Their idyllic, brief childhood together is short lived ending in hardship and heartbreak. Finding themselves alone in the world, both boys struggle to self-educate. Against the odds, Matthew Gray builds a global business empire and Luke Mbeki travels to England, in self-imposed exile, entangling himself in the anti-apartheid movement. With their paths crossing intermittently, it is only when Nelson Mandela is released from prison that Luke returns home continuing his fight for freedom alongside his comrades. Matt’s all-consuming business life continues but betrayal strikes. Leaving everything behind, he escapes to another world – an artist colony.This incredibly powerful and moving story tells how each man struggles to survive in a country deep in the throes of violent change, with friendship and families being torn apart. Matt and Luke's friendship is unimaginably tested so how does it survive in such terrifying and perilous times?

    With Anthony Eden vying for power, the elderly Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, must maintain the confidence of his government, the press and the public. However, after a diplomatic dinner in which he is on typically sparkling form, Churchill's Italian dining companions are rushed out of the building and his doctor called. The Prime Minister has had a stroke. Churchill is bedbound throughout the summer, and while secrecy agreements have been struck with leading newspaper barons, the potential impact of his health on public life is never far from the minds of his inner circle. With the help of a devoted young nurse and his indomitable wife, Clementine, Churchill gradually recoups his health. But will he be fit enough to represent Britain on the world stage? 'The Churchill Secret KBO' is to be made into a major ITV drama to be broadcast in the UK in autumn 2015.

    I had existed whole years without her, but that was all it had been. An existence. A book with no words."Tom Hazard has just moved back to London, his old home, to settle down and become a high school history teacher. And on his first day at school, he meets a captivating French teacher at his school who seems fascinated by him. But Tom has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he's been alive for centuries. Tom has lived history--performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life.Unfortunately for Tom, the Albatross Society, the secretive group which protects people like Tom, has one rule: Never fall in love. As painful memories of his past and the erratic behavior of the Society's watchful leader threaten to derail his new life and romance, the one thing he can't have just happens to be the one thing that might save him. Tom will have to decide once and for all whether to remain stuck in the past, or finally begin living in the present.How to Stop Time tells a love story across the ages--and for the ages--about a man lost in time, the woman who could save him, and the lifetimes it can take to learn how to live. It is a bighearted, wildly original novel about losing and finding yourself, the inevitability of change, and how with enough time to learn, we just might find happiness.Soon to be a major motion picture starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

    A microcosm of the deep horrors of civil war, the Shelton Laurel Massacre as it came to be known, pitted neighbor against neighbor, touching every family with violence at their own front door. Told by those who lived it– Confederate and Unionist alike--Keith, who ordered the execution, Polly, whose children’s death precipitated the massacre, Judy and Marthy, who bore torture to protect their men, and Sim, conscripted by the Confederates and haunted by his part in the Massacre—the novel offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of five people tangled in history’s web, caught up together in love and hate. And all five will bear the mark of the massacre long after the event, struggling to come to terms with the bleak consequences of civil war. Based on an actual event and historical characters, And the Crows Took Their Eyes is a richly imagined portrait of a dark and bitter time—illuminated by gleams of humanity at its best

    Her father has gone to bring home a son missing because of the war. Loyal servants give her support and comfort and are at her side when she learns of her father’s death. She promises to fulfill her father’s dream but someone doesn’t want her to, the one person she should be able to trust. He sets out to defeat her until another man, a Northern stranger, comes to her aid.

