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Ana Kelly: A Saga of Love and Courage
The captivating story of Ana Ludovina Teixeira de Aguilar unfolds against the backdrop of the French invasions of Portugal and the military aid provided by the English, commanded by the Duke of Wellington, who also played a pivotal role in her marriage to Waldron Kelly, an Irish lieutenant.
Discover how Ana Kelly’s love for Waldron remained steadfast until her death. Delve into her family’s connection to the Portuguese royal family and the support Queen Victoria provided in the final phase of her life. This is a tale of love and remarkable resilience, intertwined with an intimate yet rigorous historical account.
Gripping until the last page, this narrative comes highly recommended by Timeout Magazine as one of 28 must-read European literature books about romance and treason.
£16.99 -
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…”
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Tyke
Against the grim backdrop of WWII London, a destitute young street urchin named Tyke stumbles upon an unconscious railway worker one fateful night. Though tempted by money left unattended, Tyke chooses to save the man’s life instead of stealing the cash. This single act of selflessness sparks a chain of miraculous events that could forever change the course of Tyke’s difficult life.
When the railway man, Mr. Thomas, resolves to find and reward his young hero, a city-wide search ensues. Just as hope dims, Tyke resurfaces. As he recounts his tale of hardship, flashes of innate wisdom and integrity shine through, capturing the hearts of all who meet him. With Mr. Thomas’s support, the chance for mentorship, and even a possible new family connection, has Tyke’s luck finally turned?
From life-threatening danger to unexpected kindness from unlikely sources, Tyke must navigate threats and opportunities alike on his journey to a brighter future. Will fate continue to smile upon this humble yet exceptional boy? Find out in this poignant tale reminding us heroism can come from the unlikeliest of places.
£11.99 -
When the Cows Come Home
In this sweeping family saga, the lives of five Bavarian German families unfold against the backdrop of the twentieth century, spanning from 1937 to 2020. At the heart of the story are Herman Finkelstein, a Jewish professor, and his wife Merla Finkelstein, whose tragic fate during the Holocaust sets the stage for the generations that follow. Their descendants, adopted by Lutheran families after escaping to Switzerland in 1943, have only a vague understanding of their Jewish heritage.
The narrative is centered around the Bavarian towns of Berchtesgaden and Oberstdorf, but also ventures to Switzerland and Israel as Germany grapples with its complex past and the specter of antisemitism. Both branches of the Finkelstein descendants find themselves connected through their herds of Hinterwalder cattle, a bond that ultimately brings them together after two generations of separation.
Through the purchase of a Hinterwalder bull, the families are reunited and uncover the full extent of their Jewish ancestry. While the novel explores the profound impact of the Holocaust, it also serves as a rich social history, illustrating how the ordinary lives of individuals are shaped by war, political upheaval, and cultural shifts.
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Danube Legion
The Roman war machine is on the move
But behind the Centurions and Legionaries, a vast support network grinds into motion mobilising a new legion towards a hostile river border, its human cogs turning across Roman society: from downtrodden bath slaves, to legionary blacksmiths trying to get through the day, from unscrupulous traders who supply food and materials to corrupt politicians with their own cynical motives.
Danube Legion is the darkly amusing story of what happens behind the scenes – the chaotic, the venal, the incompetent and the corrupt. In amongst it all, and driving most of it, is Lady Lassalia, a ruthless merchant out to ensure her place in Roman society.£21.99 -
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.
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The Journey
On Christmas night 1879 my 19-year-old Great Uncle, John Diver left his thatched home, Whinpark Inishowen. He walked the eighteen miles to Derry Quay. He boarded the SS Devonian. The Statute of Liberty Ellis Island Foundation confirms its arrival on 1st January 1880. Why did someone so young embark, alone, on such a hazardous journey?By chance John, a skilled facilitator, met other young people who were forced into that miserable, morose migration of the largely unreported ‘an Gorta Beag’ (small Famine).These included the enthralling James Feely, who found unlikely inspiration from the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. This led to the discovery of his psychic powers. He meets the recently deceased Paul Cullen, Ireland’s first Cardinal, hears divinations from Thomas FitzGerald the 10th Earl of Kildare about a meeting with the most beautiful Empress in Europe and the Three Magi who predicted the miraculous Apparitions at Knock. Who, if anyone, does he dare tell? We meet the troubled Matthew and his resolute sister Mary. After Maggie, their teenage unmarried sister, gave birth they resolved to travel to America to find her displaced infant. What caused one of the siblings to have a change of heart?Church Martin, a gifted musician and mystic, follows that ancient Celtic tradition of using music to enchant and distract an enemy rather than entertain. He demonstrates this by stopping the movement of the ship mid Atlantic to becalm the vessel. Will Church and Mary discover the angst of an unrequited love? Jack Turner is a young man with a hidden past. Will he too find unexpected friendship? The story, a unique blend of fiction and non-fiction, culminates in the friction of a frantic, frenzied pursuit for survival to avoid an enforced asylum admission and deportation.The unfolding personal revelations become a fascinating intrigue - a compelling timeless Irish Tale that is more than a match for The Canterbury Tales.Atlantic Anecdotes and Dark Disclosures en route from the Inishowen Peninsula to the Port of New York.
£35.99 -
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.
£13.99 -
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.
£11.99 -
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 Cedars of Beckenham
The Mystery of an Antique German Doll reunites members of a family torn apart during The Third Reich of Nazi Germany.
This family saga, starting in the leafy suburb of Beckenham on the borders of Kent and London, begins in 1930 in the comfortable world of four British upper-middle class families blind to the impending changes that are about to threaten not only their world, but everyone else’s world, too.
A doll belonging to the Abuthnott family becomes the catalyst that brings about two sides of the Rubenstein family, who were able to escape from Germany in the late 1930s finding refuge in the United States of America and in the British Mandate of Palestine.
Along the way, the horrors of the Blitz and the British struggle for survival are enacted out against the parallel Germanic horror of holocaust separation. The survivors in the United States, Great Britain and Israel adapt to a new world as it unfolds through the second half of the 20th century, until by the chance sale of a German Biedermeier doll at Sotheby’s in New York, their separate paths are brought together in 2017.
The four Beckenham families adapt to their changing lifestyles witnessing a rich tapestry of 20th century history taking the reader all over the world with its beauty, passion and prejudices.
£22.99 -
Tears on the Euphrates
In a harrowing story of lost innocence and shattered identities, two young lives are swept up in a storm of calamity and betrayal. An Iraqi child, ripped from the warm embrace of his family, finds himself in the clutches of strangers in a foreign country. While the boy’s desperate family searches tirelessly for their beloved son, the kidnappers weave a web of lies to erase his past, forging a cruel destiny that will test the bonds of fraternity and love.
Against a backdrop of global unrest, the stolen child and his unexpected natural brother try to forge their own paths, tied by a deep friendship, in a world torn apart by violence and deceit. From the uncontrollable violence in Afghanistan to the turbulent waters of the Euphrates, the destiny breaks the sky with a story of love between two who would never imagine loving each other. Among the rubble, death and destruction, the deepest, most real and sincere love story is born. A love rooted in the soul and deep in the heart. Love that glorifies life and means death; the threads of family, love and loyalty will be stretched to the breaking point.
Tears on the Euphrates delves into the profound impact of family and identity amid the harsh realities of a world at war, intertwining the fates of two boys with the turbulent geopolitics that define the divide between East and West. Through their eyes, we explore the moving and unyielding search for truth, belonging, and redemption in a world yearning for hope.
£16.99