-
Let’s Go Sit Under the Mango Tree
Singapore in 1942 saw the greatest defeat of the British and Allied forces of WW2. Much has been written about the terrible time endured by the 85,000 troops who surrendered to the Japanese forces on 15 February 1942. Much less has been written about the circumstances surrounding the many civilians caught up in the fighting and subsequently interned or forced to endure occupation.
Such was the speed with which the Japanese captured the Island that little time was given to removing resources that may assist them in furthering their aim of creating an Asian empire. One example is the fact that the island had become the centre for all the gold reserves of the Malay States and Singapore. The Japanese knew this and for nearly four years searched the island for the gold. To this day some of this gold may still be at large as no one ever kept a record of what gold was on the island and how much was consumed in paying the cost of the subsequent guerrilla warfare.
£3.50 -
Letters to Doberitz
This unique and compelling story has laid dormant for a 100 years. Inspired by real events and based on my own family during the First World War, Letters to Doberitz is set between a German prison-of-war camp, the battlefields of France and family back in Bristol, as father and son endure very different wars. These were real people. They are my ancestors and family who left an extraordinary tale to be told. A lie is made in the name of love, with letters written compounding the deceit for years, all to protect the man that they loved. This is their truly unique story.
£3.50 -
La Palabra De Dios
La Palabra De Dios is the story of a Spanish priest sent on an errand in 1665, from Spain to Mexico to retrieve the religious artifact, La Cruz de Chiapas, to have it interred with its beneficiary, Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas, in Madrid, Spain. Along his journey he uncovers a plot to overthrow Charles II, the King of Spain, as well as being visited by Blessed Mother Mary, and given a special task by Jesus Christ to build a church in present-day Florida. Working with newfound friends, the priest helps temporarily thwart some of the actors in the plot to overthrow the king in the Caribbean while completing his assigned task and growing deeper in faith.
£3.50 -
Kingscourt
Kingscourt had been their home since the 16th century, a rambling country estate with immaculate gardens and rolling Devonshire hills. But one weekend leads to a misunderstanding which changes everyone’s lives.
Julian was a golden boy used to having his own way and whatever he wanted. He was in the throes of a passionate love affair, and that the lady was married did not trouble him at all, until his father’s discovery forced him to make a choice.
Billy was his carefree younger brother used to taking the blame for all his bad behaviour. Joining the Army had been his one ambition and leaving home matured him, but an untimely death and a decade of drifting ended with the Great War.
Simon was a career soldier who suddenly found the Army did not want a man with a broken knee. An unlikely friendship led him to a life he could never have imagined.
Grace loved her home and wanted everything to stay the same, but she knew marriage would mean leaving it forever. An unexpected death and a new arrival turned her life upside down, and the home she loved so much tested her in ways she could never have imagined.
War tested them all as casualty lists lengthened and staff shortages changed their leisured way of life. And one member of the family threatened to bring shame on them all with one wild escapade after another.
£3.50 -
James Grant
This story of James Grant, his family and the class they belong to is not of our time. That class still exists and its prosperity is unabated. But its position in the American national psyche is greatly diminished, its glitter dulled by the passage of time – and a change in the mores of society as a whole. But I have written it because I believe the foibles of the human heart and its redeeming strengths possess a universality which overcomes the angst of changing times. I have set the stage in an unfamiliar time to mine. Whether my characters that stride upon that cluttered stage would remain credible in a stark, modern setting, I cannot judge. I had no one in particular in mind in devising them. They are as the ghosts that populate our dreams – a compendium of hints and reflections of those who have crossed our consciousness in the ill-remembered past.
£3.50 -
Jack Wolf
You will be brothers, you will see death and destruction, you will be expected to run into fire when every other living thing runs away, you will work long shifts, days, nights, Saturdays, Sundays, high days and holidays, Christmas days and your birthdays. You will be injured and burned, and don’t kid yourself it won’t happen to you, it will. And consider this: On average two firemen are killed each year in service. You are expected to do this job for thirty years. Nobody wants to pay you decent wages, they will tell you that you sit around all day, play snooker and squirt water for a living. You will be like Cinderella… you will live, eat and sleep behind the red engine house doors and when called to serve, when the fire bell rings you will answer their call, their fear and their alarm. You will risk your life for a stranger, someone you never knew or will ever know and when the alarm has passed, when you are exhausted and done, you will return to the fire station, close those red engine house doors behind you and lick your wounds.
We are their insurance; they never want us, until they want us, then briefly, briefly, we are heroes.
