one step from disaster - and the road itself is treacherous, slippery with blood. Claudius may have the world at his feet, but he has Agrippina in his bed.
THE CAPTIVATING EIGHT NOVEL IN THE MULTI-MILLION BESTSELLING OUTLANDER SERIES Adventure. Drama.  History. Time travel. Romance. It is June 1778, and the world seems to be turning upside-down. The British Army is withdrawing from Philadelphia, with George Washington in pursuit, and for the first time, it looks as if the rebels might actually win. But for Claire Fraser and her family, there are even more tumultuous revolutions that have to be accommodated. Her former husband, Jamie, has returned from the dead, demanding to know why in his absence she married his best friend, Lord John Grey. Lord John's son, the ninth Earl of Ellesmere, is no less shocked to discover that his real father is actually the newly resurrected Jamie Fraser, and Jamie's nephew Ian Murray discovers that his new-found cousin has an eye for the woman who has just agreed to marry him. And while Claire is terrified that one of her husbands may be about to murder the other, in the 20th century her descendants face even more desperate turns of events. Her daughter Brianna is trying to protect her son from a vicious criminal with murder on his mind, while her husband Roger has disappeared into the past . . .
Solzhenitsyn spent eleven years in labour camps and in exile. This book is his masterwork, based on his own experiences as well as the testimony of some 200 survivors. A vast canvas of camps, prisons, transit centres and secret police, of informers and spies and interrogators but also of everyday heroism, it chronicles the story of those who dared to oppose Stalin, and for whom the key to survival lay not in hope but in despair. A thoroughly researched document and a feat of literary and imaginative power, this edition of The Gulag Archipelago was abridged into one volume at the request of the author.  'Helped to bring down an empire. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated' Doris Lessing, Sunday Telegraph'Solzhenitsyn’s masterpiece...helped create the world we live in today' Anne Applebaum WITH AN AFTERWORD BY JORDAN B. PETERSONTHE OFFICIALLY APPROVED ABRIDGEMENT OF THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO VOLUMES I, II & III
Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025 Winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2025 Winner of the Winston Graham Historical Prize 2025 A book of the year for the Independent, Guardian, i Newspaper, Good Housekeeping DECEMBER 1962, THE WEST COUNTRY. Local doctor Eric Parry, mulling secrets, sets out on his rounds, while his pregnant wife sleeps on in the warmth of their cottage. Across the field, funny, troubled Rita Simmons is also asleep, her head full of images of a past life her husband prefers to ignore. He''s been up for hours, tending to the needs of the small dairy farm where he hoped to create a new version of himself, a project that''s already faltering. But when the ordinary cold of an English December gives way to violent blizzards, the two couples find their lives beginning to unravel. Where do you hide when you can''t leave home? And where, in a frozen world, can you run to?
From the master of epic fiction comes the deeply human story of one of the world's greatest mysteries: the building of Stonehenge.  A FLINT MINER WITH A GIFT Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat, to witness the rituals that signal the start of a new year. He is there to trade his stone at the Midsummer Rite, and to find Neen, the girl he loves.  Her family lives in prosperity and offers Seft an escape from his brutish father and brothers, within their herder community.  A PRIESTESS WHO BELIEVES THE IMPOSSIBLE Joia, Neen's sister, is a priestess with a vision and an unmatched ability to lead. As a child, she watches the Midsummer ceremony, enthralled, and dreams of a miraculous new monument, raised from the biggest stones in the world.  But trouble is brewing among the hills and woodlands of the Great Plain.  A MONUMENT THAT WILL DEFINE A CIVILISATION Joia's vision of a great stone circle, assembled by the divided tribes of the Plain, will inspire Seft and become their life's work. But as drought ravages the earth, mistrust grows between the herders, farmers and woodlanders - and an act of savage violence leads to open warfare .  . .  Truly ambitious in scope, Circle of Days invites you to join master storyteller Ken Follett in exploring one of the greatest mysteries of our age: Stonehenge.
THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED DEBUT ADULT NOVEL BY LOUIS SACHAR, THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF CHILDREN'S FICTION AND AUTHOR OF CLASSIC NOVEL, HOLES. Is true love the greatest form of magic? Long ago, in a kingdom far away, the magician of tiger castle is on thin ice. Once the greatest in the land, Anatole's spells have dried up. He can't even turn sand into gold anymore. The only one who still believes in him is kind Princess Tullia, and he hopes - for the sake of their friendship - that he can soon redeem himself and stay within the king's court. When the opportunity arises, Anatole is faced with an impossible decision. Princess Tullia is betrothed to the prince of a rich neighbouring kingdom, an alliance which will save bankrupt Esquaveta and all its citizens. But, Tullia has secretly fallen in love with a lowly apprentice scribe and refuses to wed the prince. The King tasks Anatole with the most difficult magic of all: an anti-love potion. Anatole can save everything and everyone if he can shatter the young lovers' romance. But, with the fate of the kingdom hanging in the balance, can he achieve it? Can he even bring himself to try? After all, is true love not the purest form of magic? Told with the same wit and warmth that has made Louis Sachar's books classics of children's literature, The Magician of Tiger Castle is a colourful and enigmatic tale of adventure, love, loss and triumph.
