The Folks from Fowlers Bay

History is not always the exact truth but a narrative flavoured by the writer’s passion and background and the time when she or he lived. It is particularly true for southern Australia's history because it was put on paper by the colonialists. It is as if the history of Australia started then, and nothing happened before. Many past stories representing the history of aboriginal Australia are lost because its people died rapidly of infectious diseases, malnutrition and wars. Even these stories may not be the exact truth because they were told and re-told many times. But somewhere within the tales and the stories, there is a truth, and I have tried to find it. Behind the glamorous reports of Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin’s maritime exploits, one can find their humanity, aspirations and failures. The history of the people that lived along the South Australian coast from the Murray River, the Encounter Bay (Ramong to the Ramindjeri people), Kangaroo Island to Port Lincoln (Kallinyalla, the Place of Sweet Water, to the Barngarla people), and along the entire west coast of the Eyre Peninsula, is at best scanty. But there are stories—interesting stories—of whalers, escaped convicts and their lives among the aboriginal people. Here, I meld these stories together in a tale of love, adventure and imagination.

The Fallen

My name is Sath… My name is Sathariel, actually. I am one of those who people call ha-Satan. Yes, it means “adversary” in Aramaic and yes, it is “adversary of God”. But for some reason, everyone has forgotten that those who you nicknamed like this, were first and foremost the defenders of people, who stand by you before a Heavenly court. It was providence we didn’t choose. It was decided instead for us.

You, people, have given us many names, but none of them was correct, and you people, have given us functions completely unfamiliar to us. We were deities to you at first, then we became the outcasts. And we were Iyrin, the Watchers, who guard and protect you. And who decides if we’ve done our jobs well?

It would be foolish to make excuses now. Who am I to do this?

My name is Sathariel and it means “the one who is on the other side of God”. But I’m just an archivist who writes time. Every moment of time, from the beginning of time.

Who am I? I’m just one of the Brethren, one among two hundred of “the fallen”. But now... now I want to tell you our real story.

The Emperor's Marble Pavement

The Emperor’s Marble Pavement, the second of four novels about the fall of Constantinople, finds Niccolo Gritti and Demetrius Alexandrou plunged in the turmoil of a city on war’s brink, their friendship complicated by the presence of Theodora, Demetrius’ pious sister and the prostitute Cinnamon. Now in the Emperor’s service, Niccolo must make accommodation with an embattled Venetian merchant colony. The struggle between Constantine’s supporters and those who would appease the Ottomans climaxes in the infamous Service of Union in Hagia Sophia. Then Demetrius disappears, a victim of his peace-party enemies. Niccolo goes in pursuit and the friends are reunited in the Turkish court, under the cynical eye of Mehmet II. Here, courtesy of Nestor-Iskander, a Christian fanatic in the Sultan’s service, they witness the Ottoman siege train’s ominous preparations before fleeing back to Constantinople. In The Emperor’s Marble Pavement, the cross-currents of personal and historical destiny take on new turbulence.

The Emergence of Malaterre

In 2006, following successive years of low rainfall, the dark and mysterious Malaterre Estate begins to resurface from the depths of a bleak northern reservoir. Within weeks a human bone is found; a bone that defies all logic...
Historic researcher Naomi Wilkes is looking forward to a well overdue rest. Her marriage is good, she has a child on the way, and things have never looked brighter, but when she is called in to investigate the unusual occurrences at Malaterre, she has no idea that within weeks her life will be devastated by the tragic events that will unfold...

The Eagle and The Dove

Titus Flavius Vespasianus was a Roman emperor who reigned from 69 to 79 AD. The fourth and last in the ‘Year of the 4 Emperors’, he founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Empire for 27 years.

The empire was starting to enjoy 10 years of peace since Nero and, during this period, Rome had ambition. One of those ambitions was to return to the land of druids and blue painted warriors after years of complete oblivion. Britain was a ripe fruit ready to be easily harvested. Or was it?

Octavius Andreasius Salvinius, Praefectus Castrorum and third in command of Legion XX Valeria Victrix, embarked on an epic journey all around the Roman Empire, hoping to obtain his last victory laurels before leaving the army after more than 20 years of service fighting the enemies of Rome.

He recalls past disasters, overcoming appalling weather conditions, defeating feared tribes coming from the hills of Caledonia, avoiding falling into the trap of imperial politics, had been led by the most prestigious Roman generals whose names became legendary, who belong to history, and finally found unexpectedly love at the tender age of 50 years old.

