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Historians have long whispered that Elizabeth "the Virgin Queen's" passionate, lifelong affair with Robin Dudley, Earl of Leicester, may have led to the birth of a son, Arthur Dudley. Set against the background of the Spanish Armada's invasion of England in 1588, two parallel tales unfold: Queen Elizabeth's affair with Leicester, her politically dangerous pregnancy and elaborate scheme to hide it from the world and the tragedy of her still-born son; and the story of Arthur, their illegitimate son, born alive but secretly swapped at birth to be brought up as a country gentleman completely unaware of his identity. A dreamer, romantic and magnificent horseman, he sets off to fight Philip II of Spain. Years later, his story collides with that of his mother when his adoptive father confesses all on his deathbed.
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Tokyo, 1939. On the Street of a Thousand Blossoms, two orphaned brothers are growing up with their loving grandparents, who inspire them to dream of a future firmly rooted in tradition. Hiroshi, the elder, shows unusual skill at the national obsession of sumo wrestling, while Kenji is fascinated by the art of creating hard-carved masks for actors in the Noh theater. Life seems full of promise as Kenji begins an informal apprenticeship with the most famous mask-maker in Japan and Hiroshi receives a coveted invitation to train with Tanaka. Across town, a renowned sumo master, Sho Tanaka, lives with his wife and their two young daughters: the delicate Aki and her independent sister, Haru. But then Pearl Harbor changes everything. As the ripples of war spread to both families' quiet neighborhoods, all of the generations must put their dreams on hold - and then find their way in a new Japan.
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When the commanding officer of the U.S.S. Caine is transferred during operations in the Pacific theatre, a new captain, strict disciplinarian Philip Francis Queeg, replaces him. But Queeg's actions go beyond strictness into psychopathology as he brings the ship and its crew to the brink of destruction. This necessitates a brutal shipboard court-martial that threatens by turns to clear or condemn him. It is a novel hailed as one of the first serious works of American fiction to grapple with the moral complexities and the human consequences of World War II.
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Book II of Boy Soldier. A series of high-profile suicide bombings are devastating London and frustrating British Intelligence. But that doesn't matter to seventeen-year-old Danny Watts and his former SAS hero grandfather, Fergus, who are living undercover in southern Spain, knowing that the slightest slip could expose their whereabouts to the ruthless killers on their trail. All too soon, Danny and Fergus have their cover blown and are on the run again, with their enemies closing in fast. Suddenly, Danny and Fergus are forced to return to London and clear the family name. But once back in the UK, it appears that Danny is somehow connected to the bombings, and now they both must struggle to bring the truth to light before it's too late for payback.
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Ginger Mick was a likeable rogue - the original Aussie mug lair and larrikin - who, before he answered the call to arms to defend democracy, sold fresh rabbits in the streets of Melbourne. This book tells of his tender love for Rose and his experiences at war in North Africa. The verse is full of humour and pathos and truly captures the spirit of the era.Illustrated by Hal Guy.
Now, when a bloke 'e cracks a bloke fer insults to a skirt, An' wrecks a joint to square a lady's name, They used to call it chivalry, but now they calls it dirt, An' the end of it is cops an' quod an' shame.
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Walden Yapp has lived a singular life. Professor of Demotic History at the University of Kloone, Yapp spends his days highlighting the corrupt capitalistic nature of the upper-classes, and his nights feeding Doris, his computer and only friend, the information he has gathered. So when capitalist Lord Petrefact hires him to write a damaging family history, Yapp seizes the chance to chronicle the corrupt life of the Petrefact family. Spurred on by his expectations of dishonesty and depravity Yapp heads of the town of Buscott, where nobody is what they at first appear to be. Now a pawn in Lord Petrefact’s vindictive family game, Yapp’s presence is as welcome as the plague. From provoking dwarfish marital problems to uncovering an erotic toy factory, Yapp’s presence sparks such a chain of events that going through a car wash will never feel the same!
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Azincourt, fought on October 25th 1415, on St Crispin's Day, is one of the best known battles partly because it was a brilliant and unexpected English victory and partly because it was the first battle won by the use of the longbow. This was a weapon developed in this form only by the English - parishes were forced to train boys from as young as eight daily - and enabled them to dominate the European battlefields for the rest of the century. Nicholas Hook is a man frequently in trouble at home but finds his true path in the company of Henry V's archers. The book relates the events leading to the Battle of Agincourt, the historical personages and the fictional characters as seen by Nicholas Hook. N.B. This book was released as Agincourt in the United States.
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In 1864, Union general William Tecumseh Sherman marched his sixty thousand troops through Georgia to the sea, and then up into the Carolinas. The army fought off Confederate forces, demolished cities, lived off the land and pillaged the Southern plantations, accumulating a borne-along population of freed blacks and white refugees until all that remained was the dangerous transient life of the dispossessed and the triumphant. In Doctorow’s hands the great march becomes a floating world and a nomadic consciousness. Described by Time as..."Spellbinding ...a ferocious re-imagining of the past that returns it to us as something powerful and strange.”
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The year is 1517. Dismas is a relic hunter: one who procures - ahem - 'authentic' religious relics for wealthy and influential clients. His two most important patrons are Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony and soon-to-be Cardinal Albrecht of Mainz. While Frederick is drawn to the recent writing of Martin Luther, Albrecht pursues the financial and political benefits of religion and seeks to buy a cardinalship through the selling of indulgences. When Albrecht’s ambitions increase his demands for grander and more marketable relics, Dismas and his artist friend Dürer conspire to manufacture a shroud to sell to the unsuspecting noble. Unfortunately Dürer’s reckless pride exposes Albrecht’s newly acquired shroud as a fake, so Albrecht puts Dismas and Dürer in the custody of four loutish mercenaries and sends them all to steal Christ’s burial cloth (the Shroud of Chambéry), Europe’s most celebrated relic. On their journey to Savoy, where the Shroud will be displayed, they battle a lustful count and are joined by a beautiful lady apothecary. It is only when they reach their destination that they realize they are not alone in their intentions to acquire a relic of dubious legitimacy. Filled with fascinating details about art, religion, politics and science; Vatican intrigue - and Monty Pythonesque wit.
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