The greatest moment in Roman history, from the perspective of the man who could have had it all.Julius Caesar is dead. Mark Antony, his second in command, is surely also in the sights of the assassins. But for Antony, where there is danger, there is opportunity. Can he seize the chance, and replace Caesar as Rome's undisputed ruler? The portents are good until a young man by the name of Octavian appears, claiming to be Caesar's heir…The months and years that follow are a time of shifting alliances, betrayals and score settling. Above all, Antony must fulfil his vow to avenge Caesar and destroy his killers, Brutus and Cassius, while also stopping Rome from falling apart... Perfect for fans of S.J.A.  Turney and Conn Iggulden.
Mothers Daughters Liars is a story of transgenerational trauma set at the end of the nineteenth century when gossip and lies had the power to bring a good woman down. In this oppressive atmosphere, an epidemic of cholera changes Tia's life forever. Her father descends into alcoholism, and her mother - on the brink of madness - thrusts her teenage daughter into the hands of a defrocked priest. Desperate to escape her parents' betrayal, Tia leaves home, travelling east to a town near Gibraltar. But she is naïve and unprepared for the wickedness that surrounds her, and when a savage fire devastates the community, she finds herself at the centre of malicious gossip and lies. The ex-priest, a pistol-loving industrialist and a weak, but wealthy charlatan all seek Tia’s downfall, and the only way to prevent her from ruin is if Mariangeles regains her senses and comes to save her.
Letters from the Mountains is historical fiction set in Franco's Spain. Cuban musician, Ernesto, prefers a quiet life but trouble follows him everywhere. After witnessing a Mafia murder, he fears for his life and flees to Spain where he discovers a subdued community oppressed by Franco’s brutal regime. Yet beneath their veneer of respectability lies a flourishing resistance network which Ernesto is invited to join. Haunted by the errors of his past and yearning for his native Cuba, he rejects their political subterfuge in favour of life on the side-lines, playing his beloved trombone and dreaming of Belle, the lover he left behind in Havana. But trouble won’t leave him alone. Reluctantly he agrees to hide a bundle of letters from the authorities and as he opens them, one by one, he is drawn further into the rebels’ cause until finally he has to act.
It is September 1940, Maggie and her young siblings, Grace and Billy, are living in the East End of London with their parents. Their father has been killed at Dunkirk and their mother goes into hospital to have her fourth child, leaving the children with a neighbour. In one of the worst bombing raids of World War II their home is destroyed and the neighbour is killed. Bewildered and frightened, the children wander the streets until they are taken in by some nuns. But their problems are not over; no-one can trace their mother and, labelled as orphans, they are sent as child migrants to orphanages in Australia. The story traces their adventures in their new country, the homesickness, the heartbreak when Billy is separated from his sisters and the loneliness of life in a cold and unfeeling orphanage. Eventually the children make new lives for themselves, but Maggie is still convinced that her mother is alive and once she is old enough, begins to search for her.
Palette of Secrets is a mystery story about a famous artist, Nancy Miller. Nancy is growing old and is in the early stages of Alzheimer's. She has been persuaded by her agent to publish her memoirs but needs a ghost writer to help her to write them. She finds a young woman called Ana who is keen to take on the job. However, as Nancy starts to recount her life story, it becomes obvious to Ana that the artist is hiding something, so she decides to dig more deeply to unravel Nancy's past. However, when she eventually works out what Nancy's terrible secret is, she doesn't know what to do with the information; should she include it in the book and risk ruining Nancy's international reputation or should she tell Nancy's son what she has discovered? Either way the consequences in this riveting mystery threaten to be devastating for Nancy and her family.
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 craft through war and plague, tragedy and triumph, love and loss. The beads she creates will adorn the necks of empresses and courtesans from Paris to Vienna - but will she ever earn the respect of those closest to her? Tracy Chevalier is a master of her own craft, and The Glassmaker is vivid, inventive, spellbinding: a virtuoso portrait of a woman, a family and a city that are as everlasting as their glass. Click here to find out about our BOOKCLUB
Who was the man that would become Caesar's lieutenant, Brutus' rival, Cleopatra's lover, and Octavian's enemy?When his stepfather is executed for his involvement in the Catilinarian conspiracy, Mark Antony and his family are disgraced. His adolescence is marked by scandal and mischief, his love affairs are fleeting, and yet, his ambition is vast. Antony's path to prosperity leads him to an education in Athens, a campaign for a seat in the Senate, and a position of military command. Undeterred by his baptism of fire on the battlefields of Judaea and Egypt, he climbs the ranks to become the right hand man of Rome’s most famous general, Julius Caesar. The first of an epic new four book series, Caesar’s Soldier brings to life the world of one of history’s greatest warriors and romantics, as he becomes an integral part of the Roman Republic in its moment of glory and crisis. Perfect for fans of Conn Iggulden and Bernard Cornwell.
