Peter Ackroyd
The Lambs Of London

Mary Lamb is confined by domesticity, the only solace of her life being her brother Charles. But he feels equally constrained by the drudgery of his work at the East India Company, taking refuge in drink while spreading his wings as a writer. Sometimes, in the evenings, they study together. Mary reads what Charles reads. So it is no surprise that Mary should fall for the bookseller's son, seventeen-year-old antiquarian William Ireland, from whom Charles has purchased a book.

Charlotte Bingham
Daughters Of Eden

Daughters of Eden focuses on the fortunes of four young women at the outbreak of the Second World War. Marjorie, left at a boarding school; plain Poppy, pushed into marriage with a mean-spirited aristocrat; Kate, determined to prove herself; and man-mad Lily, who turns out to be the bravest of them all. That all of them are chosen to work undercover for the espionage unit at a stately home is a surprise. At Eden Park they become involved with three unusual young men

Even after the resounding triumph of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte could persuade no-one to publish The Professor, her first novel. This story of William Crimsworth, who goes to Brussels to seek his fortune, falls in love with Frances, a schoolteacher and lace-maker, and is himself pursued by Mlle Reuter, is a subtle self-made man and his relationships in a society that worships property7 and propriety.