The Darkness

Northern Ireland in 1971-72 is a time of extreme violence that tests the people and the security forces to their limits. A soldier turned terrorist sworn to kill his former comrades. Slaughter on the streets as bombs shatter the lives of the innocents.

Bomber Brown finds himself in the thick of the action. Sometimes with his elite recce platoon but often on his own, relying on his training and initiative to survive when faced with the man determined to kill him! Face to face, gun to gun! The survivor will be the one with the steady hand, deadliest aim, and the will to win!

“The dream was back and no matter how many times Bomber shot the man he couldn’t kill him. He just had to watch the man's mouth uttering words that he couldn’t hear!”

There was no escape from the dream, so Bomber screamed at God to help him!

The Dark Trilogy

A book that follows one man’s life might be an autobiography, but what is a book that traces the lives of two men?

The autobiography which makes up the longest book of the trilogy holds the two histories of one man displaced by several hundred years, histories which interweave and come together in the Welsh mountains in the present day. And a part of one of those lives is traced further in the play for voices which makes up the second volume. Book three brings our characters to a resolution of kinds.

Chris Armstrong has blended fact and fiction to create a complex story with many strands... a story of the sea, a story of passionate love, a story about a writer and poet, a story about his friend and editor, and a story about the past: a past that the writer only understands completely at the very end of his anabasis – his journey away from the sea.

The Dance of Darkness

Time had not died.

It was still flowing like her blood.

Her mind had become what it had endured and more; for now, with the dust, she saw butterflies floating in her room – here, there, everywhere.

Infused with lyricism and the romantic aura of pre-colonial India, The Dance of Darkness is a story about a bewildered town with only women, girls and hijras. Raised as dancers and lovers, the girls Surma, Parveen, and Dilchasp traverse through their usual routines until the presence of one man triggers all that the town has ever wished for – love and freedom. 

The Dagger and the Rosary

Sicily in 1693 is recovering from a devastating earthquake and struggling under the oppression of the Spanish Inquisition. Raids from Barbary pirates menace the coastline, while European Princes plot against each other. Meanwhile, the sixteen-year-old Bernardo has been brought up in an isolated Benedictine Abbey since being orphaned seven-years before. Now an unexpected journey will introduce him to this chaotic and often cruel world, where his faith will be tested.

Rescuing a young girl, Agata, from Barbary pirates will reveal his presence to an old family enemy, as well as introducing him to a secret brotherhood, and to the confusion of adolescent love. However, as love deepens, the petite Agata does not remain a victim for long, growing into a beautiful woman and determined avenger. Family secrets and desperate journeys threaten to tear them apart but will ultimately lead them both to find out what is most important in life.

The Caledonians

Scottish history master Mr Petrie has the gift of eternal life. Working for a group of mystical superior beings, his time-travelling missions land him in all sorts of death-defying scrapes and encounters, sometimes with famous and ruthless people. To help him in his dangerous work, he's told to find a young apprentice. Duncan Dewar could be a candidate but has his own secrets too, and without realising it, their lives are indelibly linked.

The Blighted Road

The Blighted Road is a 17^th-century story of two women’s harrowing journeys through plague and a brutal witch-hunt. Orla, renowned healer and mid-wife in rural England, confronts stillbirths and a mysterious, deadly sickness afflicting her community. The local superstitious people suspect these sinister events are the actions of the Devil. Desperate for answers, Orla’s investigation into past plague outbreaks reveal a shocking correlation with the harvesting of blighted grain. Her revolutionary findings lead to accusations of witchcraft. Meanwhile, Abigail, a young Londoner faces the horror of life in the plague-ridden city. After losing her family to the Black Death, Abigail escapes the locked gates of London. She flees on the plague road to Salisbury, which is fraught with danger and despair.

The separate tales of these women weave in and out as they reach a time and place where they are united by grief, loss and an uncanny will to survive.

The Apricot Tree

The flames crept up the curtains like a swarm of tongues. They curled and stretched into the rafters, and like a marauding army, the flames swept across the roof.

Outside the Van Vuuren sisters watched this cruel act of war. The roof collapsed along with the Van Vuuren heritage and the Van Vuuren dreams.

In 1899 the mighty British Empire declared war on two small Boer Republics in South Africa. The war was expected to last a matter of months, but it took almost three years for the Empire to claim its victory. It changed lives, challenged loyalties and divided families. 28,000 women and children were to die in the British concentration camps.