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  Yul The Younger

  Jules Wright

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  The Roman Empire is coming apart at the seams, relying on German recruits and foederati to hold the empire together. The eastern and western empires are ruled by incompetent young men who allow their German warlords to rule for them, but imperial elites conspire against the generals. Yul the Younger is a Saxon boy negotiating life in the empire with strong ties to his family in Germania. His father, Yul the Elder, sends Yul to a monastery school to learn the ways of the empire, with the father serving the empire as a quaestor (treasurer) in the east of Britannia. Yul the elder’s job is to make certain that the mostly German troopers of the Saxon Shore are fed, equipped, and paid, but Romano-British landlords are withholding taxes while enslaving Germans and building lavish country houses. Life in the monastic school at Verulamium (Saint Albans) proves difficult for Yul the Younger with monks insisting he give up his Germanic gods for Christ. He is also harassed by the entitled sons of British elites. Yul dares to make his escape with his best friend, a Pict, named Keaffer. Both enlist in the Brave Companions stationed at Othona as self-declared Emperor Flavius Claudius Constantine opts to invade Gaul to capture the purple and stop the Germanic tribes from crossing the Rhine Frontier to settle in the dying empire. Tall, blond, and broad, Yul joins the invasion of Europa. He also finds love and seeks revenge for the wrongs committed by Britons against his family and companions.

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  Under Ground - Jem Flockhart Book 6

  E S Thomson

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  A plague is coming to London. Dreaded more than the Devil himself, cholera - the 'blue death' - spares no one. As fear grows across the city, Jem Flockhart and Will Quartermain are called to the bedside of a dead man, murdered, and with his throat torn out, in the back room of a brothel. When an innocent man is taken to Newgate, Jem and Will have until execution day to save him. The search for the identity of the corpse, and the killer, takes them to the gates of Blackwater Hall, home to the secretive, and corrupt Mortmain family. With the approach of autumn, no one is safe, for the fog brings with it an evil and poisonous sickness - the perfect shroud for murder. 
  When family secrets are prised out into the open, people begin dying. But who, or what, is the cause? Searching for answers, Jem and Will are driven underground, to the passages and tunnels beneath the city's teeming streets. Here, their adversary proves to be more elusive, and more deadly, than ever. 
  'Jem Flockhart books are the best I've read in years' - KIRSTY LOGAN 
  'A marvel . . . thoroughly engrossing' - MARY PAULSON ELLIS

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  Momentum - Montessori A Life in...

  E.G. Slade

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  "Simply brilliant—no, complexly brilliant. I have never read a more absorbing, unflinching, intense embodiment of biographical fiction." 
   — Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Abundance, a Novel of Marie Antoinette and Ahab's Wife 
  "Elizabeth Slade has added a profound new book to the literature around Dr. Maria Montessori's life that takes readers on a first-person historical fiction narrative that embraces Montessori's personal life, her journey into motherhood, and ultimately, her humanity as the person behind this incredible movement.”  
   — Mariana Bissonnette, author of Babies Build Toddlers 
  Momentum is a captivating historical novel about Dr. Maria Montessori, a brilliant woman who defied societal norms, becoming one of Italy's first female doctors and later revolutionizing education worldwide. Taking its bones from an actual diary written by Dr. Montessori in 1913 chronicling her first voyage to America, Momentum is a fictionalized retelling of that same journey. Written directly to her son, Mario, the novel illuminates their complicated relationship and how he came to be raised by others while she focused on her work. Momentum is a compelling portrait of a woman who overcame countless obstacles to leave a lasting impact on the field of education. 

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  Satan's Circus - An evil couple...

  Lady Eleanor Smith

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  Lady Eleanor Furneaux Smith was born in Birkenhead, Merseyside in England on the 7th August 1902 into a privileged family steeped in titles and politics. 
   
  Part of her education was at Miss Douglas's school at Queen's Gate.  Here she met and befriended several other young women that the British tabloid press would later call the ‘Bright Young Things’, a group of bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London. 
   
  Smith's paternal great-grandmother, was said to have been a Gypsy, and this sparked an early and life-long interest with the Romani people, she even went so far as to learn to read and speak the language, which she called ‘musical and broken.’ 
   
  Her life was full of adventure and mishaps.  A mistaken encounter with a man she thought could help her into the film business turned out to threats of marriage and death from a man wanted for the murder of his father.  She was even arrested twice.  Once for listing her career as a journalist and another, in Rome, for walking around in a sleeveless dress. 
   
  Smith began her career writing society gossip columns for various newspapers but later received an offer to write for the newly-formed Great Carmo Circus, with which she travelled for several years and was the source material for many of her books. 
   
  Her first novel, ‘Red Wagon’, was published when she was 28 and it was an immediate bestseller.  A prolific writer several of her works were also adapted for films. 
   
  Smith also wrote ghost stories and others flavoured with evil.  Her support for the Conservative party may be forgiven but her attributed quote to be a ‘warm adherent of General Franco’ less so. 
   
  Lady Eleanor Furneaux Smith died on the 20th October 1945 in Westminster after a long illness. She was 43.

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  Mór Jókai - A Short Story...

  Mór Jókai

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  Móric Jókay de Ásva was born on the 18th February 1825 in Komárom, then in the Kingdom of Hungary but now part of Slovakia.  
   
  Due to his timid and delicate constitution he was educated at home until the age of 10 and then sent away to complete his studies at the Calvinist college at Pápa. 
   
  At 12 his father died, and he was pushed to honour him by replicating his career as a lawyer.  He studied hard and completed the curriculum at Kecskemét and Pest.  He won his first case as a newly graduated lawyer. 
   
  But he found a career in law to be dull and, encouraged by the positive reaction to his first play, he moved to Pest in 1845.  There he published, first in a newspaper, and then as a novel ‘Hétköznapok’ (‘Working Days’).  It was acclaimed as a masterpiece.  To add to his promise he was appointed as the editor of Életképek, the leading Hungarian journal. 
   
  In 1848 he married the actress, Róza Laborfalvi.  That same year Europe was awash with revolutions and Jókai, a moderate Liberal, enthusiastically supported the nationalist cause and its decision to depose the Habsburg dynasty.  The attempt failed. 
   
  He was now classed as a political suspect and threw himself into his literary career, writing dozens of novels, many of them masterpieces, stories, essays and the like.  In total he wrote several hundred volumes, many of them in the local Magyar language which helped arrest its declining relevance in society.  
   
  By 1867 the political temperature had cooled, and he entered parliament as well as becoming the editor a government journal he had founded.   His skills were much admired and helped the government navigate through several difficult matters.   
   
  His wife died in 1886 but although grief-stricken he continued to work and to write.  
   
  In 1897 the king appointed him a member of the upper house.  Two years later he caused a minor scandal by marrying the young 20-year-old actress, Bella Nagy.  At the time he was 74. 
   
  Mór Jókai died in Budapest on the 5th May 1904.  He was 79.

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  The Warriors

  Vivian Stuart

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  The tenth book in the dramatic and intriguing story about the colonisation of Australia: a country built on blood, passion, and dreams.
  Not only Englishmen come to the new country of Australia.
  A young American, the only survivor of a shipwreck, has also ended up there. She stands alone in this new and completely foreign world.
  Another American, who served in the British army against Bonaparte, has arrived as well — voluntarily.
  In this melting pot, everyone must establish a life for themselves. The obstacles are many, but the future is still bright ...
  Rebels and outcasts, they fled halfway across the earth to settle the harsh Australian wastelands. Decades later — ennobled by love and strengthened by tragedy — they had transformed a wilderness into a fertile land. And themselves into The Australians.

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