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Master
and Commander
Patrick O'Brian
Collins,
1996 (first published in 1970)
Paperback.
416pp.
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£7.99
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Master
and Commander is the first of Patrick O'Brian's now famous
Aubrey/Maturin novels, regarded by many as the greatest series
of historical novels ever written. It establishes the friendship
between Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, who becomes his
secretive ship's surgeon and, we slowly discover, an intelligence
agent. It contains all the action and excitement which could possibly
be hoped for in an historical novel, but it also displays the
qualities which have put O'Brian far ahead of his competitors:
his depiction of the detail of life aboard a Nelsonic man-of-war,
of weapons, food, conversation and ambience, of the landscape
and of the sea. O'Brian's portrayal of each of these is faultless
and the sense of period throughout is acute. His power of characterisation
above all is masterly.
To
read about the other books in the series click
here.
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A
Close Run Thing
Allan Mallinson
Bantam Books, 2000
Paperback. 380pp.
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£6.99
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As
the war against Bonaparte rages to its bloody end upon the field
of Waterloo, a young officer goes about his duty in the ranks
of Wellington's army. He is Cornet Matthew Hervey of the Sixth
Light Dragoons - a soldier, gentleman and man of honour who suddenly
finds himslef allotted a hero's role.
To
read about the other books in the series click
here.
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Manly
Pursuits
Ann Harries
Bloomsbury,
2000
Paperback. 340pp. |
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£6.99
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Cape
Town, 1899. Diamond tycoon Cecil Rhodes believes that he has only
months to live, and that the only thing that can save him is the
sound of English birdsong. He
recruits Francis Wills, the world'sleading expert in birdsong,
to transport two hundred birds to Cape Town; but confused by the
change of season and hemisphere, they refuse to sing. This is
but the first obstacle for Wills, who finds himself irresistibly
drawn to intrigue, in a country on the brink of war.
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In
The Shape Of A Boar
Lawrence Norfolk
Phoenix
Paperback, 2000
Paperback.
360pp.
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£6.99
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A
mesmerising novel of love and betrayal, of ancient myths and modern
horrors, In The Shape Of A Boar begins in the pre-dawn
of history and reverberates through the darkest events of the
twentieth century. First hunted in ancient Greece, the Boar of
Kalydon returns three thousand years later in human guise. The
modern hunt leads from 1930s Romania to wartime Greece, and finally
to Paris in the 1970s, where the secret of the hunt is exposed.
"An
extraordinary achievement, imaginative, ambitious and brilliantly
successful" - A.S. BYATT
"Lawrence
Norfolk is a genius" - LOUIS DE BERNIERES
Other
books by Lawrence Norfolk include The
Pope's Rhinoceros.
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The
Leper's Companions
Julia Blackburn
Vintage,
2000
Paperback.
216pp.
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£7.99
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This
book was shortlisted for the Orange Prize For Fiction.
To escape from
her own sadness, a woman finds refuge in a past time. In a village
by the sea she watches the lives of the inhabitants unfold around
her. But the year is now 1410 and this is a world of devils and
miracles, a world in which there are no clear boundaries between
reality and the power of the imagination. A man's discovery of a
mermaid washed up on the sand starts a chain of events that leads
three of the villagers to accompany the enigmatic figure of the
leper on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The woman joins them and
sets out without the certainty of ever coming home again. |
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English
Passengers
Matthew Kneale
Penguin,
2000
Paperback.
463pp.
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£6.99
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This
book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2000.
It
is 1857 and the reverend Geoffrey Wilson has set out for Tasmania,
hoping to find the true site of the Garden of Eden. But the journey
is turning out to be less than straightforward - dissent is growing
between him and sinister racial-theorist Dr Potter, and, unknown
to both, the ship they have hurriedly chartered is in fact a Manx
smuggling vessel fleeing British Customs. In Tasmania the aboriginal
people have been fighting a desperate battle against British invaders,
and, as the passengers will discover, the island is now far from
being an earthly paradise...
Other
books by Matthew Kneale include Sweet
Thames.
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Sacred
Hunger
Barry Unsworth
Penguin, 1992
Paperback.
630pp.
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£7.99
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This
book was joint winner of the Booker Prize in 1992.
The
book covers a period between 1752 and 1765 and is concerned with
the entangled and conflicting fortunes of two cousins: Erasmus
Kemp, son of a Lancashire merchant, and Matthew Paris, a scholar
and surgeon just released from prison. The Liverpool Merchant
is the vessel on which the whole of the novel hinges, and it carries
the reader deep into the history of man's iniquitous greed.
Other
books by Barry Unsworth include Losing
Nelson and After Hannibal.
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