The story portrays the political situation of Europe in the later Viking Age, Andalusia under Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir, Denmark under Harold Bluetooth, followed by the struggle between Eric the Victorious & Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark, Ireland under Brian Boru, England under Ethelred the Unready, the Battle of Maldon, all before the backdrop of the gradual Christianisation of Scandinavia, contrasting the pragmatic Norse pagan outlook with Islam & Christianity.

    Set in the vibrant 14th century of Chaucer and the Black Death, the story features knights fighting in battle, serfs struggling in poverty, and the magnificent Plantagenets—Edward III, the Black Prince, and Richard II—who ruled despotically over a court rotten with intrigue. Within this era of danger and romance, John of Gaunt, the king’s son, falls passionately in love with the already married Katherine. Their well-documented affair and love persist through decades of war, adultery, murder, loneliness, and redemption. This epic novel of conflict, cruelty, and untamable love has become a classic since its first publication in 1954.

    Uprooted from her backwoods home, she and her family are thrust into the confusion and chaos of wartime Detroit. And in a pitiless world of unendurable poverty, Gertie will battle fiercely and relentlessly to protect those things she holds most dear -- her children, her heritage . . . and her triumphant ability to create beauty in the suffocating shadow of ugliness and despair.

    The story focuses on the "Golden Age" of learning in medieval Spain, and also describes the affair of Alfonso VIII with the Jewish Raquel in Toledo.In Lion Feuchtwanger's prologue to the story, he mentions that the ballad was originally written by Alfonso X of Castile in regards of his Great-Grandfather (Alfonso VIII).

    Told in eight episodic narratives by a fascinating pageant of characters including—a pirate, witch, bawd, rake, recluse, and lovers, all of whom play a vital part in the house's history.

    A biographical novel of Mary Todd Lincoln and Abraham Lincoln

    His chance comes when he rides into battle to defend his home from attack by Saracen leader, Saladin and his army. But after a disastrous campaign, Philip is taken prisoner by the Turks and must work as a servant-and all the while he is plotting his escape.At last his opportunity arrives and Philip flees, joining Richard the Lionheart in his victorious Third Crusade before finally travelling to Britain to claim his family's estate. Only when he arrives, he finds he must once again go into battle . . .This exciting tale has captured the hearts and imaginations of young readers for many years and was the winner of the prestigious Carnegie Medal. This edition features the original black and white illustrations throughout which perfectly evoke the atmosphere of the story.

    A woman as strong and as beautiful as the raw new country she helps to carve from the wilderness. A woman of fierce pride, yet gently devoted to her children, and possessed with an undying vision about the future of her land, Sara Dane epitomizes the heart of her untamed country — Australia.Set in the colorful days of the late Eighteenth and the early Nineteenth Centuries, Sara Dane unfolds the history of New South Wales, from its beginnings as a penal colony to the day when it could lift its head in contentment and peace.From the day in 1792 when young Sara, savagely sentenced in England to transportation on a trumped-up charge, came ashore at Botany Bay, until the day she returns triumphantly wealthy and prominent to her native London, her story rings with the fire of a great passion.Sara's story is also the story of the men who loved her — Richard Barwell, her childhood love who possessiveness followed her thousands of miles; Andrew Maclay, whose strength and cunning combined with hers to produce an empire; Jeremy Hogan, the Irish rebel, whose presence meant security as Sara faced the crises of convict outbreaks, giant floods, and armed rebellion with resolution. And then there was Louis de Bourget, the mysterious French emigre' whose love for her beauty and order brought a peace to Sara's life she had thought impossible. But throughout her life, Sara held to her own personality tenaciously. All of Sydney knew her as a shrewd business-woman, magnificent, unconventional — but above all, a woman.

