Historical Fiction 2015
Talking Books
The titles in this booklist are just a selection of the titles available for loan from the RNIB National Library Talking Book Service.
Don’t forget you are allowed to have up to 6 books on loan. When you return a title, you will then receive another one.
If you would like to read any of these titles then please contact the Helpline on 0303 123 9999 or email .
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For any further help in selecting books please contact the Reader Services Team on 01733 37 5333 or email .
Bailey, Martine. An appetite for violets. 2015. TB21823.
Irrepressible Biddy Leigh, under-cook at the foreboding Mawton Hall, only wants to marry her childhood sweetheart and set up her own tavern. But when her elderly master marries the young Lady Carinna, Biddy is unwittingly swept up in a world of scheming, secrets and lies. She finds herself embroiled in a murderous conspiracy and soon realises that the secrets she holds could be the key to her survival - or her downfall.
Read by Karina Fernandez. 12 hours 6 minutes. TB21823.
Baker, Jo. Longbourn. 2013. TB 21417.
It is wash-day for the housemaids at Longbourn House, and Sarah's hands are chapped and bleeding. Domestic life below stairs is about to be disturbed by the arrival of a new footman smelling of the sea, and bearing secrets. In Georgian England, there is a world the young ladies in the drawing room will never know, a world of poverty, love, and brutal war.
Read by Patience Tomlinson. 13 hours 32 minutes. TB 21417.
Barker, Pat. Toby's room. 2012. TB 20074.
Toby and Elinor, brother and sister, friends and confidants, are sharers of a dark secret, carried from the summer of 1912 into the battlefields of France and wartime London in 1917.
Read by Charlotte Strevens, 10 hours. TB 20074.
Betts, Charlotte. The spice merchant's wife. 2013. TB 20644.
Newly married to a wealthy spice merchant, Kate Finche's life is irrevocably changed as the Great Fire of London rages through the city and the heady scents of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves fill the air as their livelihood goes up in flames. Kate's husband, Robert is forced to seek employment to ensure their survival, and when he is found drowned, Kate refuses to believe that he has taken his own life. But as she finds new work, and unexpectedly new love, she also finds herself fleeing from mortal danger.
Read by Penelope Freeman. 13 hours 24 minutes. TB 20644.
Bracewell, Patricia. Shadow on the crown. 2013. TB 20547.
The year is 1001 and King Ethelred, a man haunted by his own past and troubled by his future has lost his queen. To protect his lands and retain his crown he must choose his bride with care.
Read by Helen Bourne. 17 hours 43 minutes. TB 20547.
Bragg, Melvyn. Credo. 2004. TB 19485.
Bega, a young Irish princess in the 7th century, flees to Britain following the murder of the man she was to marry and devotes herself to disseminating the Christian faith.
Read by Kevin Moore. 34 hours 26 minutes. TB 19485.
Catton, Eleanor. The luminaries. 2013. TB 20798.
Man Booker Prize winner, 2013. It is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky.
Read by Mark Meadows. 29 hours 19 minutes. TB 20798.
Chadwick, Elizabeth. The conquest. 2006. TB 20354.
England 1066. Ailith, a young Saxon wife has her husband and child taken from her as the conquering Normans advance. Her grief slowly turns to love for a handsome Norman invader and she bears him a daughter, but in the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings Ailith discovers a betrayal she cannot forgive.
Read by Karen Cass. 20 hours 33 minutes. TB 20354.
Chadwick, Elizabeth. The wild hunt. 2008. TB 20696.
Wild hunt; book 1. In the wild, windswept Welsh marches a noble young lord rides homewards, embittered, angry and in danger. He is Guyon, lord of Ledworth, heir to threatened lands, husband-to-be of Judith of Ravenstow. Their union will save his lands - but they have yet to meet.
Read by Karen Cass. 12 hours. TB 20696.
Chadwick, Elizabeth. The running vixen. 2009. TB 21106.
Wild hunt series; book 2. 1126. Heulwen, daughter of Welsh Marcher baron Guyon FitzMiles, has grown up with her father's ward, Adam de Lacey. There has always been a spark between them, but when Heulwen marries elsewhere, to Ralf le Chevalier, a devastated Adam absents himself on various diplomatic missions for King Henry I.
