Penguin Home Fires and Spitfires Styles Daisy

Three mothers. Three very different backgrounds. And a bond they will never forget • The Lake District, 1944. Spring is in the air for the women at Mary Vale Mother and Baby Home • Beautiful Stella, the head-turning cook of a munitions factory, has been swept off her feet by a handsome GI. He proposes when she falls pregnant, but soon his letters stop arriving • Then there is Lillian, who is deeply unimpressed when she is conscripted as a Land Girl miles from her home, but then she meets a charming, married vet • Meanwhile, midwife Ada is getting used to being back at work after the birth of her own beautiful baby girl. But she faces the biggest challenge of her life when the home is engulfed in an outbreak of whooping cough • Though each woman is from a different walk of life, only together can they help Mary Vale come through this crisis

It's 1944 and Britain is a country at war. The young women of the Phoenix munitions factory are giving their all to the cause, but romance is beckoning • The life of a Bomb Girl isn't usually glamourous. But Maggie is getting married, so she is going to make sure her wedding day is - even if she does have to spend every other day slaving on the factory floor • This blasted factory was not what Julia had in mind either. She had always dreamed of attending Oxford University rather than getting her hands dirty and the easy laughter of the other women intimidate her terribly • But they are all here together in this munitions factory in a Lancashire mill town, sharing firsts, pitching in and getting on. Despite rationing, dangerous hard work and new situations these Bomb Girls are going to do their best at work, and in love

In the dark days of war a new hope is born • 1939 • Mary Vale, a grand and imposing Mother & Baby Home, sits on the edge of the Lake District. Its doors are open to unmarried women who come to hide their condition and find sanctuary • Women from all walks of life pass through Mary Vale, from beautiful waitress Emily, whose boyfriend has vanished without trace, to young Isla, cast out by her wealthy family after her first year at university goes horribly wrong • Awaiting them is Nurse Ada and Sister Anne who work tirelessly to aid the mothers and safely deliver the babies. But the unforgiving Matron and Head of Governors, Captain Percival, have other, more sinister, ideas • As war looms the women at Mary Vale must pull together for the sake of themselves and their babies and Ada and Anne must help protect their patients, no matter what the cost

The heartwarming and moving new Wartime Midwives story of three brave women's fight to protect their shelter for mothers and their children . . . Perfect for fans of Katie Flynn, Nancy Revell and Call the Midwife • Lake District, 1942. The women at Mary Vale Mother and Baby Home must pull together during their darkest hour • But Sybil would rather be anywhere else. She hoped to spend the season in London when an unexpected pregnancy soon put an end to those plans • While poor Rosie arrives with her two children in tow - their lives torn apart after their house was bombed • And when new midwife Edith joins it's clear she has her own secrets to hide • Then one day Mary Vale faces the ultimate threat - requisition by the army - and the mothers and midwives must find comfort and friendship in one another

Can four girls protect a whole country? • It's 1941 and the country has been turned upside down. For the aristocratic Walsingham family this means being pushed unceremoniously upstairs while their grand home is taken over by the Army. But for newcomers Ava and Maudie this is a chance to get something more from life. They are at Walsingham Hall to become code girls and break German encryptions • So being sent downstairs to work in the kitchens isn't exactly what they had in mind. But they do their duty, make new friends and soon even romance looks to be on the horizon. Though life is tough, it has never been more exciting • Meanwhile, upstairs, Lord Walsingham is hiding something. And Maudie and the girls realize that the safety of their country might actually be in their hands after all

In the Phoenix Munitions Factory everyone has their secrets • As WWII rolls across Europe, Kitty boards a ship set for England; leaving her cruel father for war work in a munitions factory. She hadn't wanted to leave Ireland, but the money sounded too good to resist. And money is what she really needs right now, what with tiny baby Billy back in Dublin without a father • In Lancashire Kitty settles into the hard work and soon makes new friends; the dazzling Gladys who is a talented musician, and the beautiful but nervous Violet who seems to be nursing a secret of her own. And then there is motherly Edna at the local chippy, always there for a cup of tea and a good natter when she yearns for home • Working hard in the day and playing in the Bomb Girls Swing Band by night, on the surface, life seems to be looking up

