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Trouble and Strife
Sometimes the smallest voices make the deepest impact.Josephine Hadley, a 1930s Canadian housewife, fills her days looking after her children, her indifferent husband and a stream of Depression-era visitors. Her contribution to her guests is a bowl of stew and an open heart. Her small world, however, is soon shattered by a tragic event which forces her to become the breadwinner. Can she run a business without sacrificing herself? And is it possible to act on a long-buried desire without remorse?Johanne Levesque’s first novel, Trouble and Strife, is a poignant and heartbreaking look at a woman’s life in a fast-changing time. With intimate details and a deft poetic touch, Levesque has captured the spirit of an age where war and economic hardship altered the workplace, home and women’s lives forever.
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Trains in the Sky
Ivan Hawthorn's Trains in the Sky is a fascinating account of childhood as a young boy in the great drought and depression of 1930s outback Australia. Growing up in an all-male household, Ivan Hawthorn documents his boyhood years with his brothers, a wonderful insight into the deprivations and the challenges and the amazing resolve of the outback families during these difficult times. Not just a book for blokes, this is an intricate social history in which the role of women is set into sharp relief and there is more than a little love interest as Ivan grows up and pursues a career in the RAAF set against the backdrop of post war Australia. A blend of fascinating social insight, more than a passing commentary about early twentieth century farming, indigenous wildlife and the social positioning of men and women, Trains in the Sky will have you reaching for the sequel.
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Through the Wall
The Berlin Wall. You may know of it. You may remember it; perhaps as a witness, an observer, a student of history, or a member of the armed forces. Whether it was local or in another country, its impact touched everyone, some in variable ways. In Hugh Allen's Through the Wall, we are shown two vastly different, but equally intriguing and moving personal histories of the barrier in Germany after World War II. In the West, we meet a young English boy, Hugh, with a fondness for adventure. In the East, we follow Hans Bernauer, from a tragic childhood to his early adulthood. These two individuals recount their experiences around the erection of the wall, with a common factor that ties them together, a model of a Sopwith Camel biplane.From the terrible loss of his Jewish parents, Hans is raised in fear and poverty, and with hopes for a better life. Later, as a member of the People's Police, the Vopos, he struggles with the ethics and morals of his position, and the situation his family and people are trapped in. On the other side, as a son of a British government employee, Hugh battles boredom and peer pressure, both forces which bring him to find a hidden treasure in a ruined house, and accidentally to cross the wall to the East. With touching and moving sentiment, we can experience Hans's pain and hunger, Hugh's worry and excitement. With direct and pointed description, we can see the ruin, filth, and destruction after the war, and we can hear the grumblings, and praise of Berliners after Hitler was killed. Through the Wall is an intriguing tale with an end that will capture the curiosity of every reader.
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The Poet's Trap
Esme lives a contented life in the countryside of Victorian England at Falford Hall. She is becoming a young woman, beautiful and witty with a passion for riding horses with the hall's stable hand, Tom. However, when rumours start to fly about nature of Esme and Tom's relationship, hidden feelings begin to come to light and Esme's loving father decides the best course of action is to separate the two to avoid vicious gossip. Tom is sent to South America to conduct business and make a man of himself and a devastated Esme must abandon her tomboyish nature to come out as a woman in the city of Brighton. With Tom's return scheduled in 18 long months, the star-crossed pair take the test of time, and must battle Esme's snobbish uncle and strict Victorian tradition. How can a stable hand ever win the hand of a Lady without creating a scandal?
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The Past and the Present
1914 - A young Georgina Lawrence has been promised to Lord Bedford, a man she doesn't want to marry. To give her a chance of changing the decision, her parents make her go to an Isle of Wight hotel to consider her future. Here she meets a man unlike any other she's ever known, who changes her life forever.1992 - Helena is struggling to come up with a new idea for her new novel. A trip to the Isle of Wight to refresh her literary skills seems the answer. The hotel in Bembridge is being renovated and Helena explores the grounds. Both women are inexplicably connected with the building, to two men they meet there but what other secrets does the building hold and what impact does it have on their lives?
