By Mrs. Craik.

The action is centred on the town of Tewkesbury, scarcely disguised by the fictional name Norton Bury, in Gloucestershire. The story is narrated by Phineas, a friend of the central character. John Halifax is an orphan, determined to make his way in the world through honest hard work. He is taken in by a tanner, Abel Fletcher, who is a Quaker, and thus meets Phineas, who is Abel's son. John eventually achieves success in business and love, and becomes a wealthy man. (Wikipedia)

London: Ward, Lock and Co. 1856. 449p.

By D. H. Lawrence

Kangaroo is D. H. Lawrence's eighth novel, set in Australia. He wrote the first draft in just forty-five days while living south of Sydney, in 1922, and revised it three months later in New Mexico. The descriptions of the country are vivid and sympathetic and the book fuses lightly disguised autobiography with an exploration of political ideas at an immensely personal level. Based on a collation of the manuscript, typescripts and first editions, this text of Kangaroo is closest to what Lawrence would have expected to see in print. There is a full textual apparatus of variants, a comprehensive introduction giving the background and history of composition and publication and a summary of contemporary reviewers' opinions. Explanatory notes elucidate the many geographical, political and literary allusions in the text; there are three maps and an appendix detailing Australian locations.

London. Thomas Seltzer Inc. 1923. 367p.

By Elizabeth Norton

Doomed queen of Henry VIII, mother to Elizabeth I, the epic story of Anne Boleyn.Anne Boleyn was the most controversial and scandalous woman ever to sit on the throne of England. From her early days at the imposing Hever Castle in Kent, to the glittering courts of Paris and London, Anne caused a stir wherever she went. Alluring but not beautiful, Anne's wit and poise won her numerous admirers at the English court, and caught the roving eye of King Henry. Anne was determined to shape her own destiny, first through a secret engagement to Henry Percy, the heir of the Earl of Northumberland, and later through her insistence on marriage with the king, after a long and tempestuous relationship as his mistress. Their love affair was as extreme as it was deadly, from Henry's 'mine own sweetheart' to 'cursed and poisoning whore' her fall from grace was total.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth Norton gained her first degree from the Universiy of Cambridge, and her Masters from the University of Oxford. Her other books include Jane Seymour: Henry VIII's True Love, Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII's Discarded Bride (both published by Amberley Publishing) and She Wolves: The Notorious Queens of England. She lives in Kingston Upon Thames.

Glocderstershire. Amberly Publishing. 2009. 221p.

By Jackie French

This is a love song to our nation, told in a single sweeping story

Jed Kelly has finally persuaded her great aunt Nancy to tell the story of her grandparents. The tale that unfolds is one of Australia's greatest romances - that of Clancy of the Overflow, who gave up everything for Rose, the woman he adored, and yet still gained all he'd lost and more.

But Nancy's story is not the history that Jed expects. More tales lurk behind the folklore that surrounds Clancy - the stories of the women hidden in Australia's long history, who forged a nation and whose voices need to be heard.

It is also a story of many kinds of love. Clancy's growing passion for the bush, immortalised in Paterson's poem, which speaks to him in the ripple of the river and the song of the stars, and Nancy's need to pass on her deep understanding of her country.

But perhaps the most moving love story of all is the one that never happened, between Matilda O'Halloran and Clancy of the Overflow. And as Jed brings all of these stories to life in her book, Matilda and Clancy will once again waltz beside the river and the forgotten will be given a new voice.

Australia. Harper Collins Australia. 2019. 446p.

By Geraldine Brooks

An extraordinary novel woven out of the lore of American history—by the author of the international bestseller Year of Wonders. Winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

From Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March, and crafted a story "filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man" (Sue Monk Kidd). With"pitch-perfect writing" (USA Today), Brooks follows March as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs. A lushly written, wholly original tale steeped in the details of another time, March secures Geraldine Brooks’s place as a renowned author of historical fiction. Winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Australia. Harper Collins. 2005. 365p.

By Geraldine brooks

This gripping historical novel is based on the true story of Eyam, the "Plague Village," in the rugged mountain spine of England. In 1666, the bubonic plague is brought to this isolated settlement and the people choose to seal themselves off to prevent the spread of infection.

This gripping historical novel is based on the true story of Eyam, the "Plague Village," in the rugged mountain spine of England. In 1666, a tainted bolt of cloth from London carries bubonic infection to this isolated settlement of shepherds and lead miners. A visionary young preacher convinces the villagers to seal themselves off in a deadly quarantine to prevent the spread of disease. The story is told through the eyes of eighteen-year-old Anna Frith, the vicar's maid, as she confronts the loss of her family, the disintegration of her community, and the lure of a dangerous and illicit love. As the death toll rises and people turn from prayers and herbal cures to sorcery and murderous witch-hunting, Anna emerges as an unlikely and courageous heroine in the village's desperate fight to save itself.

