Tudor Fiction

On 3 May 1961, after a trial conducted largely in secret, a man named George Blake was sentenced to an unprecedented 42 years in jail. By his own confession he was a Soviet spy, but the reasons for such a severe punishment were never revealed. To the public, Blake was simply the greatest traitor of the Cold War. Yet his story touches not only the depths of treachery, but also the heights of heroism.

Richard and Robin Mariner are amongst a select group of honoured guests at a reception in the Presidential Palace, in the recently refurbished capital of a powerful West Africa nation. They have been instrumental in helping the president take charge, which he is still fighting to drag into the 21st century.

After the British military lose an officer to Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, a desperate race begins to find his killers. Little do the assailants know that the precious information they have stolen could bring down the entire network of Western intelligence in the Mid-East. But then one of them is captured by US troops and flown to the States for interrogation. And so begins a nail-biting, claustrophobic and explosive thriller that will ultimately lead British operative John Stratton to the Styx penitentiary, America's undersea prison.

Apothecary John Rawlings has travelled to Devon to be by the side of his mistress, Elizabeth di Lorenzi, who is due to give birth to their child. Leaving his shop and his new carbonated water business in good hands, John is presented with a surprise on his arrival at Sidmouth House. While Elizabeth is recuperating, he learns that Lady Sidmouth's daughter, Miranda, is to marry the elderly Earl of St. Austell, who is 54 years her senior and has a cruel reputation.

Apothecary John Rawlings is intrigued when a letter arrives asking him to investigate an impostor claiming to be the long-lost step-son of a wealthy Bristol merchant in possession of his dead wife's diamond inheritance. John Rawlings' father, Sir Gabriel Kent joins him on the trip to take the healing waters at Hotwell where they socialize with the crème of Bristol society. But Rawlings is compelled to try and solve the mystery and so he must trawl through the underbelly of 18th-century society.

Apothecary John Rawlings has been summoned to Devon by Elizabeth di Lorenzi, his beautiful but unpredictable mistress. Leaving his young daughter Rose in the good care of her grandfather Sir Gabriel Kent, Rawlings sets off for Exeter on board the stagecoach. His fellow-passengers are a motley crew, and incelude a large and talkative German lady; Cuthbert Simms, a dance-master; and Jack Beef, the so-called ï¿¿ï¿¿ï¿¿Black Pyramid", a bare-knuckle fighter.

It is 1588, and King Philip of Spain has assembled a great fleet and army to crush the English and end Queen Elizabeth's reign.

One man who has inside knowledge of this event is the young Henry Gresham. His good looks, youth, and wealth are the envy of some at court, so his position as spy for Walsingham further endangers his life.

In the dark days of King James I, a man must know his enemies to survive. To Henry Gresham, gentleman, scholar, courtier, and spy, William Shadwell is invaluable. A thief, informer, double-dealer, and pimp, he may not be the most moral of men, but he is one of Gresham's best sources. When Shadwell is murdered, Gresham's enquiries uncover a plot so audacious it is scarcely believable.

It's 1980: recession and unemployment have hit Britain, a royal wedding is on the way, and the whole country is wondering Who shot JR? As Jack returns for his fourth year at Ragley-on-the Forest School, there's a definite chill in the air. Village schools are being closed down all over the place - will his be one of them? As school life continues - Vera, the school secretary, has to grapple with a new-fangled electric typewriter, Ruby celebrates 10 years as the school cleaner, and the village panto throws up some unusual problems. Jack wonders what the future holds....

The gunners on the Golden Ray were a strangely assorted bunch. There was the professional, Sergeant Willis, in love with his job, Vernon the intellectual, and Miller the tragic communistic misfit who found his Russian Mecca not quite what he expected.

Scotland, summer 1556. Desperation drives Abby Gordon to seek refuge with Iain MacGregor and ask his help, but will he give her something more for her heart, instead? After escaping the clutches of wily Laird Glenorchy, Abby Gordon arrives at the MacGregor stronghold to take part in a chain of events that brings Iain to the brink of banishment and disaster to the clan.

