Transcendence

Captured at Gallipoli on 25 April, 1915, Sergeant Berenger, an uncompromising professional soldier, escapes Turkish imprisonment. He enlists the assistance of three unlikely co-conspirators: Ali, a simple Arab boy forcibly drafted into the Ottoman army with his brother, Mohammad; and Avraham, a Jewish merchant, who determines his future is no longer with the Ottoman Empire. Pursued by the sadistic Tolga from the Turkish prison at Fort Kilitbahir, Berenger discovers the date of the Turkish counter-attack on ANZAC positions. Berenger must return to the ANZAC lines to deliver the intelligence that a massive Turkish counter-attack will commence on 19 May 1915; and he must slip through Mustafa Kemal's 57th Turkish Regiment in order to do so.

Treasures of War

Leningrad, 1941.

Germany’s Operation Barbarossa is tightening its noose around the city. The Neva River and Lake Ladoga freeze. Few supplies reach the city. Thousands suffer from cold and starvation.

Katuska and Nina Koslov, young daughters of a dedicated museum employee, shelter in the basement of the great Hermitage Museum—once the palace of Tsars. As insulation to meagre coats, their mother sews ‘found’ canvases into the linings.

Upon the death of their parents, the girls begin a new chapter in their lives with the hidden paintings cherished as mementos of parental love.

We accompany Katuska and Nina on an obstacle-filled journey through war and its challenging aftermath. We accompany the ‘found’ paintings, also known to some as ‘stolen art’, on journeys through Europe, England, the US and the Soviet Union.

Leaves in a Holocaust Wind

The Holocaust, the final solution for Jews, is infamous in history. Robert Dawson's Leaves in a Holocaust Wind is the story of another community that suffered in the Holocaust: the Gypsies. Told by Demeter Fox and Zuzzi, Leaves in a Holocaust Wind follows their journey to freedom in the German occupied territory of Slovakia. From the horrors of slaughter in the woods, the lies of a safe future, the concentration camp of Majdanek and the hiding away in the countryside, Fox and Zuzzi must come to terms with what they have witnessed and find the courage to survive until freedom comes. It is a novel of the playful mind-set and culture of the Romanies in the face of a most brutal regime, and in which most of the major events are based on real incidents.

Spitfire Spies

Summer 1940 - Great Britain is in grave peril. With the ‘phoney' war turning into a very real war on the ground and in the air, Hitler's troops storm across an unprepared Europe towards the English Channel. Invasion looms. But the British have a weapon in their arsenal that may be a game changer and bring victory against all odds: the mighty Spitfire.So severe is the threat posed by this remarkable fighter plane that Germany sends two operatives - one a reluctant Englishman, the other a loyal Nazi - on an audacious mission to infiltrate and destroy. Will they achieve their goal or can MI5, with the aid of double agents and a brilliant female pilot, turn the tide of espionage to their advantage? With a literary adroitness reminiscent of an aviator in battle, author John Hughes weaves a tale of intrigue, love and betrayal in a fast-paced thriller of a debut novel which wends its way from the Fatherland via the beaches of Dunkirk to the skies over Southern England.

The Opportunist

World War I left its impression on many people and many nations. Lives were lost, economies were altered and women's roles were changed as workforces had to adapt. The consequences of international fighting were monumental, but as much as the War set forth great change, it also served as an opening for innovations and new trends. John Carter, unable to physically serve in the war, remains at home in the UK as a temporary head of an industrial company and as the owner of a timber supply business. With men needed at the front, John experiences troubles of a different kind: employing women, searching for qualified help and expanding and converting the industry to suit the demands of war materials. Hunger, illness and heartache strike time and again, but instead of only loss and utmost destruction, The Opportunist shows the tale of one man's success at home in the darkest of times.

The Reluctant Hero

Chris just wanted to be an aeronautical engineer, but events and WWll changed it all.Christopher Darby's father wants him to follow a medical career and become a doctor like himself. But Chris knows his real love is engineering, especially aeroplanes, and he wants it to be his career. A chance encounter, the summer after leaving school in 1935, lands him a job working with planes. Chris is given the opportunity to learn to fly a plane and a long, exciting aeronautical career is sparked. Although Chris initially begins work in the Rolls Royce car factory upon completing his engineering studies, the outbreak of war changes everything. Drawn to do his bit for the country, Chris joins the Royal Air Force and is back working with planes once again. What follows is an exciting, varied and dangerous career serving his country. Never far from action and danger, Chris must rely on his expert knowledge and the trusted colleagues he meets along the way to survive.

Treachery at Bosworth Field 1485

Richard III by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland.England has gone through years of civil wars, strife and unrest during the period of the so-called 'Wars of the Roses'. House against house, family against family, cousin against cousin. The wheel of fortune turning this way and that.On the death of Richard's dear brother Edward IV, Richard becomes Lord Protector of England as Duke of Gloucester, but events overtake him. On finding that both Edward V and Richard of York are declared illegitimate, he has no option but to take the throne of England.Richard III proves to be a good and fair king and is much loved by any that come into contact with him. However, old wounds run deep and very soon, stories are put about attempting to discredit him. Rebellions happen and all the treachery takes place once more, culminating in the invasion of Henry Tudor and the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.Treachery at Bosworth Field 1485 belies a wealth of historical knowledge and enthusiasm for this turbulent period and frequently misunderstood king.

The Unknown Warriors

The Unknown Warriors is based on a true story set in the beauty and tragedy of Europe in the years just before the Second World War. Abrienda de Soza, inheritor of a fortune stolen from the coffers of Imperial Russia during the last days of the Russian Civil War, fights to keep her country out of the hands of both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia and preserve a culture threatened by both through any means possible. Nika Molnar, an agent working for Hungarian Intelligence’s Special Unit, seeks to exact vengeance on the man who murdered her father when she was a child. Impeccably researched, The Unknown Warriors captures the feel and nuance of a world soon to be destroyed forever—a uniquely told and deeply compelling story of war, intrigue and betrayal, but also of love and sacrifice played out against the backdrop of a world heading inexorably towards war.

The title is taken from a speech by Winston Churchill. “This is a War of Unknown Warriors, but let all strive without failing in faith or duty…”

Sipho's War

1916. Europe is in the grip of a deadly war, the Battle of the Somme spewing grotesquely mutilated bodies. Into this mayhem come 57 Swazi men from a British Protectorate in southern Africa, most of whom have never worn shoes or seen motorised vehicles.

The biting cold chews at digits used to the heat of an African sun but they are brave these men, they do what they came to do with stoic resilience.

Sipho Vilakazi is the son of a teacher and a nurse, who longs to escape the confines of his mountain village – volunteering for this war is an answer to his prayers. Until a sworn enemy of his family also signs up.

Thembi, the love of his life, is furious that he should leave without her. ‘I will return,’ he says confidently, ‘with enough money to pay the bride price for you.’

For Sipho, his friend Vusi, and Mandla, the headman’s son, their time in Europe awakens a desire to know and understand more of the ways of this world to help their nation progress.

As their time in Europe draws to an end, they are infused with new energy when they are moved to Le Havre and the ships that will take them home. But their return is delayed and one afternoon tragedy strikes.

The shadow that settles over the group reaches beyond the boundaries of Europe, over sea and land, to the tiny village on the slopes of the mountain they call Ngwenya.