Jessica Blair: 28 books

When Emily Thornton discovers a will linked with the murder of a sea captain in Hull in the 1860's, she is determined to discover what happened - but a vital witness is missing. So, Emily enlists the help of Thomas Laycock, a young man who has come to Hull to open his own detective agency. As...

Whitby farmer, John Dugdale, is involved with a local band of smugglers, seeing it as an easy and harmless way of making money. But John is shocked when Mark Roper - his daughter Emma's childhood sweetheart - turns up on a secret mission for the local excise officer. Emma is forced to face...

When Sam Harland returns a World War I hero to St Robin's Bay on the Yorkshire coast, he brings with him a French wife. He hopes that she will be accepted by the villagers, but one person, Mary Lawson, can never forgive what she sees as the ultimate betrayal. When Jean Lawson and Colin Harland...

When John Mitchell inherits property from a distant relative, he and his family move from a comfortable living in Whitby to a large country estate in Cornwall. It seems an ideal place for John and his wife to raise their young daughter, Abigail. However, life in the South is not without its problems...

Recently widowed, Katherine Chambers takes her young son to visit her husband's family when disaster strikes. The ship they are sailing on runs into a severe storm off Robin Hood's Bay on the Yorkshire Coast. Among the bodies on the beach, a survivor is found. Identified as Katherine from the engraving...

Whitby 1901. Sarah Brook has kept diaries for most of her life. Now eighty-five and at the end of her own journey, she allows her favourite great-niece Esther to read them. But while full of Sarah's thoughts and dreams, and family stories, the diaries also hold dark family secrets about the past,...

Young David Feernley is determined to escape the drudgery of his life as a Yorkshire farmhand. Setting off for the coast, his aim is to join the whaling fleet at Whitby, to earn his living on the stormy and icy Arctic seas. Although he has few sailing skills, a Captain soon recognises his worth -...

French-born Marie Gabin forms a friendship with Veronica Attwood in their final two years at school, but this is tested when Marie is forced to disclose a secret to her friend. In the shadow of this revelation, the girls grow up on a country estate in North Yorkshire. The First World War takes its...

A story of seafaring men and the women who love them, by the author of "The Red Shawl". Captain David Fernley has made and lost a fortune in the whaling trade, fishing the frozen Arctic wastes from the Yorkshire port of Whitby. Then his erring wife and best friend die in an accident at sea.

Olivia Coulson is pretty and determined enough to attract any man's eye. George Chilton-Brookes, heir to the Cropton estate, is visibly enchanted by her, while handsome gentleman farmer Kit Fernley is also drawn to her looks and vivacity. Olivia wavers between her two suitors, eventually inclining...

Struggling artist Richard is persuaded by his benefactor to leave his home town for the grand salons of London. He is encouraged to paint the beautiful Charlotte's portrait, and in doing so, the couple begin to fall in love. But Charlotte is married to an older man, who cares for her deeply. How can...

At the age of eighteen, Alice Ware is pretty, charming and impetuous. Back home in Yorkshire at the start of a new century, she is determined to seize any fresh opportunities and experiences that come her way. The arrival of a new neighbour, the elegant and scandalous Mrs Emma Cheevey, leads...

When Britain declares war on Germany in 1939, Carolyn Maddison is still a schoolgirl. Her elder brother Alastair wastes no time in joining the RAF as a flying officer, and Carolyn decides that when she is eighteen she will follow him into the service by joining the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. While...

Selected as one of NPR's Best Books of 2016, this book offers superior learning tools for teachers and students, from A to Z. An explosive growth in research on how people learn has revealed many ways to improve teaching and catalyze learning at all ages. The purpose of this book is to present...