Showing results by publisher "Soundings" in War & Military

In 20 years the de Hauteville brothers have gone from penniless obscurity to become the most potent warrior family in Christendom. Now, at the head of the tribe stands Robert, who has only one aim: to expand his power by military conquest. Roger, the youngest of the brothers, is a giant in build and a great fighter. In company - and sometimes in conflict - with Robert, he will seek to raise the family to the pinnacle of influence.

London, 1912. Identical twins Lester and Lillia Holdsworth are destined for the stage. Lester is a brilliant pianist, Lillia a magnificent opera singer. But their father has other ideas. Lester is sent to a military academy while Lillia must marry Lord Dalton - a self-righteous, pompous friend of her father's looking for a young wife to give him an heir. Yet their plans to defy their father's wishes are put on hold when war breaks out in 1914.

Justinian, the Byzantine emperor, is desperate to revive the empire's glory. Among his actions to this effect is the dispatch of his brave general, Belisaurius, to fight the Persians in the East. But Justinian fights paranoia and grows concerned that Belisaurius will become a threat to his power and person.

The Hundred Years’ War is over and newly-knighted Sir John Hawkwood is headed for France to make his fortune as a freebooter. Violence and extortion are rife, and the freebooters will stop at nothing to capture the Papal City of Avignon. This is only the beginning. Italy beckons, and with it, yet more battles against rival mercenaries, powerful cities and the Papal State.

Ardnish, 1944. On his deathbed, Donald John Gillies sends for a priest to hear his last confession. Waiting anxiously for the priest, his mind travels back to the dusty plains of South Africa in 1901, where he fought as a Lovat Scout during the Boer War and where he met the woman who was the love of his life. Forced to abandon her and her young daughter in a British concentration camp, DJ returns to Scotland and his old life after his camp is ambushed by Boers and many of his fellow soldiers are massacred.

After joining the Lovat Scouts at the outbreak of the Second World War, Donald Angus Gillies is sent on a mission to the Alps, where he meets Françoise, a young French Canadian SOE agent. The pair immediately form a close bond, but when Françoise is injured and captured, Donald realises his feelings for her are much stronger. After desperate attempts to find her, he has given up all hope. But a posting to Canada leads to some remarkable news, not just about Françoise but also about his own family.

In the Middle East tension is escalating between the British and the Arabs. Misfit Lieutenant Harry Downe is sent to negotiate a treaty with a renegade Bedouin Sheikh, Ibn Shalan, whose tribe is attacking enemy patrols in Iraq and cutting oil pipelines. Greedy for arms, Shalan accepts British weapons, but, in return, Harry must take his daughter Furja to be his bride. The secret marriage leads to a deep love, to the anger of Shalan and the disgust of Harry's fellow officers. But war is looming.

Cut adrift by British Intelligence at the end of the Cold War, Jack Case is called back into service following 9/11. In a quiet Alaskan backwater, a man named Danny Lewin has committed suicide. But this was no ordinary suicide. This was an agent who held secrets. A man haunted by his past interrogating prisoners in Iraq. And British Intelligence fear that he put his secrets down on paper. Before long Case is drawn into a manhunt that drags him into the murky underworld of contemporary espionage and leaves him questioning who his allies and who his enemies are. The rules of the game have changed since the Cold War, and now Case must impose his own rules....

Mesopotamia, 1916. The Turks order prisoners from the siege of Kut to march the hundreds of miles to Baghdad. The men are weak from starvation after the five-month siege, with many suffering from dysentery, scabies, and malaria. They have no medical supplies. And then the hot weather begins.... Hundreds of men die on the march, the stragglers killed by Arab tribesmen; those too ill to move are left behind to die.

linded war veteran Frederick Rowlands has escaped the bustle of London to establish a secure life for himself and his family in the countryside. But everything is about to change when an old friend, Chief Inspector Douglas, asks for his assistance in tracking down the killer of a beautiful dancer. That there is a link between the murder and St Dunstan's, the institute for blind ex-servicemen of which Rowlands himself is a member, is only one of the puzzling features of the case.

