Just the mention of his name... and for Elise Sanderson the years simply rolled away, bearing her back on a sea of bittersweet memories to those heady, dangerous days before the flames of war had ravaged the East.Then, in the golden days of her youth, she had swept through the doors of the Orient's great hotels, into a world where bell-boys ran to answer every whim, where the champagne was permanently on ice, where elegant men in tails and women in exclusive haute couture danced to the endless music of orchestras.It was then, she recalled that she had first seen him, lounging languidly in a rattan chair, already in uniform, cigarette smoke curling lazily around half-closed hazel eyes. It was a dangerous face, she had thought in that first startled moment. A face to be reckoned with . . .But then the War had intervened . . .

The box kite began to move, slowly at first, bumping over the uneven turf then gathering speed. The twin propellers whirred, the ground raced by beneath his wheels. He was taxiing now as fast as was safe. There was nothing between him and disaster except . . . flight!Two women watched as Adam Bailey made that first momentous attempt to take the first prototype box kite into the air, two women whom fate had already thrown together yet who were already sworn enemies.Alicia Morse, beautiful, spoiled and ruthless, was the daughter of Gilbert Morse, land owner and head of the family engineering firm. She had lived her life taking what she wanted - and now more than anything she wanted Adam.Sarah Thomas was the orphaned daughter of a village seamstress. She had been raised alongside Alicia, for Gilbert had taken pity on the child who had been destined for the workhouse. That was long ago now - at seventeen she was as daring as...

When Guy de Savigny, heir to estates in the Cognac region of France, hears of a reclusive German living on a tiny Caribbean island, his attention is immediately caught. This could be the man who, as a Nazi General, destroyed his family. Guy is determined to bring him to justice, appalling his English mother, Kathryn, who fears he will uncover secrets best left hidden in the past . . .Guy is unprepared for the effect his discoveries will have on Lilli, von Rheinhardt's daughter. Lilli is the key to von Rheinhardt, but can Guy bear to destroy her faith in the father she adores? And who is the rightful owner of the Eden Inheritance - and what is the price they are prepared to pay for it?

The spell-binding story of a girl catapulted by fate into maturity – and of a close-knit mining community caught up in the horror and hardship of war. At seventeen it seems that Barbara, youngest of the Hall clan, has the world at her feet. She is pretty, she is mischievous, and she has grown up wanting for nothing. But the carefree idyll is about to end with the suddenness of a summer storm. For a shadow of which she knows nothing hangs over her charmed life; a long dark shadow from the past threatening her happiness and denying her the one man she truly loves. And in the world outside the Hillsbridge valley the clouds of war are gathering . . .

When Ros Newman's car is found abandoned at her local West Country railway station, the police are not unduly concerned. They believe Ros has merely escaped the pressures of a glamorous but demanding job at the fashion firm Vandina, and the stress of coping with an obsessively jealous ex-husband.But the current man in Ros's life, Mike Thompson, suspects there is a more sinister explanation, and so does her sister Maggie. She flies home from Corfu, leaving troubles of her own behind, to help Mike in his desperate search.Mike and Maggie's investigations uncover a story of passion and ambition spanning thirty years, and a web of deception and desire which takes them from Corfu to a North Sea oil rig, and from Vermont, New England to South America. They soon realise, to their horror, it is not only Ros's life which is in danger. . .

Top sixties model Paula Varna died, with her husband Hugo's business partner Greg Martin, in a yachting accident twenty years ago.Or did she?When Greg is discovered living a new life in Australia, the Varna family is devastated by old wounds and buried memories. Fashion designer Hugo, reliving the horror of a double betrayal; Sally, Paula's sister and now his wife, terrified by the threat to the life she has made for herself; Sally's son Mark, facing exposure of his own unhappy secret.And Harriet, Paula's daughter, torn between family loyalty, her need to know the truth about the mother she lost when she was four, and her ambivalent response to insurance investigator Tom O'Neill . . .

When Jenny Simmons, the ugly duckling of her family, blossoms into a swan, the world seems to be at her feet. And when she meets Bryn Thompson, an amateur boxer, her happiness is complete. But life has some cruel blows in store for her – not least a well-kept family secret which will devastate her and threaten her very life. Helen Hall has recently qualified as a doctor and returned to the family home in Hillsbridge, trying to escape a complicated romance. Helen realises that she has it in her power to help Jenny, but will doing so cost her the job she loves? Evocative and enthralling, A Family Affair portrays the lives, loves, hopes and tragedies of the families who live in the shadows of the Black Mountains.

Black Mountains dominate the Somerset town of Hillsbridge, and beneath their brooding shadow the Hall family -- Charlotte, James and their seven children -- carry on an earthy, turbulent existence. Independent spirits, the Halls are united by strong family values, divided by the conflicts of a community caught up in the changing patterns of industrial progress. Then the dark shadows of impending war fall upon this vivid family canvas, and the Halls are forced to reaffirm their most basic beliefs. Janet Tanner has created a memorable and moving saga of love, hate, happiness and heartbreak on the slopes of The Black Mountains. 'Sensitive and exceptionally polished' Manchester Evening News

1926 . . . Amy Hall was wild, wilful and stubborn – struggling to make a success of the haulage business her dead husband Llew had created – and to come to terms with the shocking secret of his past. Ralph Porter was handsome, successful and ruthless – "the richest man in Hillsbridge". He was waiting, it seemed, for Amy to make one slip that would enable him to absorb her struggling business into his own empire. Sometimes it seemed to Amy she was fighting the whole world. But then Amy was a fighter. She always had been . . . Beneath the Black Mountains in the small Somerset mining town of Hillsbridge, Amy Hall battles to find her very own Emerald Valley.

A woman's search for the truth leads her into terrible danger in this compelling tale of suspense. Following a skiing accident, journalist Sally Proctor is recuperating at her parents' rural Somerset home when she hears about a local man, Brian Jennings, who's been jailed for arson. His sister, convinced of his innocence, is campaigning for his release – and Sally decides to help her by conducting her own enquiries. As she starts to uncover serious discrepancies in the original investigation, Sally and her family are threatened by a series of increasingly menacing incidents. It soon becomes clear that someone will go to any lengths to stop her finding out the truth.

Did Sophia Langlois - passionate, wealthy, respected - really shoot her eldest son that November night in 1972? Or was she protecting someone else when she claimed she did? Twenty years later her granddaughter Juliet is determined to learn the truth.But she is not the only one interested in the Langlois case. Dan Deffains, son of Sophia's late attorney, and an investigative reporter by profession, has scented a story. His path and Juliet's cross as they follow the tangled leads and uncover a story of love and passion, loyalty and betrayal which has its roots in beleaguered wartime Jersey, when the island was occupied by the Nazis. But is the truth more devastating than the lie? Would it have been better for all concerned if Juliet - and Dan - had left the past where it belonged . . .

They could not have been more different, yet war was to forge a link between them which would never be broken . . .Alys Peterson: beautiful, pampered and rich, she wanted for nothing - except understanding . . . and love. Tragedy had touched her life, but her parents had been too concerned with their standing in society to care.Tara Kelly: gritty and talented, raised in the slums of Sydney - she had been mistress to a gangland boss while still in her middle teens. But she had taken a bitter revenge on her lover and was now in fear of her life.Sweeping across the continent of Australia during World War II, Women and War is a compulsive story of love and hate, bravery and fear, passion and quiet, and deadly determination.