by Marie Macpherson (2012)
Hailes Castle, 1511. Midnight on a doom-laden Hallowe'en and Elisabeth Hepburn, feisty daughter of the Earl of Bothwell, makes a wish?to wed her lover, the poet David Lindsay. But her uncle has other plans. To safeguard the interests of the Hepburn family she is to become a nun and succeed her aunt as Prioress of St. Mary?s Abbey, Haddington. However, plunged into the political maelstrom and religious turmoil of the early Scottish Reformation, her life there is hardly one of quiet contemplation. Strong-willed and independent, she clashes with those who question her unorthodox regime at St. Mary?s, including Cardinal David Beaton and her rival, Sister Maryoth Hay. But her greatest struggle is against her thrawn godson, John Knox. Witnessing his rejection of the Roman Catholic Church?aided by David Lindsay?she despairs that the sins of her past may have contributed to his present disenchantment. As he purges himself from the puddle of papistry, Knox finds his voice, denouncing everything he once held dear, but will that include his godmother, Prioress Elisabeth? And by confessing her dark secrets, will Elisabeth steer Knox from the pernicious pull of Protestantism or drive him further down the fateful path he seems hell-bent on, a path that leads to burning at the stake? In a daring attempt to shed light on a wheen of unanswered questions about John Knox?s early, undocumented life, this novel throws up some startling claims and controversial conjectures. The First Blast of the Trumpet is book one of The Knox Trilogy.
Vladimir Chernozemsky
There's trouble in the Balkans, the "Powder Keg" of Europe. Prolific Bulgarian-American author Vladimir Chernozemsky takes us back to the bloody Balkan War in his most personal novel yet. The Ottoman Turks occupied and oppressed the Balkans for five centuries until Bulgaria and its neighbors drove them out, only then to fight over the liberated territories. It was a devastating war that still reverberates today.
Frank P. Slaughter
Echoes of Distant Thunder shows us the war in stunning detail through the eyes of a twenty year old farm boy turned artillery soldier. On the bloody fields of Chickamauga Will Castor’s artillery battery is over-run by the enemy in fierce hand-to-hand combat, every member of his gun crew, including his best friend are killed and his final violent act of compassion will haunt him for the rest of his life. Caught behind enemy lines with a broken leg and unable to walk, he makes a pact with a war weary Confederate deserter and ends up falling in love with his former enemy’s beautiful sister. Historical events firmly anchor the story in place as Will, wounded in body and in mind moves from the battlefield to one crisis after another. Along the way he struggles with guilt, alcoholism and failed relationships.
James A. Michener
An epic novel about South Africa from the early days when only the Bushmen (San) roamed the land through to the days of Apartheid and the dichotomies thrown up by this unreal set of laws. Follow the early Black tribes in Zimbabwe through the Dutch colonisation of the Cape. Occupy the land with the English settlers and follow the early Afrikaaners during the Great Trek. Relive the Boer war from both sides of the English / Afrikaans fence, learn how the Afrikaaners gained power from the English and developed their Apartheid policies. Read how these policies affected the lives of people, black, white and brown. A soaring tale told with Michener's usual attention to detail and immaculate research.
Gillian Bradshaw
Spring, 266 BC. When Isokrates, helmsman of the Rhodian warship Atalanta, encounters a pirate vessel off the Lycian coast, he finds himself caught up in affairs of state more deadly than the naval battles hes accustomed to. Among the pirates victims is a beautiful woman, the mistress of a king, who is fleeing to her lovers enemy with news that will start a war to engulf the whole of the east.