The Byzantine Empire rules in Southern Italy, but the indigenous populations are restless. The Lombards are no exception to this. One of their number, Arduin of Fassano, is appointed by a young Byzantine general to hold the key to Apulia. He is unaware that Arduin intends to join his Lombard brethren and rise up in revolt, hiring to aid him the Norman mercenaries of Campania.

September 1914. The First World War has broken out on the Western Front. Thousands of miles away on the Rhodesian border, Simon Fonthill is preparing for battle alongside his companion, 352 Jenkins and tracker Mzingeli. The trio come under constant fire from enemy forces. At the bequest of Admiral Herbert King-Hall, they undertake their most dangerous mission yet: sinking the Königsberg, a German cruiser ship hidden deep in the Rufiji Delta.

Fifth century of the Byzantium Empire. Flavius Belisaurius is son of the governor of Dorostorum City, and his father has two goals: to keep out the barbarians and to expose the deep roots of secular and ecclesiastical corruption. Seeking to prevent a raid, the Governor enlists the help of the powerful magnate, Senuthius Vicinus. Vicinus's corruption is widespread but his support is crucial to win the battle.

World War Two is over and the Cold War beginning when Brett Manning is sent to do some business in Archangel. But on his way, in the thick fog and darkness of the Barents Sea, disaster strikes and his ship is run down by a much larger vessel. Only Brett and one other man are picked up. The two survivors find themselves on board a Russian freighter bound for a secret destination. Slowly it dawns on Brett and his companion that they now know too much for their own good.

When a favour to a friend leaves Cal Jardine caught up in the Spanish Civil War, he finds that he must take a bunch of athletes and turn them into fighters. He meets the revolutionary, Juan Laporta, and if they do not make a perfect combination as fighters they form an effective one, both in Barcelona and then as they advance into the interior. But trouble is brewing in the person of communist diehard Manfred Drecker which threatens the fight and Cal himself.

1935: Cal Jardine is a soldier of fortune. Forced to leave Hamburg, he is recruited by a secretive British committee to smuggle guns to Abyssinia. But first Jardine must procure the weapons from Romania. Taken to the Horn of Africa, the arms are then transported over a harsh landscape into the hands of the Ethiopian Army.

The Nazi regime is gaining devastating power as Hitler is appointed Chancellor and stark oppression begins to unfold in Germany, blind war veteran Frederick Rowlands takes on the most challenging investigation of his life. A glamorous film star has been murdered and the menacing political undercurrents drag Rowlands into the heart of the German film industry. Rowlands discovers that he is closer to the action than he originally thought as his young nephew, Billy, was the last one to see the movie star alive.

Evacuated to the countryside, she realises there are more dangers than German bombs in wartime. In summer 1939, Canadian-born teacher Victoria McKaye takes up a new position at a London school, only to shortly coordinate the evacuation to the countryside with standoffish spinster Beatrice and young, quiet Nell. Arriving in the village of Hazelbury, Victoria sorts out billets for her young charges and meets Louis Granger, a naval officer. As their friendship turns to something more, she notices some strange behaviours - including him meeting with foreign men in secret locales.

France, 1942. As the war in Europe rages on, Adèle Ambeh dreams of a France that is free from the clutches of the new regime. The date of her marriage to a ruthless man is drawing closer, and she only has one choice. With the help of her mother, Adèle flees to Lyon, seeking refuge at the Sisters of Notre Dame de la Compassion. The sisters are secretly aiding the French Résistance. Adèle quickly finds herself part of the Résistance.

Following heavy casualties, General Townsend withdraws his exhausted troops to the town of Kut Al Amara, Iraq. His orders - to engage as many Turkish troops as possible in a siege situation. A relief force is hastily assembled, among them Charles Reid, Tom Mason and Michael Downe, for each of whom the advance is personal. Charles returns to the country where he lost the love of his life.