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The Hounds of Diana - The Romulus and Remus Trilogy - Part I
Alba Longa is the ancient capital of Latium, on the Italian peninsula. The Roman Empire was born from this great city. However, behind the glory of what Rome became is a darker tale of secrecy, betrayal and death. Numitor is a good man and a great diplomat; his brother Amulius an envious plotter and brave conqueror. Their struggle for power will bring out the best of one and the worst of the other. Only one can be king. Rhea Silva (Lillia) is the daughter of Numitor, her first son will become heir to the throne. Her life is thrown into turmoil by events out of her control, putting her and her twin boys in mortal danger. The Hounds of Diana are the secret sect that protects the realm from within. Yet, there are those that would undermine it. Then, there are the Dormienti, the sleepers. Only when the Hounds call, do the Dormienti awaken, and only when death desires it.
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The German Iscariot
The German Iscariot........... ...............follows RAF pilot Martin Cohen’s escape from Menzenschwand German Prison Camp, taking him to the British Embassy in a neutral Switzerland intent on profit by financing the Wehrmacht war machine. Master of four languages and mentored by MI6, Martin is secreted at the Berne Embassy as an ‘illegal’, charged with investigating the disappearance of operatives from their ‘escape line’. There he uncovers fraud, rivalry and murder, just as the Russian victory at Stalingrad raises doubts on whether Germany will win. Frauleins interfere, brilliant detective work; Martin discovers that a Nazi convoy is to transfer looted gold from a Zurich to a Lucerne bank. He encourages the UK, Russian and US Ambassadors to unite and open a Second Front. The convoy is hi-jacked. Civilians are killed, and the Swiss President declares war on the UK. Colonel-General Strasser, (The German Iscariot) escapes death at the hi-jack; he plans vengeance and death to his enemies within and without the 3rd Reich.
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Napoleon: Uprising
Amidst the turmoil of chaos and revolution, a young Napoleon Bonaparte leaves the safety of his Corsican homeland to be thrust into the corruption of the French aristocracy as he pursues a career in the artillery. Facing riot and rebellion throughout France, Napoleon must fight to protect a society that sees him as an outsider. As the world threatens to crumble around him, Napoleon must prove himself in order to protect his family from those who would destroy all he loves. This outsider, shunned and despised, may well prove to be France’s only hope.
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Breaking the Flood
In Breaking the Flood, the first of four novels about the fall of Constantinople, Niccolo Gritti, a nineteen year-old scion of an aristocratic merchant dynasty in mid-15th century Venice, recounts his upbringing, his family’s impoverishment and his decision to take ship in a trading fleet to the eastern Mediterranean. Ambushed by corsairs, Niccolo is pressed as a galley slave. Soon, a fellow oarsman identifies himself as Demetrius Angelos, member of a distinguished military family in Constantinople. Demetrius is desperate to return there, threatened as his city is by the bellicose ruler of the Ottomans, Mehmet II. Eventually, the two young men escape the corsairs’ clutches and Niccolo decides to throw in his lot with Demetrius, journeying with him to the decayed Byzantine capital. At once, Bildungsroman and quest narrative, Breaking the Flood is both vivid and haunting, recreating a forgotten world with cinematic and at times hallucinatory clarity.
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Unusual and Unquestionable Service
Having survived near disaster at the battle of Fuentes d’Onoro, Fin Ross continues his adventures with the Horse Artillery as the army advances into Spain, having to overcome the rugged mountain landscape, as well as an army of deserters. Heading for the battle of Vitoria, Fin works with his trusted friend Thomo to bring the guns to their allotted position against the advancing enemy and has to come to terms with his respected captain being falsely arrested whilst yet again facing the man who hates him more than any other…
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The Wolves of the Radfan
War is not a pleasant business. People die, cut to ribbons by bullets, limbs blown off by mines and roadside bombs. Not just the soldiers, but the non-combatants: young women, the elderly and children. 1963 to 1967 saw Britain fighting in a hostile and arid country, trying to stem the expansion of communism in the Middle East. On the ground, the ordinary soldiers, infantry, gunners, engineers and armoured regiments did what the British soldier always does – getting on with the job come hell or high water! Bomber’s story is written from real-life experience. Although Bomber, the main character, is fictitious, he is based on a combination of many soldiers. Many of the events took place as described but with the storyteller’s licence when melting them together. The Wolves of the Radfan, the largest tribe that straddled the then-border between North and South Yemen, started the war and the British soldiers put paid to the Wolves in 1964, but then came the push by the communists from North Yemen and it was then the contest started in all the brutality that war produces. Many acts of great courage have not been mentioned in the book, especially in the period from 1963 to the end of 1964, perhaps someone else will write about that. Fact and fiction, fiction or fact? This is a story of a normal British infantryman who faced combat and it was nothing like he had ever imagined.
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The Southerly Curse (Before the Poet's Trap)
Adam Southerly, a young man who only realises the extent of his father's depravity after his parents are killed in a coaching accident, always knew his father was a tyrant, but did not realise the extent of his evil. With the help of his loyal manservant, Martin, Adam spends several years trying to right all the wrongs of his father, but the task becomes overwhelming. Adam is only a man and one man can only do so much. There are so many people waiting for him to fail, calling him the spawn of the Devil. He takes a wrong turn himself and finds he has reason to doubt his own sanity. Finally, he lets down the very people he wanted to protect but as he tells Martin, sometimes the people you least expect let you down.
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The Sand's Final Serenade
The ways of the old world are dying. Cowboys, pirates and many other ways of making a living are slowly being phased out in favour of progress as the last edges of the varied, violent and often bizarre world of Terralong are being explored as the world grapples with itself in deciding how to progress.
