BOOKS Historical


Andrew Grieg Rose Nicholson Riverrun, 5th, £18.99, HB, 9781784292980 Edinburgh, 1574. Queen Mary has fled, to raise an army from the French, and her son and heir is held at Stirling Castle. In this febrile time, low-born but very ambitious student Will Fowler is determined to make his name and so attracts the friendship and patronage of the powerful Walter Scott.


Cynthia Harrod-Eagles The Secrets of Ashmore Castle Sphere, 12th, £20.99, HB, 9780751581812 First in a new series from the author of the Morland Dynasty novels. When the Earl of Stainton dies in a tragic hunting accident in 1901, his eldest son Giles must replace him as head of the family, and soon discovers the dire financial situation that threatens to engulf the entire family. Perfect for fans of “Downton Abbey” and “Bridgerton”, says Sphere.


Previews New Titles: Fiction


never seen. But someone, or something, dangerous has followed him from his former life in London. Then a young Bristol woman, believed to be possessed by a demon, turns up…


Alexander McCall Smith The Pavilion in the Clouds Polygon, 5th, £14.99, HB, 9781846975899 Standalone novel set in 1930s Ceylon (modern- day Sri Lanka) in the last days of the British Empire. Eight-year-old Bella lives with her tea plantation- owner father, her mother and her governess, Miss White. Years later, in Scotland, Bella must reckon with the past and what really happened between her father and Miss White. BookScan 


Suzanne Allain Miss Lattimore’s Letter Piatkus, 10th, £8.99, PBO, 9780349427584 Historical romantic comedy of manners about Sophronia Lattimore, a busybody matchmaker who might just have to sort out her own romantic life for a change. From the author of Mr Malcolm’s List.


goes missing; and partly in present-day New York City, where Ellie discovers a beautiful watch that once belonged to the grandmother she never knew.


Historical adventure


Tim Leach A Winter War Head of Zeus, 5th, £18.99, HB, 9781800242869 First in a new trilogy. A disgraced Samartian warrior must navigate a course between honour and shame, his people and the Roman Empire, after surviving a battle with the Legion. From the author of Smile of the Wolf (“a poetic, absorbing narra- tive”—Sunday Times).


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Wendy Holden The Duchess Welbeck, 19th, £8.99, PB, 9781787396241 The story of Wallace Simpson is sympatheti- cally retold in Holden’s account of an American outsider who changed the course of British history, beginning with the “unknown story” of Simpson’s early years in London. Seeks to truly understand the woman caught up in the sweep of history against her will, says Welbeck. BookScan


Barbara Mutch The Fire Portrait Allison & Busby, 19th, £12.99, TPB, 9780749026691 Historical romance set in 1930s remote South Africa, where Englishwoman Frances McDonald settles, in a marriage of convenience, and struggles to be accepted by the locals.


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Matteo Strukul Medici — Legacy Head of Zeus, 5th, £18.99, HB, 9781786692177 Third instalment in the series charting the rise of the House of Medici. Francis II, dauphin of France, is dead and the royal court believes Catherine de Medici to be the murderer. Her husband Henry will now be the next King of France.


Defne Suman, Betsy Göksel (trans) The Silence of Scheherazade Apollo, 19th, £18.99, HB, 9781800246959


Début Set in the ancient city of Smrna,


this follows the intertwin- ing fates of four families— one Levantine, one Greek, one Turkish and one Armenian—as the city is ripped apart by the disso- lution of the Ottoman Empire before the First World War.


Jas Treadwell The Infernal Riddle of Thomas Peach Hodder & Stoughton, 12th, £16.99, HB, 9781529347326 In 1785, the mysterious Thomas Peach moves to a small West Country village, apparently with his wife, although she is


Averil Kenny Those Hamilton Sisters Zaffre, 5th, £8.99, PBO, 9781838773069 Queensland, 1955. The titular sisters’ beautiful mother left the small town of Noah Vale 20 years earlier, under a cloud of shame. Following her death, her three daugh- ters return: Sonnet, 20, Fable, 12, and three-year- old Plum. But suspicion and judgement follow the girls wherever they go.