Read by Karen Cass. 11 hours 46 minutes. TB 21106.
Chadwick, Elizabeth. The leopard unleashed. 2010. TB 21099.
Wild hunt series; book 3. Renard, Lord of the Ravenstow estate and Crusader knight, returns from Antioch, but he does not return alone. He brings with him a mistress. Renard has returned home because of his father's ill health and imminent death. Also there is tension locally caused by the dispute over the succession to England's throne.
Read by Charlotte Strevens. 11 hours 38 minutes. TB 21099.
Chevalier, Tracy. The last runaway. 2013. TB 20952.
When Quaker Honor Bright sails from Bristol with her sister, she is fleeing heartache for a new life in America. But tragedy leaves her alone and vulnerable and life in 1850s Ohio is precarious and unsentimental.
Read by Laurel Lefkow. 8 hours 48 minutes. TB 20952.
Cornwell, Bernard. The pagan lord. 2013. TB 20739.
The Saxon Chronicles; book 7. Alfred the Great is dead and Edward his son reigns as king. Wessex survives but peace cannot hold. Loyalties will be divided and men will fall, as every Saxon kingdom is drawn into the bloodiest battle yet with the Danes.
Read by Matt Bates. 11 hours 44 minutes. TB 20739.
Cornwell, Bernard. The empty throne. 2014. TB22239.
Warrior chronicles; book 8. England is fractured, torn apart more by internal fighting than the threat of Viking invasion. The ruler of Mercia is dying, leaving no legitimate heir. His wife is a formidable fighter and great leader, but no woman has ever ruled over an English kingdom. And she is without her strongest warrior and champion, Uhtred of Bebbanburg. So the scene is set for an explosive battle between elders and warriors for an empty throne.
Read by Matt Bates. 11 hours 15 minutes. TB22239.
Courtenay, Bryce. The potato factory. 2006. TB 20992.
The Australian trilogy; book 1. Ikey Solomon is in the business of thieving and he's very good at it. Ikey's partner in crime is his mistress, the forthright Mary Abacus, until misfortune befalls them. They are parted and each must make the harsh journey from thriving 19th century London to the convict settlement of Van Diemen's Land.
Read by Gordon Griffin. 28 hours. TB 20992.
Courtenay, Bryce. Tommo and Hawk. 2007. TB 21333.
The Australian trilogy; book 2. Brutally kidnapped and separated in childhood, Tommo and Hawk are reunited at the age of fifteen in Hobart. Together, they escape their troubled pasts and set off on a journey into manhood.
Read by Gordon Griffin. 25 hours 20 minutes. TB 21333.
Darby, Katy. The whores' asylum. 2012. TB 20971.
Oxford, 1887: A stone's throw from the calm cloisters and college spires lies Jericho, a maze of seedy streets and ill-lit taverns, haunted by drunkards, thieves and prostitutes. When Stephen Chapman, a brilliant young medical student, is persuaded to volunteer at a shelter devoted to reforming fallen women, his closest friend Edward feels a strange sense of dread. But even Edward - who already knows the devastating effect of falling in love with the wrong woman - cannot foresee the macabre and violent events that will unfold around them.
Read by Sherry Baines and Philip Bretherton. 13 hours 13 minutes. TB 20971.
Donoghue, Emma. Frog music. 2014. TB 21463.
San Francisco, 1876: a stifling heat wave and smallpox epidemic have engulfed the city. Deep in the streets of Chinatown live three former stars of the Parisian circus: Blanche, now an exotic dancer at the House of Mirrors, her lover Arthur and his companion Ernest. When an eccentric outsider joins their little circle, secrets unravel, changing everything and leaving one of them dead.
Read by Khristine Hvam. 12 hours 44 minutes. TB 21463.
Douglas, Donna. The Nightingale girls. 2013. TB21170.
Nightingale girls; book 1. Three very different girls sign up as student nurses in 1936 while England is still mourning the death of George V. Dora is a tough East Ender, driven by ambition, and desperate to escape her squalid, overcrowded home and her abusive stepfather. Helen, the quiet one, needs freeing from her dominating mother. The third is naughty, rebellious Millie, an aristocrat on the run from her conventional upper class life.
Read by Penelope Freeman. 15 hours 31 minutes. TB21170.