In times of trouble, can wishes come true? • A factory floor might not be their first choice of a place to spend Christmas but pulling together and making do is exactly where the Bomb Girls shine • Gladys, back from singing for the troops in Europe, quietly takes her place on the cordite line. Her old friends are determined to bring back her spark while they work hard to help their country • But what dark secret lies in Gladys's heart? • Will the girls see out another year in a country at war? • And, if everyone does their bit, despite the worry, pain and toil, will the Bomb Girls be able to enjoy a wonderful Christmas for all?

The extraordinary early life in India and England of one of the world's leading public intellectuals • Where is 'home'? For Amartya Sen, home has been many places - Dhaka in modern Bangladesh, the little university town of Santiniketan, where he was raised as much by his grandparents as by his parents, Calcutta where he first studied economics and was active in student movements, and Trinity College, Cambridge, to which he came aged 19 • Sen brilliantly recreates the atmosphere in each of these. He remembers his river journeys between Dhaka and his parents' ancestral homes and wonderfully explores the rich history and culture of Bengal. In 1943 he witnessed the disastrous unfolding of the Bengal Famine, and the following year the inflaming of tensions between Hindus and Muslims

In Home Francis Pryor, author of The Making of the British Landscape, archaeologist and broadcaster, takes us on his lifetime's quest: to discover the origins of family life in prehistoric Britain • Francis Pryor's search for the origins of our island story has been the quest of a lifetime. In Home, the Time Team expert explores the first nine thousand years of life in Britain, from the retreat of the glaciers to the Romans' departure. Tracing the settlement of domestic communities, he shows how archaeology enables us to reconstruct the evolution of habits, traditions and customs. But this, too, is Francis Pryor's own story: of his passion for unearthing our past, from Yorkshire to the west country, Lincolnshire to Wales, digging in freezing winters, arid summers, mud and hurricanes, through frustrated journeys and euphoric discoveries

Twenty years after making his fortune in America, Eel is drawn back to the closest thing he has to a home: the Piedmontese countryside where he grew up poor and illegitimate. Wandering the valleys and vineyards with his childhood friend Nuto, Eel remembers the farm where he worked, his employer's beautiful daughters, the rituals of rural life. Yet as he discovers more about what happened there during the war, he realizes that these timeless landscapes hide terrible, savage secrets. By turns fond and evocative, seductive and troubling, The Moon and the Bonfires is a lyrical masterpiece of memory and betrayal

Oskar Shell is a clever nine year old boy. When his father is killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th 2001, Oskar wants to learn the secret about a key that he discovers in his father's closet. His search takes him on a journey through New York and into the lives of strangers and relatives. But will it bring him any closer to his lost father? Penguin Readers is a series of popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction written for learners of English as a foreign language. Beautifully illustrated and carefully adapted, the series introduces language learners around the world to the bestselling authors and most compelling content from Penguin Random House. The eight levels of Penguin Readers follow the Common European Framework and include language activities that help readers to develop key skills

A new Penguin edition of Ibsen's two great verse plays, in masterful versions by one of our greatest living poets, Geoffrey Hill • These two powerful and contrasting verse dramas by Ibsen made his reputation as a playwright. The fantastical adventures of the irrepressible Peer Gynt - poet, idler, procrastinator, seducer - draw on Norwegian folklore to conjure up mountains, kidnappings, shipwrecks and trolls in an exuberant examination of truth and the self; while Brand, an unsparing vision of an idealistic priest who lives by his steely faith, explores free will and sacrifice. This volume brings together the poet Geoffrey Hill's acclaimed stage version of Brand with a new poetic rendering of Peer Gynt, published for the first time • This Penguin edition includes an interview with Geoffrey Hill about recreating Ibsen in English, an introduction by Janet Garton and editorial materials by Tore Rem