Fans of C.J. Sansom must read this Saltire Society Literary Awards Scottish First Book of the Year
- a great non-fiction adventure
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South Africa, 1900. The search for his missing son takes Joseph Radcliffe from the streets of Dublin, smouldering with rebellion, to the trackless veld of South Africa & the bloody brutality of the Anglo-Boer War. As a former cavalryman in the US army, Radcliffe is no stranger to war, but 800 miles north of Cape Town, under fire from Boer commandos & distrusted by the British forces, he will find his survival skills tested to the hilt. The Last Horseman is an epic tale of heroism & treachery, love & loyalty, set against the backdrop of a conflict that shook an empire to its core. ...

In 1492 Spain is held in firm grip by the inquisition. Per decree an announcement is made that all Jews have to leave the country. A large exodus starts. 15-year-old Yonah is left on his own after his brother & father are killed. Instead of converting to Christianity or fleeing he decides to stand firm by his faith & to fight for himself. Three years later Yonah is keen to settle somewhere. In Granada he finally meets people of his own faith again
- the family of the silk merchant Saadi, who still practice Judaism in secrecy. Yonah`s love for Ines, the young daughter of the family, however remains unfulfilled. Yonah moves on to Gibraltar where he starts an apprenticeship with Fierro, an armourer. Fierro has to flee from the inquisition himself & asks his young apprentice to accompany him on his journey to the North & when he finally arrives in Saragossa meeting Nuno seals his fate. Yonah immediately senses that medicine is his true calling...
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Separated by a narrow stretch of swamp-like waters, & distinguished by the color of their skin, the Black Jews & the White Jews have been locked in a rancorous feud for centuries. Only now, when their combined number has diminished to less than 50 & they are on the threshold of extinction, have the two remaining Jewish communities in south India begun to realize that their destiny, & their undoing, is the same. Living in Cochin alongside this last generation, Edna Fernandes tells their story from the illustrious arrival of their ancestors from the court of King Solomon, through their long heyday of wealth, tolerance & privilege to their present twilit existence, as synagogues crumble into disuse & weddings disappear, leaving only funerals. ...

The year is 1506, & the streets of Lisbon are seething with fear & suspicion when Abraham Zarco is found dead, a naked girl at his side. Abraham was a renowned kabbalist, a practitioner of the arcane mysteries of the Jewish tradition at a time when the Jews of Portugal were forced to convert to Christianity. Berekiah, a talented young manuscript illuminator, investigates his uncle`s murder, & discovers in the kabbalah clues that lead him into the labyrinth of secrets in which the Jews sought to hide from their persecutors. A challenging mystery & a powerful indictment of the evils of intolerance, The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon is an extraordinary & spellbinding historical thriller. ...

What would it be like to become Idi Amin`s personal physician? Giles Foden`s best-selling thriller is the story of a young Scottish doctor drawn into the heart of the Ugandan dictator`s surreal & brutal regime. Privy to Amin`s thoughts & ambitions, he is both fascinated & appalled. As Uganda plunges into civil chaos he realizes action is imperative
- but which way should he jump?
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Giles Foden’s first novel The Last King of Scotland is told from the point of view of Nicholas Garrigan, a young Scottish doctor, who comes to Uganda when he accepts a position with the Ministry of Health. His arrival in Kampala, the capital city, coincides with Idi Amin’s coup overthrowing President Obote. After a few days he moves out to the bush to begin his assignment but is then called back when Amin is involved in a freak accident featuring his sports car & a cow. Within a few months Garrigan becomes the president’s personal physician & quickly descends into a position where he is squeezed between his duty to his patient & his own government’s attempts to have him help them control Amin. Amin’s character is not a simple one of a monster but is actually often appealing. Garrigan is cast as an average man, like us, who falls under Amin’s spell & suffers a moral slide from the little compromises he makes
- it could happen to nearly anybody. Along the way the reader is treated to a stirring portrait of Africa’s natural, political & social complexity. An amazing story of tropical corruption & an extraordinarily well researched account of Uganda & one of Africa`s most notorious leaders.
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Giles Foden’s first novel The Last King of Scotland is told from the point of view of Nicholas Garrigan, a young Scottish doctor, who comes to Uganda when he accepts a position with the Ministry of Health. His arrival in Kampala, the capital city, coincides with Idi Amin’s coup overthrowing President Obote. After a few days he moves out to the bush to begin his assignment but is then called back when Amin is involved in a freak accident featuring his sports car & a cow. Within a few months Garrigan becomes the president’s personal physician & quickly descends into a position where he is squeezed between his duty to his patient & his own government’s attempts to have him help them control Amin. Amin’s character is not a simple one of a monster but is actually often appealing. Garrigan is cast as an average man, like us, who falls under Amin’s spell & suffers a moral slide from the little compromises he makes
- it could happen to nearly anybody. Along the way the reader is treated to a stirring portrait of Africa’s natural, political & social complexity. An amazing story of tropical corruption & an extraordinarily well researched account of Uganda & one of Africa`s most notorious leaders.
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ENGLAND IS BORN. BBC2`s major TV series THE LAST KINGDOM is based on Bernard Cornwell`s bestselling novels on the making of England & the fate of his great hero, Uhtred of Bebbanburg. The Last Kingdom is the first book in the series. Season 2 of the epic TV series premiers this March. BORN SAXON. RAISED VIKING. IS UHTRED THE HERO THE LAST KINGDOM NEEDS? In a land torn apart by conflict, an orphan boy has come of age. Raised by the Vikings, deadly enemies of his own Saxon people, Uhtred is a fierce & skilled warrior who kneels to no-one. Alfred
- Saxon, king, man of god
- fights to hold the throne of the only land still resisting the pagan northerners. Uhtred & Alfred`s fates are tangled, saoked in blood & blackened b the flames of war. Together they will change history...

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The story opens on the day that the Western Roman Empire collapses finally in 470AD, as the Last Emperor of Rome is encamped protected by the Nova Invicta Legion. All is lost in the space of a few minutes as a horde of Barbarians sweep through the camp in the fog, kill the Imperial family & take the young Emperor captive. The Roman Empire is in ruins.. . But all is not lost. From the dust of battlefields emerges a small team of invincible warriors
- The Last Legion. Their task is to rescue the Emperor & his enigmatic tutor & to try & resurrect the glory of Rome. All their strength of character & bravery come into play as they guide the last Caesar in a dramatic journey of escape through a devastated Italy & Northern Europe to their ultimate destinies in the land of the Britons...and the beginning of a new legend.
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