Colonial Sydney in the final weeks of the nineteenth century: a city striving for union and nationhood but dogged by divisions so deep they threaten to derail, not just the Federation, but the colony itself. There are chasms opening too when a clandestine note reaches the wrong hands in the well-to-do household of aspiring politician Alasdair Dunlevy and his wife Eleanor. Below stairs, their maid Alice faces a desperate situation with her wayward sister.Despite sharing a house, Eleanor, Alice and Alasdair are each alone in their torment and must each find some solution, but at what cost to themselves and those they love? Evocative, immediate and involving, this is the sweeping story of three people, their passions and ambitions, and the far-flung ripples their choices will cause.

Nothing will poison the present like lies from the past. Sisters Charlotte and Jennifer have a history of "amusing" misunderstandings about attempted suicide. Their granny, Bertha, is wrapped in memories of London in the 1920s, when she and her sister, Jemima, brought new meaning to betrayal. Bridging the two, Bertha's daughter, Deirdre, is shaped by the night a Nazi bomb destroyed the entire street, and uncovered one of those poisonous lies.

'Maggie Joel's The Safest Place in London is a beautifully written exploration of desperation and hope in a time of war. The novel captures the essence of the era with subtlety and style, while the shifting new world pushes characters to extreme lengths. A remarkable story of family, survival and how one decision can change lives for better or worse.' - Jane Harper, author of The DryOn a frozen January evening in 1944, Nancy Levin, and her three-year-old daughter, Emily, flee their impoverished East London home as an air raid siren sounds. Not far away, 39- year-old Diana Meadows and her own child, three-year-old Abigail, are lost in the black-out as the air raid begins. Finding their way in the jostling crowd to the mouth of the shelter they hurry to the safety of the underground tube station. Mrs Meadows, who has so far sat out the war in the safety of London's outer suburbs, is terrified - as much by the prospect of sheltering in an Eastend tube...

South Kensington, London, 1953. Mrs Harriet Wallis is found guilty of the murder of her husband, Cecil, and becomes the second-last woman in England to be hanged. From this dramatic beginning, the story moves back a year and, detail by detail, the events that culminate in the demise of a wealthy and happy family are revealed. It was one year earlier that the new nanny arrived, a woman who is still recovering from the death of her entire family when a V2 rocket struck their East London home. It was a year ago, too, that the Wallises received a visit from police officers investigating shady dealings at Cecil's shipping firm, casting doubts on Cecil's reputation and traditional code of behaviour. It was a year ago that Harriet's life is first thrown into turmoil by the reappearance of a man she did not expect to ever see again and for whose safety she is gravely concerned. Set in a post-war period when a well-to-do British family's existence - both outside and inside the house -...

A captivating drama of family secrets and tragedies.It is London, 1880, and Lucas Jarmyn struggles to make sense of the death of his beloved youngest daughter; his wife, Aurora, seeks solace in rigid social routines; and eighteen-year-old Dinah looks for fulfilment in unusual places. Only the housekeeper, the estimable Mrs Logan, seems able to carry on.A train accident in a provincial town on the railway Lucas owns claims the life of nine-year-old Alice Brinklow and, amid the public outcry, Alice's father, Thomas, journeys to London demanding justice. As he arrives in the Capital on a frozen January morning his fate, and that of the entire Jarmyn family, will hinge on such strange things as an ill-fated visit to a spiritualist, an errant chicken bone and a single vote cast at a board room meeting.Written with charm, humour and rich period detail, Maggie Joel has created an intriguing novel of a Victorian family adrift in their rapidly changing world.