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Transcription / by Atkinson, Kate,author.;
"From the bestselling author of Life after life, a new novel that explores the repercussions of one young woman's espionage work during World War II. Juliet Armstrong is a dissatisfied radio producer in a 1950s London that is recovering from the war as much as she is. During World War Two, Juliet was conscripted into service, transcribing conversations between an MI5 agent and a ring of suspected German sympathizers. The seemingly dull work quickly plunged Juliet into a treacherous world of code words and secret meetings where Juliet herself was sent into the field. These moments of intrigue and romance feel like a lifetime ago as Juliet trudges through her commute, her job and her new life. But as Juliet and the rest of London find ways to return to normal, her routine is upended by an encounter with a mysterious man from her past life. Haunted by the relationships and actions of her past and facing a very real threat in the present, Juliet cannot escape the repercussions of her work for the government. With no other choice, Juliet is quickly pulled back into the life of espionage she thought she'd left behind. Kate Atkinson's latest novel brings mid-century London to life in a gripping tale of deception and consequences."--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Spy fiction.; Historical fiction.; Great Britain. MI5; Espionage; Transcription; World War, 1939-1945; Nineteen fifties; Women radio producers and directors;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 3
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The Irish boarding house / by Taylor, Sandy(Fiction writer),author.;
"24 Merrion Square. The house stands empty, the old stone steps overgrown with thorny rose bushes. But Mary Kate feels a deep connection to the neglected, silent rooms. Could this be the place to help her heal? Dublin 1952. When Mary Kate Ryan receives a surprise inheritance from the woman who abandoned her as a tiny baby, she's stunned. All her life, she has longed to know why her mother disappeared, and now she's devastated to realise that every lonely night she spent without a home or family of her own, her mother knew exactly where she was. Mary Kate is about to refuse the money when she sees a beautiful, deserted house for sale and something sparks in her heart. She will reawaken it, as the Dublin Boarding House for Single Ladies, and provide a shelter for others as lost and alone as her. Can she help the two young girls left at the local orphanage, desperate for a home of their own? Or the pregnant teenager on the run, who only wants to keep her baby safe? The boarding house brings Mary Kate love and friendships she never dreamed of, but just as her heart is about to burst with joy, a new guest arrives. The stern older woman won't speak about her past, but when Mary Kate uncovers her story, it reveals a devastating secret about her mother. With her life in turmoil once more, can Mary Kate draw on the strength of the women in the house to help her face her past, or will the tragedy she uncovers spell disaster for them all ... ?"--
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Historical fiction.; Novels.; Boardinghouses; Family secrets; Inheritance and succession; Mothers and daughters; Nineteen fifties; Young women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The guardian of lies / by Furnivall, Kate,author.;
"1953, the South of France. The fragile peace between the West and Soviet Russia hangs on a knife edge. And one family has been torn apart by secrets and conflicting allegiances. Eloise Caussade is a courageous young Frenchwoman, raised on a bull farm near Arles in the Camargue. She idolises her older brother, Andre, and when he leaves to become an Intelligence Officer working for the CIA in Paris to help protect France, she soon follows him. Having exchanged the strict confines of her father's farm for a life of freedom in Paris, her world comes alive. But everything changes when Andre is injured - a direct result of Eloise's actions. Unable to work, Andre returns to his father's farm, but Eloise's sense of guilt and responsibility for his injuries sets her on the trail of the person who attempted to kill him. Eloise finds her hometown in a state of unrest and conflict. Those who are angry at the construction of the American airbase nearby, with its lethal nuclear armaments, confront those who support it, and anger flares into violence, stirred up by Soviet agents. Throughout all this unrest, Eloise is still relentlessly hunting down the man who betrayed her brother and his country, and she is learning to look at those she loves and at herself with different eyes. She no longer knows who she can trust. Who is working for Soviet Intelligence and who is not? And what side do her own family lie on?"--Publisher description.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Cold War; Families; Betrayal; Espionage, American; Brothers and sisters; Nineteen fifties; Rural families;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The caretaker : a novel / by Rash, Ron,1953-author.;
"A novel about Blackburn Gant, the caretaker of a hilltop cemetery in North Carolina whose best friend is drafted into the Korean war, leaving his young wife Naomi in Blackburn's care"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Cemeteries; Dysfunctional families; Korean War, 1950-1953; Male friendship; Man-woman relationships; Nineteen fifties; Postpoliomyelitis syndrome;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Miss Benson's beetle : a novel / by Joyce, Rachel,author.;
"It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson--a sensible schoolmarm and lonely spinster--is just trying to get through life. But one day, she reaches her breaking point, abandoning her job and her tidy, circumscribed life, to set out on an expedition to the other side of the world in search of an insect that may or may not exist: the golden beetle of New Caledonia, Margery's childhood obsession ever since her father gave her a book on cryptozoology right before he killed himself. The assistant Margery hires to accompany her, Enid Pretty, in her pink hat and pompom sandals, is not the companion she had in mind. But together they will find themselves drawn into an adventure that exceeds all expectations: a cross-ocean voyage to a remote island covered with dense jungle--the last place two proper British ladies would expect to find themselves. They must risk everything and break all the rules, but at the top of a mountain deep in the South Pacific they will discover their best selves. This is a charming, uplifting story about the power of belief in all its forms; it is an intoxicating adventure that explores what it means to be a woman; and it is a tender exploration of the transformative power of friendship"--