Som a lany 1553. En Max, un jove tan atractiu com estafador, senamora d una de les dames de companyia de Lady Jane Grey, cosina del rei Eduard VI. La Margaret, la jove dama, sembla correspondrel. Disfressat de noble, en Max assisteix a les noces de Lady Jane per ser a prop de la noia. Un fet inesperat, però, trasbalsa la cerimònia. Una enigmàtica dona apareix de sobte i formula un misteriós presagi a la núvia.

1325: King Edward II’s reign seems cursed. Although he has rejected his wife, Queen Isabella, he still relies on her. Even now, she is in France to negotiate peace with her brother, King Charles IV of France - but he fears for the outcome. Meanwhile, Sir Baldwin de Furnshill and his friend Bailiff Simon Puttock return from France with an urgent instruction for the King. It is to be their last mission.

1325: England is a hotbed of paranoia under the reign of the unpredictable Edward II and his lover, Sir Hugh le Despenser. When the queen’s lady-in-waiting is slaughtered and a man’s body, hideously mutilated, is discovered behind the throne, the king demands to be avenged. Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, an experienced investigator of murders, is appointed to track down the killer, aided by his friend, Simon Puttock. In an age of corruption, when the king’s friends can use torture, blackmail and murder to promote their ends, a rural knight and bailiff must fight to stay alive.

Exeter, 1323. A strange man is entering people’s houses at night, causing panic amongst householders. Although many had thought him harmless, now he seems to have committed murder. A man lies dead in his own home, slaughtered merely for trying to protect his children, and the folk of Exeter want this menace caught and hanged. Sir Baldwin de Furnshill suspects that the solution isn’t that simple.

The universe shifts and changes: suddenly you understand, you get it, and are filled with wonder. That moment of understanding drives the greatest science-fiction stories and lies at the heart of Engineering Infinity. Whether it's coming up hard against the speed of light - and with it the enormity of the universe, realizing that terraforming a distant world is harder and more dangerous than you'd ever thought, or simply realizing that a hitchhiker on a starship consumes fuel and oxygen with tragic results, it's hard science-fiction where a sense of discovery is most often found and where science-fiction's true heart lies.

Called up in 1940, Reg expected to be fighting Germans. Instead, he found himself caught up in the fall of Singapore to the Japanese. What followed were three years of hell, moving from one camp to another along the Kwai river, building the infamous Burma railway. Reg made the deadly jungle work for him. With an ingenuity that is astonishing, he trapped and ate lizards, harvested pumpkins from the canteen rubbish heap and with his homemade razor became camp barber.

Honeybees, history, and small-town charm are what Honey Hill, North Carolina, is all about. Its mayor, Lunden Pierce, will stop at nothing to protect the town’s historical landmarks and distinctive character. She’s Honey Hill’s greatest champion. But everything changes when Lunden’s childhood sweetheart, Quade Cannon, returns to town. Though Quade has fond memories of his summers in Honey Hill, he has no use for the historic inn he’s inherited - or the honeybees living in its yard. His plan is to sell the inn and reap the rewards.

An honorably discharged Navy SEAL, Jack Sterling moves to Dayton to emotionally support his recently divorced mother. Rather than find her crushed as he expected, she’s surprisingly energized by a new, religious faith. Hired as a bounty hunter, Jack begins tracking down a war veteran fugitive that jumped bail, while encountering his own spiritual crisis. There's action, humor and personal reflection as Jack, in a dual pursuit, searches to find a brother in arms and his own soul.

It is England in the time of Henry VII. Two boys meet. They were born on the same day; they look identical but they are not from the same family. Tom Canty is a pauper living in a hovel in the back streets of London, surviving as a beggar. Edward is Prince of Wales and about to become Edward VI. By a sudden twist of fate, they find themselves in each other's circumstances, the pauper raised to royalty and the prince - to the state of a pauper.