Recommendations based on "London"

THE #2 SUNDAY TIMES AND #1 NYT BESTSELLER 'One for Philip Pullman fans' THE TIMES 'This one is an automatic buy' GLAMOUR 'Ambitious, sweeping and epic' EVENING STANDARD 'Razor-sharp' DAILY MAIL 'An ingenious fantasy about empire' GUARDIAN

** FROM THE WORLDWIDE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF RESTLESS AND ANY HUMAN HEART ** 'William Boyd once again brings to the spy novel his particular storytelling genius. The result is brilliant fun' MICK HERRON ------ An accidental spy. A web of betrayals. A mystery that will take you around the world . . . Gabriel Dax is a young man haunted by the memories of a tragedy: every night, when sleep finally comes, he dreams about his childhood home in flames. His days are spent on the move as an acclaimed travel writer, capturing changing landscapes in the grip of the Cold War. When he's offered the chance to interview a political figure, his ambition leads him unwittingly into the shadows of espionage. As Gabriel's reluctant initiation takes hold, he is drawn deeper into duplicity. Falling under the spell of Faith Green, an enigmatic and ruthless MI6 handler, he becomes 'her spy', unable to resist her demands. But amid the peril, paranoia and passion consuming Gabriel's new covert life, it will be the revelations closer to home that change the rest of his story . . . ------ In his most exhilarating novel yet, William Boyd transports you from the vibrant streets of sixties London to the sun-soaked cobbles of Cadiz and the frosty squares of Warsaw in this thrilling adventure. 'Engaging, intelligent and deeply satisfying. I rate him one of our greatest living novelists' PETER JAMES 'Wonderfully ambiguous with notions of twisted reality and uncertain memory' ANN CLEEVES 'A wonderfully intricate novel of espionage and elegant skulduggery' JOHN BANVILLE 'I enjoyed it hugely. Boyd is one of my favourite authors - he never disappoints' KATE ATKINSON 'Beautifully crafted and pleasingly unpredictable, the work of a man who knows what he is doing and makes it look effortless' JAMES RUNCIE 'Simply the best realistic storyteller of his generation' SEBASTIAN FAULKS 'There are few reading pleasures as great as giving in to a William Boyd novel' SUNDAY TIMES

‘The way Robert Peal describes Georgian England, you’d be mad not to want to live there yourself’ GUARDIANAnne Bonny and Mary Read, pirate queens of the CaribbeanTipu Sultan, the Indian ruler who kept the British at bayOlaudah Equiano, the former slave whose story shocked the worldMary Wollstonecraft, the feminist who fought for women’s rightsLadies of Llangollen, the lovers who built paradise in a Welsh valley‘Mad, bad and dangerous to know’ is how Lord Byron, the poet who drank wine from a monk’s skull and slept with his half-sister, was described by one of his many lovers. But ‘mad, bad and dangerous’ serves as a good description for the entire Georgian period: often neglected, the hundred or so years between the coronation of George I in 1714 and the death of George IV in 1830 were years when the modern world was formed, and changes came thick and fast.Across this century, new foods – pineapples, coffee and pepper – suddenly became available in the shops. Fashion exploded into a riot of colour, frilly shirts and wigs. Gin was drunk like it was water. Demands for women’s rights were heard, and it became possible to question the existence of God without fear of prompt execution.These exciting new developments came, of course, from the expanding British Empire. Britain’s wealth and its sudden access to chocolate, chillies and spices, was entirely bound up with the conquest of overseas territories and the miserable suffering of enslaved workers.This is the backdrop to Robert Peal’s new book, which introduces the Georgian era through the diverse lives of twelve ‘magnificent – if not moral’ people who defined it.

“[Pynchon's] funniest and arguably his most accessible novel.” —The New York Times Book Review“Raunchy, funny, digressive, brilliant.” —USA Today“Rich and sweeping, wild and thrilling.” —The Boston GlobeSpanning the era between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, and constantly moving between locations across the globe (and to a few places not strictly speaking on the map at all), Against the Day unfolds with a phantasmagoria of characters that includes anarchists, balloonists, drug enthusiasts, mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, spies, and hired guns. As an era of uncertainty comes crashing down around their ears and an unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just trying to pursue their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes it's their lives that pursue them.

When Henry Warren, director of an English bank, lands by chance in a hospital in a bleak Northern town that has been ruined by the closure of its shipyard, he discovers nothing less than a new purpose for his life. Moved by the fate of the town’s inhabitants, Warren risks his fortune and reputation to save the shipyard and restore the town to its former prosperity. In seeking to change the fate of the town, he radically changes his own.

This is the third novel in the bestselling Outlander series - soon to be a major new TV series. Jamie Fraser is lying on the battlefield of Culloden, where he rises wounded, to face execution or imprisonment. Either prospect pales beside the pain of loss - his wife is gone. Forever. But sometimes forever is shorter than one thinks. In 1746, Claire Fraser made a perilous journey through time, leaving her young husband to die at Culloden, in order to protect their unborn child. In 1968, Claire has just been struck through the heart, discovering that Jamie Fraser didn't die in battle. But where is Jamie now[unk] With the help of her grown daughter, Claire sets out to find the man who was her life - and might be once again.

Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte, travels to the remote Australian town of Chifley, to search for a woman who mysteriously disappeared from a passenger train crossing the Nullarbor Plain, a desolate desert

Over 1 Million Andrew Taylor Novels Sold! A Times Historical Crime Novel of the year 'An absolute delight in a series that goes from strength to strength' S. G. McLean, prize-winning author of the Seeker series 'This is Taylor at his unassailable best' Financial Times London 1671 The damage caused by the Great Fire still overshadows the capital. The disfigured body of a man is unearthed in the ruins of the old almshouse, forcing architect Cat Hakesby to stop restoration work. It is clear he has been murdered, and Whitehall secretary James Marwood is ordered to investigate. When the man's identity is revealed, it's clear that there are larger forces at play, and Marwood comes under serious pressure to solve the case. But an old adversary is attempting to stop him. As Cat and Marwood follow the threads of corruption into the heart of government, the king himself is being distracted from affairs of state. A young, impoverished Frenchwoman has caught his eye - a quiet affair that will have monumental consequences.

R. F. Kuang's instant #1 New York Times bestselling novel! Babel is a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire. Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization. For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide… Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?