On the tail end of the 19th century, the world is changing with technology seeping through every crevice of this world. However, the majority of its inhabitants remain stubborn in clinging to nostalgia and tradition.
Meanwhile, others try to change around them. Among them is a marshal on a final push to conquer all of Terralong, a soldier seeking revenge and an optimistic tribesman determined to unite his people before facing annihilation in the ways of his ancestors.
Everyone within this brave new world now faces their own personal quests as they try to embrace the world of change about to be presented to them. But will they succeed before the world leaves them behind?
For nothing stops The Sand’s Final Serenade.
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The Despair of Life
Abdul was born into a privileged family with the opportunity to live a prosperous and successful life. After the untimely death of his mother, he is forced to live with his uncle in the capital city to pursue his studies. He joins politics to fight a dictatorial military regime, motivated by his father's assassination. He is wrongly arrested, tortured and jailed. With the help of his family, Abdul manages to escape from jail and seizes the first opportunity to get out of the country. With the hope of finding a better life in Europe, he embarks on a perilous journey past eagle-eyed border control police officers, through desert, jungle, and sea. When he finally enters Europe, he discovers that it is not quite the idyll he had envisaged. The Despair of Life is a story rich in culture, steeped in political turmoil and obsessed with survival. Amadou Sidibe provides intriguing insights into the lives and journeys of those who risk their lives every day in search of the European dream.
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The Boy from Kalimpong
This story is about a boy who grew up in Kalimpong at an approximate distance on a straight line as the crow flies 100 miles (162 kms) towards southeast of the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, amongst the Rong folks, Lepchas the autochthones, ‘Ronkup’, ‘Ronkum’, or ‘Rong’ people. Lepcha people designated as UN ancient tribe, native to the region; and their land ‘Mayel-Lyang’ once bordered further into Tibet, eastern Nepal, western Bhutan and as far south as Siliguri and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal and some parts of Duars than it does today.
Kalimpong part of Lepcha culture was the ridge where Mary and Nigel played happily with unabated joy until his sister, Mary Maung Taung Lai’s early, untimely death and Nigel Kenchinz Lai’s journey to America because of the impact of the 1960 Sino-Indian border war. Many Chinese Indians were stranded, declared stateless, homeless and their inability to get jobs in India caused them to move abroad. Nigel was fortunate to receive four scholarships, four from American universities and one from Canada.
Some parts of the story are true and some portions of this book have been developed that closely parallel the real events experienced by the author. The author and his sister were fascinated with the dragon ‘Thunder and Lightning’, where clouds burst into flashing lightning followed by a big thunder storm every monsoon season. Mr. Karamkurung was their common thread for connection.
Chris Ahoy was born in Kalimpong in 1939. He started at St. Joseph Convent, Kalimpong all girls’ school, co-educational school at Dr. Graham’s Homes, Victoria Boys’ School, Kurseong, St. Xavier’s College Calcutta (Kolkata), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur and University of California, Berkeley, California (UCB), where he received the coveted Regent’s Fellowship Award to complete his masters’ degree in nine months. Chris is a US citizen, served as Assistant Director and Campus Architect at UCB, Statewide Director for Systemwide of Higher Education in Alaska, Assistant Vice President Business and Finance and Director of Facilities Planning and Management at University of Nebraska central offices and finally Associate Vice President for Facilities Planning and Management at Iowa State University. Before retiring in 2010, his organization received the coveted State of Iowa, Iowa Recognition Performance Excellence (IRPE) 2009 Gold Award (State Baldrige Award). After retirement he continues to mentor and provide consulting in ‘Creating World-Class Organization’.
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The Awesome Lives of Tommy Twicer: Part One
The Awesome Lives of Tommy Twicer is my account of a secret that my bampy said must never be told except in time of dire emergency. Now is the time. I grew up in South East Wales in Penmaen near Oakdale in the Sirhowy Valley. Oakdale is a model village and it holds the most incredible secret that was wiped from the memory of all but a selected few. I am the latest of those few but now the secret must be revealed to maintain the integrity of a secret magical outpost named Abercwmzoo deep in the heart of the Sirhowy Valley from further development by Caerphilly County Borough Council. The story revolves around the amazing exploits of a very special young man who was born in Tuchola, Poland, on the stroke of midnight on December 31st, 1900. He was born Tomas Tomaschevski, a farm boy who had a dream. In 1914, World War One broke out and he left the family farm to make his fortune in Moscow but fate took him to St Petersburg and involvement in the Russian Revolution. He fled to Wales in fear of his and his sweetheart’s lives with the help of some heroic characters and makes his home in Oakdale where he assumes the name of Thomas. This is the first part of his awesome life in Poland and Russia up to his arrival in Wales. Please enjoy it and help save Abercwmzoo and preserve the beauty of the Sirhowy Valley.
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Spoils of War II - The Sicilian Adventures
Glenn looked up from the fantastical script he was reading. He was incredulous at this exciting adventure left by his war hero, granddad Victor, who passed away a year ago to the day. Glenn thought his last treasure hunt was the ultimate escapade until he read this crazy adventure of derring-do and sheer willpower to survive.
He had no idea his granddad had been a protagonist of the Sicilian Invasion and at the start of the liberation of Europe half a century before. This tale takes Victor and his pals through the battles of Sicily, the love story that was the foundation of his family, the recovery and hiding of more treasure and the final challenge to his grandsons to go and find it.
It leaves a tantalising prospect of glory, but can Glenn just take off? Of course he can! So, he reconvenes the gang and begins an adventure of passion, discovery, kidnapping and survival...
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