"In 1942 the Allies were losing, Germany seemed unstoppable, and every able man in England was on the front lines. To "set Europe ablaze," in the words of Winston Churchill, the Special Operations Executive had to do something unprecedented: recruit women as spies. Thirty-nine answered the call, leaving their lives and their families to become saboteurs in France. They destroyed train lines, ambushed Nazis, plotted prison breaks, and gathered crucial...

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND THE BOSTON GLOBE

This richly entertaining biography chronicles the eventful life of Queen Victoria’s firstborn son, the quintessential black sheep of Buckingham Palace, who matured into as wise and effective a monarch as Britain has ever seen. Granted unprecedented access to the royal archives, noted scholar Jane Ridley draws on numerous...

"Fenna Vos has learned to focus on her own survival-even now, with the Second World War raging in faraway countries. She works on-stage as the assistant to an unruly escape artist-behind the curtain as the mastermind of their act. After all, her honed ability to control her surroundings and elude entrapments, physical or otherwise, reliably suppresses the trauma and tragedy of her youth. For all her calculations, however, Fenna neglects to foresee...

Expected to make an advantageous marriage, Lady Margaret Montagu Scott rebels shortly before her betrothal is announced and flees, throwing herself into charitable work and befriending a group of similarly-minded, independent women.

"Though they have the vote and the Pill and haven't been burned as witches since 1727, life isn't exactly a stroll down the catwalk for modern women. They are beset by uncertainties and questions: Why are they supposed to get Brazilians? Why do bras hurt? Why the incessant talk about babies? And do men secretly hate them? Caitlin Moran interweaves provocative observations on women's lives with laugh-out-loud funny scenes from her own, from the riot...

"When Salma, Moni, and Iman-friends and active members of their local Muslim Women's group-decide to take a road trip together to the Scottish Highlands, they leave behind lives often dominated by obligation, frustrated desire, and dull predictability. Each wants something more out of life, but fears the cost of taking it. Salma is successful and happily married, but tempted to risk it all when she's contacted by her first love back in Egypt; Moni...

Great Paxford's inspirational band of women return for more incredible stories from the home front as they deal with imminent threat during the Battle of Britain. As the nation finds itself increasingly beleaguered, relationships, friendships, and loyalties within the community will be tested as never before. The women find they must heighten their efforts to boost morale amidst the chaos and uncertainty enveloping the village.

"Bright, attractive and well-connected, in any other family the Churchill girls - Diana, Sarah, Marigold and Mary - would have shone. But they were not in another family, they were Churchills, and neither they nor anyone else could ever forget it. From their father - 'the greatest Englishman' - to their brother, golden boy Randolph, to their eccentric and exciting cousins, the Mitford Girls, they were surrounded by a clan of larger-than-life characters...

An intimate and engaging portrait of the great author and the women he loved: Ellen Ternan, Maria Beadnell, and Mary Scott Hogarth.