Edinburgh basks in glorious, but brief, summer sunshine, and Isabel Dalhousie - philosopher, philanthropist and mother - searches for the perfect birthday present for her husband Jamie. While carefully seeking out a gift, Isabel finds herself at a viewing for an auction, and happens upon an old friend in distress - a friend who decides to unburden herself of her secrets, and to reveal a clue within a painting hanging on the walls of the auction house....

It is also the dramatic illustration of a little understood truth: the Spitfire did more than win the Battle of Britain - it won the war. It was not Stalingrad which turned the corner of the war against Hitler, it was the Spitfire in the summer of 1940 when RAF Fighter Command destroyed the myth of Nazi invincibility.Praise for his previous books:London: The Autobiography:'Fascinating ... brings the story of London to life' Good Book guideThe English...

During one long, hot summer, five-year-old Pea and her little sister Margot play alone in the meadow behind their house, on the edge of a small village in Southern France. Her mother is too sad to take care of them; she left her happiness in the hospital, along with the baby. Pea's father has died in an accident and Maman, burdened by her double grief and isolated from the village by her Englishness, has retreated to a place where Pea cannot reach...

In the summer of 2006, Emma Price watched helplessly as her six-year-old son?s red coat was fished out of the River Ouse. It was the tragic story of the year - a little boy, Aiden, wandered away from school during a terrible flood, fell into the river and drowned. His body was never recovered. Ten years later, Emma has finally rediscovered the joy in life. She?s married, pregnant and in control again ... until Aiden returns. Too traumatised to speak,...

Jean Echenoz, the multi-award-winning French literary magician whose work has been compared to Joseph Conrad and Lawrence Sterne, has brought that deathtrap back to life, leading us gently from a balmy summer day deep into the insatiable-and still unthinkable-carnage of trench warfare. With the delicacy of a miniaturist and with irony both witty and clear-eyed, the author offers us an intimate epic with the atmosphere of a classic movie: in the panorama...

In 1944, American naval officer Lt. Wyatt Paxton arrives in London to prepare for the Allied invasion of France. He works closely with Dorothy Fairfax, a "Wren" in the Women's Royal Naval Service. Dorothy pieces together reconnaissance photographs with thousands of holiday snapshots of France--including those of her own family's summer home--in order to create accurate maps of Normandy. Maps that Wyatt will turn into naval bombardment plans. As the...

Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park, and is immediately caught by their freedom, their careless dress, their dangerous aura of abandon. Soon, Evie is in thrall to Suzanne, a mesmerising older girl, and is drawn into the circle of a soon-to-be infamous cult and the man who is its charismatic leader. Hidden in the hills, their...

Sophia Bertoni discovers her boyfriend in bed with another woman, and realizes her life is going nowhere. Leaving her high-pressure job, she travels to Italy to stay with her grandmother while she figures out her next move. When Sophia - quite literally - bumps into devastatingly handsome Joe Lancaster her plans are turned upside down. As the two realize they?re both spending the summer in the same town, a love affair seems on the cards. But Sophia...

Windswept, isolated and ruggedly beautiful, Puffin Island is a haven for day-trippers and daydreamers alike. But this charming community has a way of bringing people together in the most unexpected ways? It's been a summer of firsts for Emily Donovan. From becoming a stand-in mom to her niece Lizzie to arriving on Puffin Island, her life has become virtually unrecognizable. Between desperately safeguarding Lizzie and her overwhelming fear of the ocean-which...

New York Times and USA Today Bestseller! Now a New York Times Bestseller! "A dazzling debut brimming with passion, romance, and wit." -Sophia Nash, RITA ward-winning author of Secrets of a Scandalous Bride An earl who can't be bribed... Gayle Windham, earl of Westhaven, is the first legitimate son and heir to the duke of Moreland. To escape his father's inexorable pressure to marry, he decides to spend the summer at his townhouse in London, where...