Exploring love and learning, fear and fanaticism, and the struggle of science and religion to interpret the world at the cusp of the modern era, Year of Wonders is at once a story of unconventional love and a richly detailed evocation of a riveting moment in history. Like Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha and A. S. Byatt's Posession, Year of Wonders blends learning and romance into an unforgettable read.

NY. Penguin.2001. 336p.

By Courtney Collins

This moving debut novel was inspired by the life of Australian Elizabeth Jessie Hickman, a runaway convict born in 1820. In Collins poetically reimagined tribute, 22-year-old Jessie is on the run after killing her brutal husband. She has recently given birth to a stillborn child whose spirit is somehow tethered to her mother and who narrates the story. Jessie has already lived a dramatic life; she once worked as a circus acrobat and then as a horse rustler but is now desperate to escape the posse of men who want to hang her for murder. While she runs, she thinks of her short, sweet relationship with the Aboriginal stockman Jack Brown, whose gentle ways were a welcome relief from the beatings administered by her drunken husband. She finds an idyllic camp in the mountains made up of desperate boys who steal horses and thinks she might finally have found a refuge, but the lawmen are not far behind. This intense read, with dark undertones of death and foreboding, contains breathtaking descriptions of the Australian bush and a lyrical homage to Jessie’s desperate quest for freedom.

NY. Berkley Books. 2012. 284p.

By Katharine Susannah Prichard

From the jacket: No writer has painted a more vivid picture of the tragic meeting of primi­tive and civilized humanity than Katharine Susannah Prichard in Coonardoo. First published in 1929, this remarkable novel has become an Australian classic, as moving in its deli­cate portraiture of an aboriginal girl as it is revealing in its authentic know­ledge of the outback scene in north­western Australia. The little black girl Coonardoo and the boy Hugh are childhood play­mates, and the relationship that gradually develops from their early bond is compelling and disastrous. Coonardoo has her tribal partner; Hugh, the station-owner, must marry. This drama is played out in the deserts and cattle country of the north­west, a cruel story redeemed by the poetic quality-of Coonardoo and her devotion to the man whose race dealt so harshly with hers.

Melbourne. Angus and Robertson. 1929.

By Gustav Flaubert

"She longed t o rush into his arms. to take refuge in his strength as ir the incarnation of bertect love. tc cry aloud to him- 'Take me away ! Oh, take me away!'" Madame Bovary is the story of a beautiful young woman who marries a luckless and loutishcountry doctor. She attempts to escape the narrou confines of her lifethrough a series of passionate affairs, hoping to find in other men the romantic ideal she has alwavs dreamed about. Her reckless. n e s s comes back to haunt her. however. and the strong-willed and independent Emma finds herself in a desperate fight for existence. Flaubert's daring depiction of adultery and sinfulness caused a national scandal when it was first published, and the author was put on trial for offending public morality. One hundred and fifty years later, this masterpiece of realist literature has lost none of its impact.

Michel Lévy Frères (in book form, 2 Vols). 1857. 322p.

By Pierre Magnan

Translated from the French by Patricia Clancy. “It is June 1945. The war is over. As dawn breaks over the hills of Provence, Pierrot, a 15-year-old boy, stumbles across the body of Capitaine Patrocle, a local hero of the Resistance. He has been murdered. In his wallet Pierrot finds a letter written on blue paper, which he conceals beneath his beret. It provides the key to the dramatic events that lie at the heart of this haunting story of illicit passions and pitiless revenge, and leads, ultimately, to the boy’s association with the beautiful Madame Henry and his introduction to the mysteries of love. “ ‘Magnan’s evocation of sun-baked landscapes and small-town Provencal life, still smarting from
the Occupation and the Vichy betrayals, is superb.’ The Times.

London.. Vintage. 1999. 254p.

By Elizabeth Wein

“Harrowing and wholly believable, Code Name Verity wrecked me. It ii a book as unexpected, beautiful, and enduring as tle friendship at its heart. The story's brutality is almost inti­mate. It's depictions ol heroism are so real and vibrant, they live beyond the page. You will want to clutch these characters to youi in the hopes of keeping them safe, and your heart will break knowing that you can't." —Leigh Bardugo. New York Times best-selling author of Shadow and Bone.

NY. Hyperion. 2013. 371p.

By Julie Otsuka

Winner of the Pen Faulkner Award for Fiction 2012. National Book Award Finalist 2011. From the cover. Between the wars a group of young, non-English-speaking Japanese women travelled by boat to America. They were picture brides, clutching photos of husbands-to-be whom they had yet to meet. Julie Otsuka tells their extraordinary, heartrending story in this spellbinding and poetic account
of strangers lost and alone in a new and deeply foreign land. “Harrowing. Otsuka tells a powerful, affecting story that ensures a largely forgotten voice is heard once more.” Scotsman. ‘Poignant, fascinating and tragic’ Easy Living

NY. Penguin. 2011. 130p.