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Female friendship; Cryptozoology; Women naturalists; Women explorers; Paid companions (Household employees); Beetles; British; Nineteen fifties;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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Queen of clubs : a novel / by Marsh, Beezy,author.;
1957, London. Gangland Queen Nell has the perfect life of crime as a top shoplifter by day and glamorous club owner by night. But a betrayal and botched robbery suddenly reverse her fortunes ... and her old rival, Alice Diamond, is hell-bent on taking her down. After escaping a poverty-stricken childhood, nightclub dancer Zoe has more on her mind than settling scores for Alice. But the life of luxury Zoe craves comes at a terrible price. And when a vicious gang tightens its grip on Soho, all three women realise it pays to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. When the fight to save your family becomes a fight for survival, there is no honour among thieves.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Novels.; Female offenders; Gangs; Nightclubs; Nineteen fifties; Survival; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The forgotten letters of Esther Durrant / by Nunn, Kayte,author.;
Includes bibliographical references.1951. Esther Durrant, a young mother, is committed to an isolated mental asylum by her husband. Run by a pioneering psychiatrist, the hospital is at first Esther's prison but soon surprisingly becomes her refuge. 2018. Free-spirited marine scientist Rachel Parker embarks on a research posting in the Isles of Scilly, off the Cornish coast. When a violent storm forces her to take shelter on a far-flung island, she discovers a collection of hidden love letters. Captivated by their passion and tenderness, Rachel determines to track down the intended recipient. But she has no idea of the far-reaching consequences her decision will bring. Meanwhile, in London, Eve is helping her grandmother, a renowned mountaineer, write her memoirs. When she is contacted by Rachel, it sets in motion a chain of events that threatens to reveal secrets kept buried for more than sixty years.
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Historical fiction.; Grandmothers; Islands; Love-letters; Nineteen fifties; Psychiatric hospital patients; Reminiscing in old age; Secrecy; Women marine scientists; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Dam busters : Canadian airmen and the secret raid against Nazi Germany / by Barris, Ted,author.; Mansbridge, Peter,writer of foreword.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.May 16, 1943, was a night that changed WWII. Nineteen Lancaster bombers filled with 133 hand-picked and specially trained airmen took off on a night mission code-named Operation Chastise; their targets - the Ruhr River dams - whose massive water reservoirs powered Nazi Germany's military industrial complex. This mission cost the lives of fifty-three airmen, including fourteen Canadians. Based on personal accounts, flight logs, maps and photographs of the Canadians involved, 'Dam Busters' recounts the dramatic story of these young Commonwealth bomber crews.
Subjects: Great Britain. Royal Air Force. Squadron, 617; Operation Chastise, 1943.; Air pilots, Military; Air pilots, Military; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945; Dams;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Katheryn Howard, the scandalous queen : a novel / by Weir, Alison,1951-author.;
"Bestselling author and acclaimed historian Alison Weir tells the tragic story of Henry VIII's fifth wife, a nineteen-year-old beauty with a hidden past, in this fifth novel in the sweeping Six Tudor Queens series. In the spring of 1540, Henry VIII, desperate to be rid of his queen, Anna of Kleve, first sets eyes on the enchanting Katheryn Howard. Although the king is now an ailing forty-nine-year-old measuring fifty-four inches around his waist, his amorous gaze lights upon the pretty teenager. Seated near him intentionally by her ambitious Catholic family, Katheryn readily succumbs to the courtship. Henry is besotted with his bride. He tells the world she is a rose without a thorn, and extols her beauty and her virtue. Katherine delights in the pleasures of being queen and the power she has to do good to others. She comes to love the ailing, obese king and tolerate his nightly attentions. If she can bear him a son, her triumph will be complete. But Katheryn has a past of which Henry knows nothing, and which comes back increasingly to haunt her--even as she courts danger yet again"--
Subjects: Biographical fiction.; Historical fiction.; Catherine Howard, Queen, consort of Henry VIII, King of England, -1542; Queens;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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An unfinished love story : a personal history of the 1960s / by Goodwin, Doris Kearns,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 411-449) and index."Dick and Doris Goodwin were married for forty-two years and married to American history even longer. In his twenties, Dick was one of the brilliant young men of John F. Kennedy's New Frontier. In his thirties he both named and helped design Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and was a speechwriter and close advisor to Robert Kennedy. Doris Kearns was a twenty-four-year-old graduate student when selected as a White House Fellow. She worked directly for Lyndon Johnson and later assisted on his memoir ... The Goodwins' last great adventure involved finally opening the more than three hundred boxes of letters, diaries, documents, and memorabilia that Dick had saved for more than fifty years. They soon realized they had before them an unparalleled personal time capsule of the 1960s, illuminating public and private moments of a decade when individuals were powered by the conviction they could make a difference; a time, like today, marked by struggles for racial and economic justice, a time when lines were drawn and loyalties tested"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Goodwin, Doris Kearns.; Goodwin, Richard N.; Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973.; Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963.; Kennedy, Robert F., 1925-1968.; Nineteen sixties.; Speechwriters;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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