    1939Life in a stately home is never as it seems, and this is certainly the case for Robinswood. Join USA Today bestseller, Jean Grainger as she takes you deep into the lives of Lord and Lady Kenefick, owners of the estate, whose social status is under threat as funds to keep the estate running ever dwindle. Their children see no reason for life not to continue as normal, tennis parties and hunt balls, but even a rural backwater in Ireland cannot resist the power of change and as war looms in Europe, one thing is certain, nothing will ever be the same again.Meanwhile, downstairs the Murphy family, Dermot, Isabella and thier three daughters, are only too aware of the realities of life.  Their very existence hangs on the fortunes of the estate and the family they serve, but they too are about to have everything change. These characters will worm their way into your heart and throughout the trilogy you will cheer the victories and walk beside them in the darkest of days. With over 1000  5* reviews these books have  rapidly become bestsellers. If you like Downton Abbey or Upstairs Downstairs, then you will love the fortunes of those whose lives are inextricably linked with Robinswood.

    Bluebirds, a novel based on true stories, climaxes in 1940, the world's most dangerous year. A meticulously researched Battle of Britain novel based on the true stories of an East Anglian war hero and the first American volunteer to fire guns against the Nazis, a man who became his friend and brother-in-arms. The Battle of Britain defined the future for Britain, Europe and America. Bluebirds tells the story of four ordinary young men who are thrown together as Hitler plunges the European continent into its darkest hours. Andrew Francis and Gerry Donaldson were born on different sides of the Atlantic just before The Great War. Together with the mildly psychotic Bryan Hale, they fly Spitfires through the summer of 1940. Invasion is imminent and England faces almost certain defeat after Hitler’s unstoppable armies slice through France to the Channel coast. Fighter Command risks total destruction as they rise to meet the Fuhrer’s Luftwaffe hordes in what would become The Battle of Britain. Flying with The Few - Review in FlyPast Magazine October 2017 The first part of a proposed trilogy, Bluebirds stands alone as a gripping fictionalised account of The Battle of Britain, documenting how the lives of its four central characters become intertwined. This has clearly been a labour of love for author Melvyn Fickling, who writes with great clarity about the fast-moving events of that pivotal summer, and who imbues his descriptions of flight with boundless enthusiasm. Structured in time-linear format, Melvyn adheres closely to history, creating an increasingly tense atmosphere that becomes all too tragic when the cost of war is realised. The story follows the path of four pilots, starting with the formative years of three of them, and working its way forward, documenting the fears of war in Europe, and how the threat influences the decisions of all. Andrew Francis joins the pre-war RAF - idealistic and well-mannered, he is somewhat shocked at the fiery antics of fellow pilot Bryan Hale, with whom he nevertheless becomes friends. When war erupts, they are joined at Kenley by American pilot Gerry Donaldson, a volunteer facing pressure from British authorities to document his experiences - a propaganda bid to involve the US more closely in the conflict. Eventually Vincent Drew comes under their wing. Troubled by years of childhood abuse and hiding a serious health condition, with Vincent comes tragedy. In an excellent narrative, the author captures the mood of the times - the fear of invasion, the differing attitudes to the enemy, and the carry-on-regardless spirit that kept Britain in the war. FlyPast Magazine - At the heart of aviation heritage.

    troops occupy Germany, friends Jakob and Emmanuelle are saved from the terrible fate of so many in the camps. With the help of sponsors, they make their way to New York. In order not to be separated, they allow their friendship to blossom into love and marriage, and start a new life on the Lower East Side, working at grueling, poorly paid jobs. Decades later, through talent, faith, fortune, and relentless hard work, Jakob has achieved success in the diamond business, invested in real estate in New York, and shown his son, Max, that America is truly the land of opportunity. Max is a rising star, a graduate of Harvard with friends among the wealthiest, most ambitious families in the world. And while his parents were thrown together by chance, Max chooses a perfect bride to start the perfect American family. An opulent society wedding. A honeymoon in Tahiti. A palatial home in Greenwich. Max’s lavish lifestyle is unimaginable to his cautious old-world father and mother. Max wants to follow his father’s example and make his own fortune. But after the birth of children, and with a failing marriage, he can no longer deny that his wife is not the woman he thought she was. Angry and afraid, Max must do what he has never done before: struggle, persevere, and learn what it means to truly walk in his father’s footsteps, while pursuing his own ideals and setting an example for his children. Moving from the ashes of postwar Europe to the Lower East Side of New York to wealth, success, and unlimited luxury, In His Father’s Footsteps is a stirring tale of three generations of strong, courageous, and loving people who pay their dues to achieve their goals.

