August 1863. Henry Ireland, a failed landowner, dies unexpectedly in a riding accident, and his young widow disappears. Three years later his friend James Dixey, a celebrated naturalist, is found dead on his grounds with his throat torn out. Are these deaths connected? What has happened to Mrs Ireland?

In Belgrave Square old Mr Gresham is baffled by his tigerish daughter Rebecca, whose intentions he cannot fathom. In the clubs of St James' rakish Mr Happerton plays billiards with his crony Captain Raff, while in darkest Lincolnshire sad Mr Davenant broods over his financial embarrassments and waits for his daughter's new governess.

Using a variety of unpublished and little-known sources, this volume portrays Thackeray as an endearing, exasperating and paradoxical individual. His portrait redefines Thackeray and the world in which he lived and wrote.

Bayswater, 1931. James Ross, an aspiring writer whose stories nobody will buy, is reduced to door-to-door selling. He meets glamorous Suzi, but their relationship turns out to be a source of bafflement: who is her boss, the mysterious Mr Rasmussen, and why is he so interested in the premises above a jeweller's shop?

A taut and gripping thriller: King Edward VIII is on the throne and keen to broker peace at any cost -- WWII could turn out very differently.
Autumn 1939. In a parallel world where Edward VIII never abdicated and the Second World War might have taken a very different course.
Storm clouds gather over Europe, German troops amass and a 'King's Party' of fascist peace campaigners is stealthily undermining the war-effort. Country house parties teem with conspiring Tory MPs, an American Embassy clerk pilfers Presidential telegrams and paranoia grips MI5. In the offices of Duration...