Douglas, Donna. The Nightingale sisters. 2013. TB21166.
Nightingale girls; book 2. To the student nurses at the Nightingale hospital, the ward sisters are heartless and frightening, with impossibly high standards. But the sisters have troubles of their own too. As the nation mourns the death of King George V, it seems as if nothing is ever going to be the same again, especially for the women at the Nightingale.
Read by Penelope Freeman. 13 hours 24 minutes. TB21166.
Dunant, Sarah. Blood and beauty. 2013. TB 20829.
When Rodrigo Borgia buys his way into the papacy, he is defined not just by his wealth or his love for his illegitimate children, but by his blood: he is a Spanish Pope in a city run by Italians. If the Borgias are to triumph, this charismatic politician with an appetite for life, women and power must use papacy and family to succeed.
Read by Chris Courtenay. 18 hours 41 minutes. TB 20829.
Dunn, Suzannah. The confession of Katherine Howard. 2010. TB 19573.
When 12-year-old Katherine Howard comes to live in the Duchess of Norfolk's household, poor relation Cat Tilney is suspicious of her. The two girls couldn't be more different: Cat, watchful and ambitious; Katherine, interested in clothes and boys. Their companions are in thrall to Katherine, but it's Cat in whom Katherine confides.
Read by Jane McDowell. 9 hours 5 minutes. TB19573.
Erskine, Barbara. River of destiny. 2012. TB 20876.
An Anglo Saxon burial ground that must not be disturbed. A Victorian tragedy of forbidden love. And an ancient curse whose power grows ever stronger. On the banks of the River Deben lies a set of barns dating back to the Anglo Saxons, and within their walls secrets have lain buried for centuries.
Read by Gina Peach. 14 hours 30 minutes. TB 20876.
Fiorato, Marina. The glassblower of Murano. 2008. TB 20422.
A sweeping historical mystery centred on the glass-making tradition of the Venetian island of Murano. The arrival of a young Englishwoman on the island triggers a chain of events which lead back to her ancestor, the great medieval glass craftsman Corradino.
Read by Jane McDowell. 9 hours 9 minutes. TB 20422.
Follett, Ken. A place called freedom. 1995. TB 20709.
In 1767 cruelty rules the Scottish coalfields, as powerful landlords value black gold more than human life. Lizzie Hallim's fiancé, Jay Jamisson, presides over the mine where men, women and children toil underground, prevented by law from ever leaving the village. But Lizzie helps a slave to escape, and their destinies become entwined in the Old World and in America - the New World. Contains passages of a sexual nature.
Read by James Bryce. 16 hours 9 minutes. TB 20709.
Gabaldon, Diana. A breath of snow and ashes. 2006. TB19503.
Outlander series; book 6. As the American Revolution approaches, Jamie and Claire Fraser find themselves caught up in a war that threatens to destroy everything they know. Contains strong language and passages of a sexual nature.
Read by Caroline Guthrie. 54 hours 19 minutes. TB19503.
Gabaldon, Diana. An echo in the bone. 2010. TB 19872.
Outlander series; book 7. In the wake of a devastating fire in the mountains of North Carolina, Highlander Jamie Fraser and his English wife find themselves homeless and without family, in the midst of the gathering storm of revolution. Thanks to his time-travelling wife's information, he knows what the coming spring of 1778 will bring but things are further complicated by the arrival of his illegitimate son, William, a young officer in King George's army. Contains strong language.
Read by Caroline Guthrie. 42 hours 55 minutes. TB 19872.
Gabaldon, Diana. Lord John and the private matter. 2004. TB 20556.
Lord John series; book 1. On a bright June day in 1757, Lord John Grey emerges from his club, his mind in turmoil. Having just witnessed something shocking, his efforts to avoid a scandal that might destroy his family are interrupted by something still more urgent: the Crown appoints him to investigate a murder of a comrade-in-arms.
Read by Hugh Ross. 9 hours 28 minutes. TB 20556.
Gabaldon, Diana. Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade. 2008. TB 20907.
Lord John series; book 2. It's 1758 and Europe is in turmoil. The Seven Years War is taking hold and London is ripe with deceit. The enigmatic Lord John Grey, a nobleman and high-ranking officer in His Majesty's Army, pursues a clandestine love affair and a deadly family secret.