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The Last Supper
Leonardo da Vinci, Milan's Renaissance ideal, is tasked with painting The Last Supper but struggles to find the perfect person to model as Christ. Vittorio Dessa, a young farmer, is eventually spotted, plucked from farm life and placed at the heart of an alien world of art and science, aristocracy, politics and intrigue.Initially shocked, Vittorio gradually adjusts to the artist's exuberant manner and ambitious ideas, and after some hesitation, resolves to pursue his own ambitions and venture beyond the safety of the city walls.Thus encouraged, Vittorio's fortunes boom, but ill-equipped to deal with the transformation, his life slowly lapses into one of paranoia, jealousy and eventually murder. The strands of the story climax at Leonardo's very public reveal of The Last Supper painting.
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The Land of Three Houses
William Sterner’s story begins in the late 1700s on the Tohickon Creek in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, during the period known as The Rage for Wheat. His quest to build a fortune based on wheat leads him to Livorno, Tuscany, during the Napoleonic wars where he meets the Enlightenment salonniêre, Madame de Staël. Join him on his journey home to The Land of Three Houses.
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The Hounds of Diana - The Romulus and Remus Trilogy - Part I
Alba Longa is the ancient capital of Latium, on the Italian peninsula. The Roman Empire was born from this great city. However, behind the glory of what Rome became is a darker tale of secrecy, betrayal and death. Numitor is a good man and a great diplomat; his brother Amulius an envious plotter and brave conqueror. Their struggle for power will bring out the best of one and the worst of the other. Only one can be king. Rhea Silva (Lillia) is the daughter of Numitor, her first son will become heir to the throne. Her life is thrown into turmoil by events out of her control, putting her and her twin boys in mortal danger. The Hounds of Diana are the secret sect that protects the realm from within. Yet, there are those that would undermine it. Then, there are the Dormienti, the sleepers. Only when the Hounds call, do the Dormienti awaken, and only when death desires it.
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The Green Gates Story
There are certainly many historical accounts of wars, military experiences, and cultural reactions to politics, but many of these works lack a personal and sentimental touch to what it really feels like to endure a battle. In The Green Gates Story, Bernard Fredericks presents a historically accurate, delightfully moving, and honest tale of a British boy who is evacuated from his Liverpool home in WWII. Told from the perspective of a child, Fredericks narrates his memories of an eight-year-old boy who is snatched from the city and transplanted to the country. He shares the triumphs and struggles of a child required to acquaint himself in a new setting and lifestyle. While he manages the heartache of missing his family and friends, the boy is also thrilled and challenged with new adventures as he acclimates to the pace of country-life. From the beginning of his evacuation to his return to home, the boy relates his feelings and doubts about so many events that crop up not only in wartime, but every child's time of coming of age.
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The Diaries Of A Gifted Edwardian Boy
Clarence Smyth is a psychically gifted little boy born in London at the dawn of the 20th Century. He has an extraordinary life meeting and influencing many famous and some infamous people of that era. This book is a rewrite of the classic The Boy Who Saw True, which were actual diaries of a Victorian boy (author unknown).Anyone familiar with that book will remember being frustrated at only reading a part of his story. Although this is set in a slightly later period, it completes the story and weaves in other intrigues as well as Clarence being “watched” because of some of the accurate predictions he makes. There is a dark element to Clarence’s story, but it is told with insight and humour on his part, as we see Clarence go from being a young boy to a man.The Diaries of a Gifted Edwardian Boy is for all ages from young adult to the mature.It is an interesting, amusing and enjoyable read.
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The Broadsword and the Englishman
Growing up in a devout, middle-class English family in China during the Sino–Japanese war leaves its mark on Bill and sets in place a series of events that leads him to join the war effort as a teenager, go down the coal mines of Wales and to eventually migrate to Australia to start afresh. But Bill is tortured by his past. A story set against the backdrop of war, the growth of a nation, the betrayal of a father and the influence of good friends, Bill traverses adulthood as a flawed man. With the support of his loving Welsh wife, Myfanwy, and the influence of his Chinese friends, Bill is forced to face his fears by revisiting the place of his childhood, Shanghai, China. Here, he eventually faces his demons and farewells a good friend, who leaves him with a symbol of peace and strength, his Chinese broadsword.R. G. Harmon has also written The Missionary’s Son and The Prequel to The Broadsword and the Englishman.
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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.
£14.99
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