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The Pink War
The Pink War boldly explores the compelling intersection of love, loyalty, and courage amid the brutal backdrop of World War II. Follow two working-class men as they answer their nation’s call, battling against the forces of Nazism and Fascism across North Africa, Italy, and Western Europe. As soldiers, they earn their stripes and prove their mettle. Yet, beyond the battlefield, they face an equally formidable challenge: concealing their illicit love for each other in a time when same-sex relationships are condemned. This gripping tale uncovers the complexities of love in a world at war, offering a poignant tribute to devotion and friendship under the most trying of circumstances.
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The Pearl of Saint-Sulpice
In the Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, there is a holy water font. It was made of a shell of the giant clam, Tridacna gigas. I often wondered where it came from because these clams are only found far away from Europe. I found it intriguing that the shell already arrived in France in the early sixteenth century as a gift from the Venetian Republic to King Francis I. Where did it come from? What story could such a shell tell? What thoughts did the sculptor, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle have when he carved the beautiful column upon which the shell rests? What is its religious significance? Only a few pearls from giant clams are believed to exist, and their origins are shrouded in mystery. Is there a pearl somewhere belonging to this clam? It will have to be the Pearl of Saint-Sulpice, alias the Pearl of Allah. The pearl took me on an unexpected adventure to the French Revolution and before, to a1964 scientific meeting where the descendants of the secret league of the Scarlet Pimpernel unites and onwards to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in1974 where I faced the prowess and strength of the guardians of Aphrodite in the Troodos Mountains. Join me if you dare.
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The Ox Is Slow
The Ox Is Slow
This is a tale of two families and it is here where the similarity ends.
From the 15th and 16th centuries, the Belmont family culture had been based on military leadership, with its aristocratic identity conventions.
In 1830, Pierre Belmont was acting as a military advisor to the French court of King Louis Phillippe. Satisfied with their lifestyles, he could envisage no serious alteration to his and his family’s way of life.
At that time, John Marshall and his wife Caroline were living in England, near a small Norfolk village named Walpole St. Peter. Born into poverty, John was an itinerant farm labourer, unable to read or write, with only a basic understanding of arithmetic.
He, like Pierre Belmont, could see no reasons for his or Caroline’s existence to change or improve.
But, eleven centuries before, an ancient Phoenician proverb began to sew the threads of a human fabric that would have been beyond the imagination of both these men.
It was known as the Y Aphorism.
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The Night Staffer
Wyatt starts work as a night staffer at the local Boy’s Home. He hopes it may be a stepping stone to a career as a social worker.
Fifteen-year-old petty offender Jai is taken to the Home after he is caught for a burglary that goes horribly wrong. Wyatt, who processes his admission, is the first staff member Jai meets.
Wyatt is an accomplished musician and most nights, once the boys are in bed, he sits in the night staff office and plays the guitar. It can be heard from the dormitories and helps to keep the boys settled. Jai also plays the guitar and he is intrigued when he hears his favourite tune Shuffle Rag. He sees an opportunity to learn it.
The two eventually form a bond around their shared love of music.
The Boys Home is a dynamic, volatile, and challenging environment. Both Jai and Wyatt need to find their place and learn how to survive.
As time passes, they experience a series of events that will significantly shape their futures.
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The New Covenanters – Part I
In The New Covenanters – Part I: The Rising Tide, journey back to the tumultuous first century of the Christian Era – a time that reshaped the destinies of Rome and Judaea. This captivating historical narrative plunges readers into an era marked by the crucifixion of Jesus, the fervent struggles of the Jews under Roman rule, and the heartrending destruction of Jerusalem’s Second Temple.
The tale revolves around the enigmatic Josephus Flavius, once known as Joseph ben Matthias. From his days as a gallant commander of Jewish forces in Galilee during the Great Revolt to his transformation into a historian and witness to Jerusalem’s fall, his story is intricately intertwined with the seismic events of his time. Drawing from meticulous research and the writings of Josephus himself, The Rising Tide not only brings to life an epoch of monumental change but also introduces readers to the people and passions that fuelled it. Experience history’s turning tides and the birth of profound legacies in this mesmerizing first instalment.
