Farthing (novel)

Farthing is an alternate history novel written by Jo Walton and published by Tor Books in August 2006. A sequel, Ha'penny, was released in October 2007 by Tor Books. A third novel in the series, Half a Crown, was released in September 2008, also from Tor, and a short story, "Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction", was published on Tor.com in February 2009.

The novel is set in the 1949 of an alternate history. Though the divergence point from actual history seems to be Rudolf Hess's flight to Scotland in May 1941, it is implied in the novel's sequel Ha'penny that the critical difference was the failure of the United States to provide aid to Britain in 1940. With Britain lacking American support, Hess's entreaties for peace negotiations were accepted, and have led to a peace between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany (against Winston Churchill's wishes), and to Britain withdrawing from World War II. The war continues mainly as a stalemate between Germany and the Soviet Union. The United States never became involved in the conflict, and Charles Lindbergh is president of a peaceful country seeking closer economic ties to the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

The novel was inspired by Walton's analysis of the setting of Josephine Tey's Brat Farrar.