Book picks similar to
Memoirs of a Byzantine Eunuch by Christopher Harris
historical-fiction
fiction
byzantium_constantinople-_istanbul
idea-list-eunuchs-fic-nonvillains
Dancing the Death Drill
Fred Khumalo - 2017
A skirmish in a world-famous restaurant leaves two men dead and the restaurant staff baffled. Why did the head waiter, a man who’s been living in France for many years, lunge at his patrons with a knife?As the man awaits trial, a journalist hounds his long-time friend, hoping to expose the true story behind this unprecedented act of violence.Gradually, the extraordinary story of Pitso Motaung, a young South African who volunteered to serve with the Allies in the First World War, emerges. Through a tragic twist of fate, Pitso found himself on board the ss Mendi, a ship that sank off the Isle of Wight in February 1917. More than six hundred of his countrymen, mostly black soldiers, lost their lives in a catastrophe that official history largely forgot. One particularly cruel moment from that day will remain etched in Pitso’s mind, resurfacing decades later to devastating effect.Dancing the Death Drill recounts the life of Pitso Motaung. It is a personal and political tale that spans continents and generations, moving from the battlefields of the Boer War to the front lines in France and beyond. With a captivating blend of pathos and humour, Fred Khumalo brings to life a historical event, honouring both those who perished in the disaster and those who survived.
Sweet By and By
Ramona Bridges - 2009
An invalid mother whose health continues to fail. A son banished from home. Thirty-three-year-old Addie Coulter is certain life can't get any worse. But after a series of tragedies and losses that challenge her will and test her faith, Addie is forced to leave the only home she's ever known and travel with her daughter to live with her brother and sister-in-law in Golden Meadow. It is here, on the road to recovery, that she meets the dashing Hiram Graham and begins to believe it's possible to love again. Set during a time when life itself was filled with strife and hardship, author Ramona Bridges weaves an unforgettable story about unfailing love, deceit, and forgiveness in her debut novel, Sweet By and By. When the revealing of a horrible secret and the arrival of a dangerous criminal threatens to disrupt everything Addie's built and destroy her chance at true love, she's left with only one option: trust in her Savior to bring her safely to the other side. With a cast of characters that will capture your imagination and your heart, Sweet By and By celebrates God's promise of faith and hope amidst life's inevitable disappointments.
In The Dark Streets Shining
Pamela Evans - 2006
Rose can’t imagine the future without Ray, but she’s certain he would have wanted her to start again. She decides to volunteer as a postwoman in West London, and when she courageously rescues a young boy from a bombed-out house and takes him home, she finds a new sense of purpose. Traumatised from losing his mother in the ruins, seven-year-old Alfie is also rebellious and withdrawn. However, he touches the hearts of Rose's family, and with kindness, patience and love, they eventually win his trust. But then a handsome stranger, Johnny Beech, turns up on the doorstep, looking for his son, and everything changes...
The Forgotten Pharaoh
David Adkins - 2017
The ancient civilisation is enjoying unprecedented prosperity during the 18th Dynasty under some of Egypt’s most famous Pharaohs – Ahmose I, Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Amenhotep III, Akhenaten and Tutankhamun. But every empire has its rivals – here the Hittites, the Mittani, Nubians and Assyrians – and every royal family its enemies. Smenkhkare is the youngest son of Amenhotep III and brother to Akhenamun – later to become the ruler Akhenaten – and Thutmose, plus three older sisters. The scheming Akhenamun dismisses Smenkhkare as a mere stripling, but the wise warrior Thutmose takes the boy under his wing and sets out to make a man of him. This is crucial for Smenkhkare whose father has decided that the only role for the boy will be through a marriage of convenience to the beautiful Mittani princess Taduheppa. The bride is ravishing – but older and more worldly – and refuses to consummate the coupling. Full of sympathy for his little brother, Thutmose advises patience and also invites Smenkhkare to accompany him on a raid to hunt down bandits who have attacked a caravan in the desert. It is a fateful moment. Thutmose is killed by an arrow through the neck, igniting a calamitous chain of events as Smenkhkare discovers the arrow did not come from a bandit’s bow. Who, then, did fire the fatal missile? Who would benefit most from the death of the man next in line for the pharoah’s throne? Could the murderer be within his own family? Or was someone else close to the family plotting to seize power? Can Smenkhkare trust his favourite sister Nebetah with his thoughts? Can trusted general Coreb help him in his bid to avenge the death of Thutmose? Who would try to eliminate Smenkhkare by placing a deadly cobra in a basket under his bed? And what are the ghastly contents in two other baskets thrust under Smenkhkare’s nose? David Adkins’ absorbing historical re-imagining The Forgotten Pharaoh, explores the extraordinary and dangerous life and times of a real but little known figure from history – from his child-marriage to exile and then reinstatement in Thebes as pharaoh of one of the most influential dynasties of the ancient civilised world. David Adkins is a retired civil servant who worked for many years at English Heritage. He lives in Letchworth Garden City with his wife. His other historical fiction books to date are The Eagle’s Nest and the Wolf’s Lair, The End of a Dynasty and Season of the Gladiatrix.
The Avenue
R.F. Delderfield - 1964
And all the hopes, dreams and lives of the people on the Avenue are forged to a fighting force to defend all that they hold dear."