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The Munich Pursuit
Fiction based on fact, this a story of the search by the Germans and British to establish how far the other has reached in the development of a jet-engined fighter plane prior to WW2. In UK, the Germans use a dissident South-African-born engineer who lost both parents in the Boer War and harbours a resentment against the British government. Dogged police work eventually exposes him. In Germany, the British lose their experienced agent and are forced to use two reserve officers to fill the gap. The two are discovered by the German Security Forces in the act of taking photographs. They are forced to flee across Germany and France with their information, the Germans in hot pursuit. The German Security operatives have orders to kill them and retrieve the photographs. The Munich Crisis of 1938 with the threat of war causes travel chaos and in part, hinders both sides in the pursuit.
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The Monkshead Conspiracy
In 1864, a band of monks from an obscure religious branch move into Chadkirk near Manchester, England, and within weeks, children start to go missing.
In 2009, a minor earthquake near Manchester exposes a huge wooden beam with a sinister and intriguing inscription on it and at the same time, a series of unusual and unsettling incidents begin to occur in a wood nearby.
Historic researcher Naomi Wilkes is called in to investigate and she has no idea of the horror she will uncover.£3.50 -
The Measure
One early winter’s morning, a teenage boy is found lying outside the gates of a monastery. The monks take him in, and eventually, in terrible distress, he tells them that he has killed his father. This story follows the life of the boy’s father and the discovery the boy makes about his father’s past.
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The Man who Stole Midnight
In 1868, William Standing, a man shadowed by his history, is forced into thievery, taking a majestic horse that is half mustang, half Arabian. He returns to an unspeakable tragedy: his sister’s homestead ravaged by the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, a tribe notorious for their fearsome warfare, leaving only the children taken captive. Driven by desperation, Standing tracks the Cheyenne, witnessing the aftermath of their raids.
In an unexpected confrontation, Standing proves his mettle, rescuing the children but surrendering the black horse to his adversaries. Just as hope dawns, the horse’s original owners emerge, leading to Standing’s harsh sentencing: twenty years in Georgia Penitentiary. His escape sparks a relentless search for the scattered children, now with distant kin.
Joining Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show offers Standing a guise to move from town to town, yet the Pinkertons’ pursuit is unyielding. His quest is a tumultuous ride through the heart of a man’s indomitable spirit and the wild tapestry of the American frontier.
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The Lure of Eden
1836 - A young woman becomes a Governess to Count Vorontsov in a palace on the Black Sea, where she falls in love with the palace gardener.
Only when she is forced to flee from the brewing Crimean War does she become truly aware of the lurking malevolence that has ebbed beneath the tranquil veneer of palace life.
Mary-Ann and James are forced by Mary-Ann’s Governess contract to postpone their marriage, in an atmosphere tainted by jealous rivalries.
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The Long Dark Trail
The Long Dark Trail is an epic, centuries-spanning saga of American life, covering various generations of the Allen family, from their humble origins in England to their friendship with the neighboring Green family and beyond. The two families’ reactions to black emancipation could not be more different: while the Greens choose to give their land away to their former slaves, the Allens remain wedded to the past. By the middle of the twentieth century, the family patriarch Bob Allen continues to pursue his vicious hatred of people of color, even as the ground starts to shift beneath his feet…
This extraordinary novel provides a soul-searching account of America’s miraculous, complex history, recounting the triumphs and despairs of generations of white and black Americans joined together by slavery and its aftermath. The country’s changing racial landscape is reflected in the fortunes of the book’s main protagonist, Bob Allen’s daughter Elizabeth, and her biracial “dream son” Jesse.
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The Life of Riley
Set in the backstreets of North London in the early 1900s, The Life of Riley is drawn from the diary of Lily Plant, the author’s grandmother. Combining fiction with meticulous research into the landscape of London in this period, the author has painted a colourful and moving tale of poverty and love, alcoholism and kindness. This is a world in which families live in two rooms, four families share a house and hunger is the norm. This is the story of Ray Riley, from childhood to adult life. It will make you laugh, and probably make you cry, and it will make you realise how lucky you are.
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