£3.50 -
Ivanhoe Mill
Ivanhoe Mill is from a long ago period, it has characters of mixed interest, each section of the book has love, tragedy, plots of cruelty and devious problems that affect many of the community.
The Manor House, Cawston Hall, is the hub that controls the everyday life of the surrounding villages. The lord of the Manor is devious and cruel in his manipulation which is his quest to satisfy his selfishness.
There is a wide range of domestic and social activity that I hope gives you a great deal of interest to compliment the characters in the book. The writing and some of the flavour of the slang, I hope fits my interpretation that brings to life my portrayal of the people in the book.
£3.50 -
Isabella
Isabella is a novel of its time when life was hard and intimidating, often short and frequently brutal in the cause of making many rich men even richer on both sides of the Atlantic. Even so, there were more people willing to stand up to legislate for the cause in America just as happened in Great Britain 50 years earlier to help the oppressed escape to live a better life.
It is a story of love during the Civil War when unlikely people made individual efforts to play a part in overcoming slavery. The story alternates between gunrunning on the Eastern Seaboard, a rescued slave’s efforts to repay society in Boston and Canada and a wealthy young lady’s adventure up the Mississippi taking a young girl to Canada for safety and her involvement with the underground railway.
£3.50 -
Intuition Prevails
American, British, and other fighter pilots operate at the threshold of Artificial Intelligence (AI). They know that their lives depend not only on their skills, but equally on ‘intuition’. This is reinforced when cyber-attacks ‘high jack’ command-and-control systems. To date, the best pilots are superior to AI in tests, including in-flight combat simulations and field test. It is accepted that within a decade, AI will evolve from assisting pilots to replacing them. Meanwhile, pilots of USAF, USN, and the RAF are stretched as the conflicts across the globe draw them into danger. For the first time in history, USAF pilots and their families are threatened in the US. Exciting times!
£3.50 -
In the 'Nick' of Time
We follow one man on his journey from uniform constable on the beat into the Vice Squad and then into the CID, gaining confidence and experience on the way. Times in the 1960s were changing and with Britain prospering, the Force began to suffer from a lack of manpower, with officers leaving for better-paid jobs. As a result, new methods of policing were introduced, including personal radios and Panda Cars, which involved massive change for those officers which remained. The book sheds light on a way of policing society which has long since passed.
£3.50 -
In Search of a True World View
Will utopian teachings and totalitarian regimes shape the future of humanity? Ronald Fagerfjäll, nestor among Sweden’s financial journalists, does not believe that at all. Religions only reflect a bygone era when men guarded herds of cattle and young women became barter for creating bonds between clans. And totalitarian regimes were formerly the general norm because something better had yet to be invented. An infallible leader quickly stifles the ability of his subjects to solve problems.
The obsolete is cleared out as economic, technological, and cultural evolution continues relentlessly, driven by millions of change projects and billions of free citizens. In knowledge economies, neither feverish fantasies nor feudal structures fit in. We cannot know our future with any certainty, but still, we create it ourselves by solving one concrete problem after another.
What does an evidence-based history of humanity look like? Our biological development was first and foremost a result of a fierce struggle for survival higher up in the food chain, first as scavengers and then as hunters. It required ever better ability to cooperate as well as constant development of weapons and tools. The fact that some 40 ice ages and countless volcanic winters passed during millions of years pushed the early people close to extinction and accelerated cultural development.
From this eye of the needle came Homo Sapiens, a species which could meet the threat from nature with innovations, stories, and cultures. Fagerfjäll has been working on his history book for four decades, but it is only now, when researchers have been able to take a closer look at both the life itself and the history of the planet, that the tale has been completed.
For anyone who doubts humanity’s ability to deal with today’s problems, this is a vaccination against pessimism.
£3.50 -
In Green Pastures
In 1917, war rages on in Belgium and France, and German bombs fall on East London. Two sisters, Florence and Nell, living in Stratford, arrange to leave the city for the tranquillity of the North Essex countryside.
For Florence Mundy, fleeing personal demons and the imminent return of Harry, departure from London cannot come soon enough.
Nell Ashford has the safety of her five children on her mind while George is away at the Front.
In Halstead, lying peacefully in the Colne Valley, they find new challenges, friendship and pain as well as personal fulfilment. Florence discovers salvation and hard work in the newly formed Women’s Land Army while Nell takes on the role of breadwinner to her family.
But they cannot escape the consequences of the Great War and the arrival of German Prisoners of War changes the dynamics of Halstead life and Florence’s future prospects as the armistice approaches.
£3.50