Rome will never be the same again…The empire is at a crisis point. Caesar, Rome’s greatest general and conqueror of Gaul, now faces being stripped of his command and dragged back to Italy for prosecution by his enemies. His former ally, Pompey, has sided with his opponents in the Senate and frustrates all efforts to find peace. Caesar does the unthinkable. He crosses the Rubicon and marches his army into Italy to invade Rome, with Mark Antony at his side. The empire is thrown into civil war. Antony will either rise to the heights of power, or be executed as a traitor. The die has been cast. This is the greatest story of Roman history retold from Mark Antony’s perspective by a rising star of the genre. Perfect for fans of Conn Iggulden and Ben Kane.
EXPERIENCE THE EPIC BLOOD FEUDS OF ANCIENT GREECE WITH MASTER STORYTELLER CONN IGGULDEN Themistocles stands as the battle-scarred leader of Athens. Yet he is no nobleman. The elite distrust him. But those conspiring against him cannot argue with his victories on the battlefield. Or the vast Persian army that is coming . . . And so Themistocles must fight. Fight the invaders. Fight the allies who despise him. Fight to save his city. As the Persians draw close, he must prove himself again and again in battle. TO LIVE OR DIE FOR ATHENS
TYRANTS AREN'T BORN. THEY'RE RAISED. Travel to the heart of a Roman dynasty drenched in danger and intrigue in master storyteller Conn Iggulden's bold and brilliant return to Rome as he tells the story of Nero – last of the the Julio-Claudian emperors . ANCIENT ROME, AD 37 It begins with a man’s hand curled around another’s throat. Emperor Tiberius first dispatches a traitor. Then his whole family. Next all his friends. It is as if he never existed.  THIS IS ROMAN JUSTICE.  Into this fevered forum, a child is born. His mother is Agrippina, granddaughter of Emperor Augustus. But their imperial blood is no protection. The closer you are to the heart of the empire, the closer you are to power, intrigue, and danger. She faces soldiers, senators, rivals, silver-tongued pretenders, each vying for position. One mistake risks exile, incarceration, execution. Or, worst of all, the loss of her infant son. For Agrippina knows that opportunity waits, even in your darkest moments. Her son is everything. She can make this boy, shape him into Rome itself – the one all must kneel before. BUT FIRST, THEY MUST SURVIVE . . . This then is the story of Nero's birth and raising under the watchful and scheming eye of his mother Agrippina – a woman every man crossed at his peril.
BE TRANSPORTED TO THE EPIC WORLD OF THE ATHENIANS WITH CONN IGGULDEN'S LATEST LEGENDARY TALE A STATESMAN IS BORN, NOT MADE . . . Marathon. A Persian king stands at last on Greek soil. His Immortals have come to raze the cities of the west. The Athenians are hopelessly outnumbered. The gods are silent. All they have is the shield line. Xanthippus takes a breath. If they cannot stand, all Greece will fall. Thermopylae. Ten years later, Athens has betrayed its favourite son. When the Persians return, when they cross the Hellespont to take revenge on the Greeks, will Xanthippus come home to save his people? Athens cannot stand alone a second time. In desperation, the city calls on men of Sparta to block the pass at Thermopylae. To give them time. To give them hope. Featuring two of the most famous battles of the Ancient World, The Gates of Athens is a bravura piece of storytelling about a people driven to preserve their freedom at any cost.
A heart-wrenching and unforgettable story of courage, friendship and resistance, inspired by the incredible true story of a Jewish ballroom dancer in Paris during WWII, perfect for fans of The Paris Library. Paris, 1938. Annie Mayer arrives in France with dreams of becoming a ballerina. But when the war reaches Paris, she's forced to keep her Jewish heritage a secret. Then a fellow dancer offers her a lifeline: a ballroom partnership that gives her a new identity. Together, Annie and her partner captivate audiences across occupied Europe, using her newfound fame and alias to aid the Resistance. New York, 2012. Miriam, haunted by her past, travels from London to New York to settle her great-aunt Esther’s estate. Among Esther’s belongings, she discovers notebooks detailing a secret family history and the story of a brave dancer who risked everything to help Jewish families during the war. As Miriam uncovers Esther’s life in Europe, she realises the story has been left for her to finish. Grappling with loss and the possibility of new love, Miriam must find the strength to reconcile her past and embrace her future.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • Next
  • Showing 1 - 24 of 71 results
Back to top

© The Bookshop 2026. Registered no Alicia Duggan.
Online Shop Builder & ePOS System by ShopTill-e.com