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The tomb guardians awake to find the tomb empty and one of their number missing. Their conversation overlaps with another – an anguished lecturer and friend exploring the Renaissance Master portraits they occupy. One looks back at the dawn of the Reformation, the other thrashes out an excuse. Author of Mr. Beethoven (The Goldsmiths Prize 2020 shortlist; The Walter Scott Prize 2021 and Republic of Consciousness Prize 2021 longlists), Paul Griffiths sustains this theme: the power of the imaginatio...

Safiye had more to worry about than simply birthing this child. Her only son might not live to hear the call for morning prayers. If there ever was a time when the Empire required a male heir it was now.In the opulent royal palace of Murat III, on the shores of Constantinople, midwife Hannah Levi is charged with ensuring the Sultan's harem provides him with a male heir. If she fails, the entire Ottoman Empire will collapse. But the slave girl who has been stolen away to be the Sultan's latest co...

A fine exclusive edition of one of literature’s most beloved stories. Featuring a laser-cut jacket on a textured book with foil stamping, all titles in this series will be first editions. No more than 10,000 copies will be printed, and each will be individually numbered from 1 to 10,000. It was one of those spring days which possesses so much sweetness and beauty, that all Paris turns out into the squares and promenades and celebrates them as though they were Sundays. A mad priest, a vagabond...

Heartstone is C. J. Sansom's fifth spellbinding mystery in C. J. Sansom's number one bestselling Shardlake series, for fans of Hilary Mantel and Philippa Gregory.'When it comes to intriguing Tudor-based narratives, Hilary Mantel has a serious rival' - Sunday Times‘Sansom has the trick of writing an enthralling narrative. Like Hilary Mantel, he produces densely textured historical novels that absorb their readers in another time’ - Andrew Taylor, Spectator England, 1545: England is at war. Henry...

In the final days of Henry VIII, one man is there to witness the demise of a legend... King Henry VIII, a fearsome figure of power and stature, lies upon his deathbed diminished by sickness and haunted by ghosts from his past. Only Will Somers, long-serving jester and confidant, sees all. While Henry is confined to his chamber, Will begins a journal that will document his King's last turbulent days.The country is fraught with tension. And with the King's son and heir just nine years old, there...

**Longlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger Award**'A gripping thriller' THE TIMES | 'Dark and enthralling' ANDREW TAYLOR | 'Devilishly good' DAILY MAIL'I couldn't put it down' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'A story of disaster, espionage, murder and a deep-seated conspiracy... it's nothing short of genius' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐Revenge runs deep in this captivating historical thriller for fans of C.J. Sansom and Laura Shepherd-Robinson. 1606. England stands divided in the wake of the failed Gunpowder Plot. As a devasta...

Where are all the exciting men in London? After spending years in the glittering ballrooms of the town, Amanda Cynster is utterly bored by the current crop of colourless suitors. Determined to take matters into her own hands, one night she shockingly goes where no respectable lady ever should, but where many an intriguing gentleman might be found. But forbidden excitement quickly turns to panic when Amanda discovers she's quite out of her depth. She looks around for help - an...

The second novel of the visceral Divided Kingdom series sees the action turn westwards to Bristol, where a Royalist army is determined to wrest the city from the forces of Parliament. Once again, the story revolves around the vicious enmity of the Reeve brothers: carefree and dissolute Ralph and embittered and fanatical Francis. Also caught up in the conflict are Moussa Dansocko, an African slave accused of sorcery, Kendall Tremain, Cornish fisherman and tinner, Abel Cowans, a former naval gunn...

Another Fabulous Art History Thriller by the Bestselling Author of Oil and Marble, Featuring the Master of Renaissance Perfection: Raphael!Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling is one of the most iconic masterpieces of the Renaissance. Here, in Raphael, Painter in Rome, Storey tells of its creation as never before: through the eyes of Michelangelo’s fiercest rival—the young, beautiful, brilliant painter of perfection, Raphael. Orphaned at age eleven, Raphael is determined to keep the deathbed pr...

An irresistible royal seduction... Daring Prince Nikolay Baklanov feels London is worlds away from his life of battle and revolution in Kuban. But then the Russian ambassador's daughter, beautiful Klara Grigorieva, approaches him with her father's dangerous proposition... Since her mother's death Klara has complied with all her father's wishes. She's virtuous, polished - a Society lady through and through. But meeting dashing Prince Nikolay awakens a rebellious passion in Klara...a passion that...

Kateryn Parr, a thirty-year-old widow in a secret affair with a new lover, has no choice when a man old enough to be her father who has buried four wives -- King Henry VIII -- commands her to marry him. Kateryn has no doubt about the danger she faces: the previous queen lasted sixteen months, the one before barely half a year. But Henry adores his new bride and Kateryn's trust in him grows as she unites the royal family, creates a radical study circle at the heart of the court, and rules the kin...

WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION FINALIST • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • The author of award-winning Hamnet brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de' Medici as she makes her way in a troubled court. “I could not stop reading this incredible true story.” —Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club Pick) "O’Farrell pulls out little threads of historical detail to weave this story o...

"[...] -Of the offence to me, Stephen answered. Buck Mulligan swung round on his heel. -O, an impossible person! he exclaimed. He walked off quickly round the parapet. Stephen stood at his post, gazing over the calm sea towards the headland. Sea and headland now grew dim. Pulses were beating in his eyes, veiling their sight, and he felt the fever of his cheeks. A voice within the tower called loudly: -Are you up there, Mulligan? -I'm coming, Buck Mulligan answered. He turned towards Stephen and...

The romantic story of a young female pianist in cholera-ravaged Paris of 1832, whose own tragedy leaves her susceptible to the passions and scandals of the composer Franz Liszt At the height of the Romantic era in Paris, there was no bigger celebrity than the composer and pianist Franz Liszt. A fiery and gorgeous Hungarian, he made women swoon at soirees and left a trail of broken hearts behind him. Anne, a countess and talented young pianist whose mother has just died of cholera, hears Fran...

Italy, 1905. Fourteen-year-old Lucia and her young mother, Teresa, are servants in a magnificent villa on the Bay of Naples, where Teresa soothes their unhappy mistress with song. But volatile tempers force them to flee, exchanging their warm, gilded cage for the cold winds off Lake Erie and Cleveland's restless immigrant quarters. With a voice as soaring and varied as her moods, Teresa transforms herself into the Naples Nightingale on the vaudeville circuit. Clever and hardworking, Lucia blosso...