    Elspeth is a provocative and feminine lass who lived in a turbulent time in Scotland's history, a period crowded with romance, intrigue, battles and characters that are memorable for their vitality and charm, their lust, strength and willfulness. Alexander MacHugh was head of one of Scotland's mightiest clans when the rebellious Highlanders rallied around the MacDonald banner. He was a man of massive will but gravely courteous demeanor, and he clashed with Elspeth at every encounter, his will pitted against hers, neither of them willing to surrender to an irresistible attraction.It was early in the seventeenth century in Scotland, and the men and women who lived, loved and fought then were no less stormy and unpredictable than the violent events which caught them up and determined their fates. In these pages you will meet the corrupt and ambitious Earl of Argyll, Elspeth's wily guardian, who epitomizes an insatiable greed for power and wealth; Kate MacLachlan, the beautiful and treacherous redhead, whose passion for Alexander MacHugh would stop at nothing for fulfillment; Gavin, the grim and mysterious youth with a scar across his cheek; Elspeth's half-sister, Jeanie Lamond, as fair and fresh as a May morning, and, of course, the many brave and gallant Scottish rebels, led by the MacDonalds, who harried the Campbells and would not be subdued by England.It seemed just another day when Elspeth Lamond rode into the wild and untameable hills and moors of the Highlands on a quiet mission from London, but within a few hours she was a captive riding in the rain toward an unknown destination. From the day of her abduction by a band of rough horsemen till the day she fled the thick walls of her guardian's castle, Elspeth's fate was irrevocably linked with the Lamonds and with their friend, the MacHugh, whose name reverberates through these pages with the vigor of a clash of arms.

    A vivid portrayal of the officers and sailors of the fictional amphibious transport USS Belinda in the Pacific of World War II.

    For although Mary Ann may look quite an ordinary small girl from a dockland tenement, always hot in defense of a ne'er-do-well father, she is in fact a one-man army, armoured with faith and possessed of formidable qualities. Set on Tyneside, the part of the world which Catherine Cookson knew and understood so well, this heartwarming and humorously observed book skillfully weds an authentic and unsentimentalized background to the kind of fairytale story that we all like to believe could come true and which the Mary Ann Shaughnessys of this world know to be true.The moral of A Grand Man is simply that faith can move mountains, but the delight of the book lies in the telling and in the character of its heroine as she battles, connives, and bargains to get a better way of life for those she loves and especially for the 'grand man' himself. A Grand Man is the first of the Mary Ann stories and was made into a film, Jacqueline, in 1954.

    It was a serious time, too in 1745 Scotland, with dreadful happenings and fierce battles. And Lauren, kept at home with Aunt Elspeth, longed to be out fighting the British. Donning kilts, she would ride over the hills with her cousin Murdoch and faithful Angus, looking for British soldiers. While masquerading as a boy, she was captured and held prisoner by the Earl of Loudon, head of the Campbell clan, arch foe of all Camerons. Still refusing to admit her identity, Lauren finally escapes, and rejoins her family and those loyal to the Prince into exile in France.

    Beneath Maggie's forbidding exterior is a desire to be loved.

    When he stumbles upon a mystery involving a disappearing toll-gate keeper, nothing could keep the adventure-loving captain from investigating.But winning her will be his greatest yet…The plot thickens when John encounters the enigmatic Lady Nell Stornaway and soon learns that rescuing her from her unsavory relatives makes even the most ferocious cavalry charge look like a particularly tame hand of loo. Between hiding his true identity from Nell and the arrival in the neighborhood of some distinctly shady characters, Captain Staple finds himself embarked on the adventure-and romance-of a lifetime.

    The story is also about the bravery and spirit of the Maltese people who gave their lives to keep the aircraft in the air and the men who toiled to keep the runway fit to fly on. The defense of Malta can justifiably be included among the epics of World War Two. The part played by ‘Faith’, ‘Hope’ and ‘Charity’ is symbolic of the courage and endurance displayed by the people of Malta during the struggle against vastly superior Axis Air Forces.

    And sure enough, Papa decided that it was high time for Dandy to stop being another of the Clark boys and learn to take his place as mistress of the plantation household. The future, as he and Aunt Cordelia mapped it out, looked grim. Side saddle and long skirts for Dandy, who had ridden like a buckskinned frontiersman ever since she could remember! Dainty cousin Polly Smythe to come from Williamsburg and teach the steps of the minuet, the fingering of the spinet. Bemba, the stately housekeeper, to instruct the slippery-fingered Dandy in the use of herbs and poultices. Small wonder she nearly decided to join the militia with her brother Chris. How events conspired to change her mind is a delightful story. A Shawnee raid and a secret cave provide excitement and a handsome young Bill Rutherford lends the final impetus for Dandy's transformation.