    It creates a long ago place that has chilling familiarity.

    Reviled and brought up in poverty, Truly finds her calling and a future that none expected.When Truly Plaice's mother was pregnant, the town of Aberdeen joined together in betting how record-breakingly huge the baby boy would ultimately be. The girl who proved to be Truly paid the price of her enormity; her father blamed her for her mother's death in childbirth and was totally ill equipped to raise either this giant child or her polar opposite sister Serena Jane, the epitome of feminine perfection. When he, too, relinquished his increasingly tenuous grip on life, Truly and Serena Jane are separated--Serena Jane to live a life of privilege as the future May Queen and Truly to live on the outskirts of town on the farm of the town sadsack, the subject of constant abuse and humiliation at the hands of her peers. Serena Jane's beauty proves to be her greatest blessing and her biggest curse, for it makes her the obsession of classmate Bob Bob Morgan, the youngest in a line of Robert Morgans who have been doctors in Aberdeen for generations. Though they have long been the pillars of the community, the earliest Robert Morgan married the town witch, Tabitha Dyerson, and the location of her fabled shadow book--containing mysterious secrets for healing and darker powers--has been the subject of town gossip ever since. Bob Bob Morgan, one of Truly's biggest tormentors, does the unthinkable to claim the prize of Serena Jane and changes the destiny of all Aberdeen from there on. When Serena Jane flees town and a loveless marriage to Bob Bob, it is Truly who must become the woman of a house that she did not choose and mother to her eight-year-old nephew Bobbie. Truly's brother-in-law is relentless and brutal; he criticizes her physique and the limitations of her health as a result and degrades her more than any one human could bear. It is only when Truly finds her calling--the ability to heal illness with herbs and naturopathic techniques--hidden within the folds of Robert Morgan's family quilt, that she begins to regain control over her life and herself. Unearthed family secrets, however, will lead to the kind of betrayal that eventually break the Morgan family apart forever, but Truly's reckoning with her own demons allows for both an uprooting of Aberdeen County, and the possibility of love in unexpected places.

    

    The legendary Athina Farrell remains the company's figurehead and in her kingdom at the Berkeley Arcade, Florence Hamilton plies their cosmetics with the utmost discretion. She is sales advisor - and holder of secrets - extraordinaire.But of course the world of cosmetics is changing and the once glorious House of Farrell is now in decline, its customers tempted away by more fashionable brands.Enter Bianca Bailey, formidable business woman, mother of three, and someone who always gets her way. Athina and Bianca lock horns over the future of the House of Farrell but it is the past that tells its devastating tale of ambition and ego, passion and wonder.Here is a tale of survival ... and a perfect heritage.

    

    They were Americans and Marines. And this is their story: The Big War, Anton Myrer's panoramic novel of Marines in the Pacific in World War II. This is the story of Alan Newcombe, the Boston society Harvard man; Danny Kantaylis, the natural-born leader; Jay O'Neill, the barroom scrapper. Myrer does not glorify war; he does not flinch from describing what the actual experience of warfare was like for a desperate group of Marines trapped in some of the worst fighting conditions of the war. We learn about their lives at home and their fates on the battlefield.

    Even if that means literally throwing herself at the Duke and risking her own ruination.No man is arguably more broken and debauched than Timothy Burton, the Duke of Marfront. But, according to his father’s will, he needs to wed and produce an heir. Only, he never sleeps with the same woman twice.When Diana finds herself bound to the same man she wanted to frame, she starts discovering not only his tender, guarded heart, but the big secret surrounding his mother’s death. For, she is about to follow her cold trail...