Historical Manners

In Manners, Ralph Waldo Emerson expounds on the meaning of customs and politeness in civil society. He argues that the purpose of manners is more to facilitate the creation and proper working of society and not to establish hierarchies.

Politisch hoch brisant und menschlich herausfordernd: Kommissar Oppenheimer muss zwischen Ex-Nazis und Israelis vermitteln. Frühsommer 1952: Auf den westdeutschen Bundeskanzler Konrad Adenauer wird ein Briefbomben-Attentat verübt, das zum Glück vereitelt werden kann. Weil es Hinweise gibt, dass Adenauers Leben nach wie vor in Gefahr ist, schickt Ben-Gurion israelische Agenten nach Deutschland – das Abkommen soll um jeden Preis geschützt werden.

When Amy and Effie Tribble, two charming but impoverished spinster sisters, lose out on an inheritance, they place this advertisement in The Morning Post and hire themselves out as professional chaperones. Fiona has been sent to them by her guardians as a last resort, for at 19, the beautiful and wealthy Scottish heiress still has no prospect of a suitable marriage. The Tribbles are puzzled, however, by their charge's demure perfection, until they take her to her first ball and they are forced to confront the truth about her past!

1348: Auf der Flucht vor ihrem gewalttätigen Mann findet Gemma Schutz bei einer vermögenden Witwe...

María de Salinas, dama y fiel amiga de Catalina de Aragón, esposa de Enrique VIII, está en sus últimas horas. Ha compartido toda una vida con su desventurada reina y prima y, con ella, el destierro en un país, Inglaterra, lejos de la Castilla que la vio nacer. Hace tres años que la vio morir y ahora, demasiado enferma para viajar, escribe a su hija, Catherine Willoughby, la joven condesa de Suffolk, una carta en la que le cuenta su vida: una vida que no puede ser contada sin la de su reina y mejor amiga, Catalina de Aragón, hija menor de los Reyes Católicos.

England, September 1939: Lily Shepherd boards a cruise liner for a new life in Australia and is plunged into a world of cocktails, jazz and glamorous friends. But as the sun beats down, poisonous secrets begin to surface. Suddenly Lily finds herself trapped with nowhere to go.... Australia, six-weeks later: The world is at war, the cruise liner docks, and a beautiful young woman is escorted onto dry land in handcuffs. What has she done?

London, the 1720s. Welcome to Romeville, the underworld of that great city. The financial crash caused by the South Sea Bubble sees the rise of Jonathan Wild, self-styled Thief-taker General who purports to keep the peace while brutally controlling organised crime. Only two people truly defy him: Jack Sheppard, apprentice turned house-breaker, and his lover, the notorious whore and pickpocket Edgworth Bess.