By Robert Harris

From the cover: “Ancient Rome - ‘a city of glory built on a river of filth teems with ambitious and ruthless men. None is more  brilliant than Marcus Cicero. A rising young lawyer, backed by a shrewd wife, he decides to gamble everything on one of the most dramatic courtroom battles of all time. Win it, and he could win control of Rome itself. Lose it, and he is finished forever. Internationally acclaimed for its storytelling power and historical accuracy, Robert Harris’s new novel is an epic account of the timeless struggle for power and the sudden disintegration of society.”

London.. Random House. 2006. 495p.

By Niccolo Machiavelli

From Chapter 1: The people who inhabit the northern parts beyond the Rhine and the Danube, living in a healthy and prolific region, frequently increase to such vast multitudes, that part of them are compelled to abandon their native soil, and seek a habitation in other countries. The method adopted, when one of these provinces had to be relieved of its superabundant population, was to divide into three parts, each containing an equal number of nobles and of people, of rich and of poor. The third upon whom the lot fell, then went in search of new abodes, leaving the remaining two-thirds in possession of their native country. These migrating masses destroyed the Roman empire by the facilities for settlement which the country offered when the emperors abandoned Rome, the ancient seat of their dominion, and fixed their residence at Constantinople…..

London. M. Walter Dunne. 1901.

By Emile Gaboriau

Illustrated by W. Glackens. From Chapter 1: In the Paris evening papers of Tuesday, February 28, 1866, under the head of Local Items, the following announcement appeared: " A daring robbery, committed against one of our most eminent bankers, M. André Fauvel, caused great excitement this morning throughout the neighborhood of Rue de Provence. " The thieves, who were as skilful as they were bold, succeeded in making an entrance to the bank, in forcing the lock of a safe that has heretofore been considered impregnable, and in possessing themselves of the enormous sum of three hundred and fifty thousand francs in bank-notes…”

NY. Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1903. 540p.

Translated Into English By Samuel Croxall.

This version is beautifully illustrated and contains “New applications, Morals etc. by the Rev. Geo. Tyler Townsend, editor of the “Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.” Eighty original Illustratiiona.

London” Frederick Warne and Co. Strand. ca. 1885. 161p.

By Charles Dickens

Illustrations by John Leech. Probably Dickens’s best known work, certainly a permanent fixture every Christmas. Feuding with his publishers, Dickens financed the publishing of the book himself, ordering lavish binding, gilt edging, and hand-colored illustrations and then setting the price at no more than five shillings. This combination resulted in disappointingly low profits despite high sales.

Chapman and Hall. (1843) 101 pages.

By Wilkie Collins.

The loss of the diamond opens the beginning of this adventure and events as related by Gabriel Betteredge, house-steward in the service of Julia, Lady Verinder. “ The Moonstone is a 19th-century British epistolary novel. It is an early modern example of the detective novel, and established many of the ground rules of the modern genre. Told from the perspective of 11different characters, tale of mystery and suspicion was considered the first modern English detective novel at its time of publication.” (Amazon).

NY. Harrow and Heston Classic Reprint. (1868) 510 pages.

By Sir Walter Scott.

“Edinburgh, 1736: an indignant crowd has gathered in the Grassmarket to watch the execution of a smuggler...” Opening with the start of the Porteous Riots, The Heart of Midlothian is one of Walter Scott's most famous historical novels, featuring murder, madness and seduction. Following his brutal suppression of the spectators, John Porteous, Captain of the Guard, is charged with murder and locked up in Edinburgh's Tolbooth prison, also known as the Heart of Midlothian. When news comes that he has been pardoned, an angry mob breaks into the jail, liberating its inmates and bringing Porteous to its own form of justice. But one prisoner who fails to take this opportunity to flee is Effie Deans, who, wrongly convicted of infanticide, has been sentenced to death. Jeanie, her older sister, sets off to London on foot to beg for her pardon from the queen.

Boston: Dana Estes & Co., 1893.

By Oliver Goldsmith.

“When Dr Primrose loses his fortune in a disastrous investment, his idyllic life in the country is shattered and he is forced to move with his wife and six children to an impoverished living on the estate of Squire Thornhill. Taking to the road in pursuit of his daughter, who has been seduced by the rakish Squire, the beleaguered Primrose becomes embroiled in a series of misadventures–encountering his long-lost son in a travelling theatre company and even spending time in a debtor’s prison. Yet Primrose, though hampered by his unworldliness and pride, is sustained by his unwavering religious faith. In The Vicar of Wakefield, Goldsmith gently mocks many of the literary conventions of his day–from pastoral and romance to the picaresque – infusing his story of a hapless clergyman with warm humour and amiable social satire.”

J.C. Krieger and Company, 1828 300p.