Dani Atkins The Wedding Dress Head of Zeus, 5th, £18.99, HB, 9781800246492 Latest from the winner of the RNA’s Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2018 (for This Love) tells of three women with three different love stories, all woven together by one perfect wedding dress.


meant to be, or if her kiss is the thing that decides their destiny. BookScan


Joanna Glenn All My Mothers Te Borough Press, 5th, £14.99, HB, 9780008410582 Eva grows up in 1980s London with plenty of money and material things, but not much love from her emotionally absent parents, and lots of questions: why are there no baby pictures of her, and why do her parents avoid all ques- tions about her early years? Second novel from the author of the Costa- shortlisted The Other Half of Augusta Hope.


Emma Hughes No Such Thing as Perfect Century, 5th, £12.99, HB, 9781529125818


Début Laura signs up to Cupid, a high-


tech dating service that draws on everything she has ever done online to find her perfect match. It presents her with Adam, who is perfect on paper. But can an online algo- rithm know her better than she knows herself? Century will support with an “ambitious” publicity and marketing campaign.


the son of immigrants to America. Struggling to fit in, he discovers his neighbour and her Harvard-aspiring daugh- ter have been brewing an ancient alchemical potion from stolen gold, one that harnesses the ambition of the jewellery’s original owner. Is this the boost he needs?


Victoria Scott Patience Head of Zeus, 5th, £18.99, HB, 9781800240889


Début First novel from a former BBC jour-


nalist tells of a severely disabled young woman, Patience, and her loving family’s decision to enter her into a pioneering but risky gene therapy trial. The stakes are high; are the family right to pursue an idea of “normal”?


Danielle Steel Complications Macmillan, 19th, £20, HB, 9781529021639 Said to be a “riveting” story of scandal and tragedy, set against the backdrop of a luxury Paris hotel which attracts an international clientele of the rich and famous. BookScan


Jason Cobley A Hundred Years to Arras Unbound, 19th, £9.99, PBO, 9781789651492 Follows the life of Private Robert Gooding Hensen, of the Somerset Light Infantry, from a Somerset farm to the Battle of Arras in 1917, and back home again. A story of a working-class Tommy, one of thousands who fought.


Daisy Wood The Clockmaker’s Wife Avon, 5th, £7.99, PBO, 9780008402303


Début Timeslip novel set partly in


London during the Blitz, where Nell’s husband, the clockmaker responsible for looking after Big Ben,


Claudia Carroll The Fixer Zaffre, 5th, £14.99, HB, 9781838773922 Meg Monroe is a fixer, someone to call when you need to get rid of a clingy friend, a useless employee, or an ex who can’t take the hint. She befriends her mark and convinces them to see the error of their ways, but when someone from her own past turns up, it’s a different story.


Carrie Hope Fletcher With This Kiss HQ, 5th, £12.99, HB, 9780008400958 Latest from the actress, singer, vlogger and bestselling author is a “high-concept love story” about Lorelai: whenever she kisses someone on the lips, she can see how they are going to die. She doesn’t know if she’s seeing what was always


Sophia Money-Coutts Did You Miss Me? HQ, 19th, £12.99, HB, 9780008370619 Fourth novel from the former Tatler journalist, dubbed “the 21st century Jilly Cooper.” Lawyer Nell Mason is happy with sweet but dull boyfriend Gus, until she bumps into first love Arthur, who broke her heart 15 years ago. Can she ever forget the one who got away? A tale of self-discovery “with more fantastically rude sex”.


Sanjena Sathian Gold Diggers S&S Adult Fiction, 19th, £14.99, HB, 9781398509016 “A dizzyingly original, fiercely funny, deeply wise novel,” says Celeste Ng of this coming-of-age story about Neil Narayan,


Anna Whitehouse Underbelly Orion, 5th, £14.99, HB, 9781398702462


Début First novel from the husband-


and-wife writing team Anna Whitehouse and Matt Farquharson (a.k.a. Mother Pukka and Papa Pukka) behind Parenting the Shit Out of Life and Where’s My Happy Ending?, billed as women’s commercial fiction with a psychologi- cal edge. Lo is a middle- class mother with a care- fully cultivated Instagram feed. Dylan is just about surviving in the gig econ- omy. The two meet at the school gates—with devas- tating consequences.


David M Barnett The Handover Trapeze, 5th, £8.99, PBO, 9781409185246 Rom-com set in a


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