A fast-paced, character-driven novel set in the late 19th century, based on a true story and set on a train which is doomed to disaster as it heads for Montparnasse station in Paris. The passengers we meet include real-life figures, and we jump between the lives and thoughts of these people as well as the men who are keeping the steam train running, An unusual and refreshing read.
Part espionage thriller and part murder mystery, this book set in the atmospheric setting of Ascension Island in the South Atlantic involves many twists and turns as a former spy turns up to investigate the case of a missing teenager. An entertaining and engrossing read.
'One of our finest thriller writers' Evening Standard
A BBC2 BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK 2021
'Oliver Harris is always pure quality' Ian Rankin
'A fascinating tale of modern espionage in a unique setting' Irish Independent
Three friends from a mission many years ago reconnect when one of them dies in mysterious circumstances on remote Ascension Island. Rory Bannatyne had been tasked with tapping a new transatlantic data cable, but a day before he was due to return home he is found hanged. When Kathryn Taylor, on the South Atlantic MI5 desk, begs ex-spy Elliot Kane to go over…
A gripping read centred on a race between England and France in the 18th century to invent - or steal - a magical formula to create an iridiscent blue to decorate porcelain. The books contains fascinating details about the lives of the Huguenot community in London in the 1700s, as well as the fashion for porcelain among the upper classes. An unusual and entertaining read.
'Nancy Bilyeau's passion for history infuses her books' - Alison Weir
In eighteenth century London, porcelain is the most seductive of commodities. Fortunes are made and lost upon it. Kings do battle with knights and knaves for possession of the finest pieces and the secrets of their manufacture.
For Genevieve Planche, an English-born descendant of Huguenot refugees, porcelain holds far less allure; she wants to be an artist, a painter of international repute, but nobody takes the idea of a female artist seriously in London. If only she could reach Venice.
When Genevieve meets the charming Sir Gabriel Courtenay, he…
Silk Mirage is a compelling portrait of Uzbekistan, a country at the heart of the ancient Silk Road and now the centre of a power struggle between reformers and reactionaries for the soul of this strategic land in Central Asia. In 2016, the long-ruling dictator Islam Karimov – one of the last Soviet-era strongmen – died, sparking a period of transformation under his successor, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, which became known as the 'Uzbek Spring'. But, as investigative journalist Joanna Lillis shows, spring has struggled to break through in one of the world's most repressive and totalitarian states. As one of the few western journalists with access to Uzbekistan and with over two decades of experience covering the country, Lillis travels deep into the heart of the Karimov regime, portraying all the excesses and atrocities that made it such a brutal dictatorship. She also penetrates the system that replaced it, exploring how life has changed for Uzbeks under Mirziyoyev's rule – and how it has not. A tale of both reform and repression, this book illustrates the challenges of dragging a country out of dictatorship. Lillis explores Uzbekistan's politics, economics, history, arts and culture – and asks where the country stands nearly a decade after the death of its dictator, and 600 years since its ancient capital Samarkand was the centre of the world's trade network. Lillis weaves in the extraordinary stories of ordinary people: from politicians to former political prisoners, from journalists to human rights crusaders, from entrepreneurs to environmentalists, from artists to architects, from silk makers to carpet weavers. Conjuring up Uzbekistan as a place full of life and loss, Silk Mirage tells the stories of courageous people who probe to find the cracks in an authoritarian regime through which the light gets in.