Reckless
William Nicholson - 2014
The Second World War has gone on too long. Shops are closed ‘for the duration’. Trains run a restricted service ‘for the duration’. Life has paused, for the duration. A little girl, Pamela, is growing up fast. A young Englishman, Rupert Blundell, vows there’ll be no more wars. Both are waiting for their lives to begin.Then comes Hiroshima. Finally, devastatingly, the war is over.1962. Rupert is now strategic advisor to Lord Mountbatten, and his close confidant. Pamela is eighteen and has moved to London, eager for love and experience of every kind. There’ll be parties at Cliveden, Christine Keeler, Stephen Ward, the Astors. Life is a whirlwind.But beneath the glamour lies quiet, desperate terror, as the Cuban missile crisis unfolds and the world spins ever closer to nuclear war.Reckless is a gripping novel set against the world in crisis, by a superb novelist at the height of his powers.
The Illusion of Separateness
Simon Van Booy - 2013
The same world moves beneath each of them, and one by one, through seemingly random acts of selflessness, they discover the vital parts they have played in each other's lives, a realization that shatters the illusion of their separateness. Moving back and forth in time and across continents, The Illusion of Separateness displays the breathtaking skill of, "a truly special writer who does things with abstract language that is so evocative and original your breath literally catches in your chest" (Andre Dubus III).
The Roman Mysteries Complete Collection
Caroline Lawrence - 2012
A bumper eBook collection of all 17 Roman Mysteries adventures including The Thieves of Ostia, The Secrets of Vesuvius, The Pirates of Pompeii, The Assassins of Rome, The Dolphins of Laurentum, The Twelve Tasks of Flavia Gemina, The Enemies of Jupiter, The Gladiators From Capua, The Colossus of Rhodes, The Fugitive From Corinth, The Sirens of Surrentum, The Charioteer of Delphi, The Slave-Girl From Jerusalem, The Beggar of Volubilis, The Scribes From Alexandria, The Prophet From Ephesus and The Man From Pomegranate Street.
The Contract Surgeon
Dan O'Brien - 1999
When Crazy Horse finally agrees to surrender to the United States, mistrust and treachery on both sides foster further conflict, and he is gravely wounded. McGillicuddy declares the chief his patient and struggles through a long night to keep him alive. Set in the sprawling Great Plains during the most tragic period in its history, this tale of bravery, justice, and love weaves a tapestry of time and events into the account of a single day--the last in the life of Crazy Horse--to reveal the secrets surrounding America's past.
Pauper's Gold
Margaret Dickinson - 2006
It is a cruel blow for such a young girl, but her three travelling companions are even younger than she is, and Hannah is determined to keep their spirits up and remain in good cheer.Once she is settled in the mill, Hannah discovers that the hours of work are long, and the daily routine is dangerous, arduous and harsh, but her bright singing and capacity for joy lighten the load for everyone.Hannah soon becomes a favourite with the other mill workers. Friendships are forged and an innocent love starts to blossom. But can such a fragile love survive cruel reality? It is not long before she attracts the eye of Edmund Critchlow, the man who owns them all, body and soul - the man from whom no pretty mill girl is safe.Times are hard in the cotton industry as civil war rages across America affecting even the mill owner and the lives of all his workers . . .
The Scout
Harry Combs - 1995
a towering tale of dreams unfettered, of mustangs running free, and of young men riding hell-bent-for-leather into Indian country for no other reason than they were young, brave and wild.By 1900 the Old West was vanishing, but the man many called its fastest gun was still alive. By then Car Brules had shut himself and his secrets away in a cabin on Colorado's Lone Cone Peak. Only one person knew his real story, a boy of eleven who became his friend and heard his extraordinary tales in 1909. The Scout is that unforgettable story, just as young Steven Cartwright heard it, just as Brules told it: hard and gritty, wry with a cowboy's humor, and true to the spirits of all those who loved the west--and died for it--from Custer to Crazy Horse.Many hard, hurting things had driven Cat Brules to become the man he was. The death of his beloved Shoshone bride, Wild Rose, was one of them. Months after Brules lost her--brutally and far too soon--Wild Rose still came to him in his dreams. With a void in his heart and a reckless spirit, Brules signed on as a Scout for General George Crook, whose cavalry was headed into the Badlands. Then, the U.S. Army still didn't know that there were fifteen thousand Sioux and Cheyenne in those Wyoming foothills, and under chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, every one of them was willing to fight to the death to live free.Brules's account of the violence that ensued, told with eyewitness immediacy and chilling authenticity, is one of courage and shame as he rides the trail toward the Little Big Horn and the battles that followed. Seeing for himself the dying of a way of life, Brules tells a searing truth about America's history: the betrayal of Custer to the Sioux, the hunting of Geronimo, and the U.S. Army's cruel pursuit of Chief Joseph and his Nez Perce. And here too are the women who loved Brules: White Antelope, the gentle Indian maiden who wanted what Brules felt he could never give again--and Melisande, the saucy Mormon girl who might be too much for even Cat Brules to handle.Debunking the myths of the Old West and the romanticism of movies, renowned Western writer Harry Combs creates a vision at once more complex, magnificent and genuine--from the make of the rifle to the caliber of the bullet that cut Custer down. A novel unmatched in excitement and adventure, The Scout lets you smell the cordite, feel a man's hard need for a woman, and discover that the real flesh and blood inhabitants of those legendary days were tougher, bolder and more fascinating than we ever dared to imagine.
The Zig Zag Girl
Elly Griffiths - 2014
They served together in the war as part of a shadowy unit called the Magic Men.Max is still on the circuit, touring seaside towns in the company of ventriloquists, sword-swallowers and dancing girls. Changing times mean that variety is not what it once was, yet Max is reluctant to leave this world to help Edgar investigate. But when the dead girl turns out to be known to him, Max changes his mind.Another death, another magic trick: Edgar and Max become convinced that the answer to the murders lies in their army days. When Edgar receives a letter warning of another ‘trick’, the Wolf Trap, he knows that they are all in danger…