Troubador Publishing strana 3 z 16

“Really beautiful and vivid detailing in the storytelling.” – Chris Gribble, Former Head of The National Centre for WritingLondon, 2002. When Almir, a twenty-one-year-old Kosovan ex-boy soldier, is relocated to London with a new identity, flashbacks undermine his ability to keep his job as a street sweeper. Then he meets Roland, a forty-year-old British Jamaican, a Council surveyor trying to escape his Pentecostal upbringing, and failed relationship with Shirl with whom he has a fifteen-year-old son. Roland and Almir become closer as Roland offers first friendship, then sex, yet Almir remains secretive about his past, and struggles to identify as gay, forcing Roland to question their relationship. And who is Muzzafer, the name Almir repeatedly shouts out during frequent nightmares? As tension builds, Almir confronts his involvement in a war atrocity, which threatens to destabilise his sanity and his new UK life. But, against all these powerful obstacles, Almir and Roland’s love for each other continues to grow. Is it strong enough to last?

Peter Beamish is recruited into the prestigious consultancy firm Lex Savart following a gruelling series of interviews. Shortly afterwards, major national infrastructure companies are hit by cyber-criminals, demanding vast ransoms in crypto currency. Before he can help, Peter is let go from Lex Savart with no explanation or warning, and it is only then he starts to question what is really going on and who he can trust. The cyber-criminals are leaving a trail of blood and destruction as they wipe out key witnesses, and Peter fears he may be next. To save himself, he must get to the bottom of who caused the attacks and why.

Harry is cheeky, funny, playful, clever and kind. He loves playing with his brother, koala cuddles and playgrounds. He is also autistic. Discovering Harry’s Autism is a book written by six year old Harry. Journey through this book with Harry to discover his own experience of autism, and to explore his unique world of imagination and marshmallows!When Harry received his autism diagnosis his family could not find a book that would help him understand what it meant, so they decided to make their own. They soon realised that Harry didn’t need a book to tell him about autism, he already knew about autism because he was living it every day. Instead, they created this book with Harry so that he could teach people about autism and share his unique experience. Through Harry’s own words, and vibrant illustrations drawn by his Mum and coloured in by Harry and his family, you will discover a very personal, individual and heart-warming insight into Harry’s world.

Having gathered all 12 of the 16/87s – those who slip through time on each full moon – together, Jess still feels alone. It seems each of their lives are falling apart, and she still doesn’t know what to do with the information they found out from the timeslip. Jess also doesn’t know what role ‘The Chronos Club’ is going to play, other than their members all experience full moon disappearances too, with each group born a decade before the next. Dieter from the 15/44s seems to be the key, but Jess has no idea how the pieces of the jigsaw fit together. They don’t feel remarkable, experiencing the same love, loss, betrayal, pain, marriage, births and deaths, as anyone else, yet having to deal with the consequences of having jumped three years into the future and back again. They know what’s coming and they’re going to try to stop it.

Set in the years between 1970 and 1982 in three newly independent countries, these stories dramatize the interactions between different cultures in the post-colonial period. The Night Watchman, based on the theme of theft, tells the tale of an Englishwoman and her husband living in West Africa, who hire a local man to guard their property and become intimately involved with the health of him and his wife. In Dealing with the Health of the People, an American Ph.D. student discovers that everything must be bartered for, from articles for daily living, to his use of local labour, to providing health care for ordinary people, as he gathers data from a West African maternal and child health clinic for his dissertation. Encountering Baboons follows a young American teaching first year science at a Southern African agricultural college as he faces wild animals; prejudiced colonial attitudes; clashes between African and Western beliefs and practices; directing a group of students in performing Shakespeare’s The Tempest; relations with three very different women; and both political and natural storms.

A collection of short stories exposing human nature as mechanistic. The backdrop of our evolution is first painted via a quixotic character’s mission to alert his neighbourhood to coming doom. Two stories then follow different trajectories from the same inflection point of our shifting culture. One has doom averted, another careers towards the prophesied doom. Intimate tales follow, evoking both unseemly and more humane aspects of our nature. The central story, the dark heart, turns, presenting pathological behaviours as seen from the gene’s eye view and as resulting from forces that created us to be the gene-serving ape-machines we are. Further elaborating stories lead deeper into our psychology, dissecting the assumptions we make about ourselves and others. Projections are reflected back. We are challenged to justify our beliefs, and to confront a seemingly bleak view: that of a deterministic universe in which we evolved not for our wellbeing, but to propagate immortal genes. The final story in the collection imagines a future in which an evolved culture helps us live better with our evolved natures. Mechanical devices and scientific concepts are embraced in story titles, anchoring the narratives in the mechanistic character of human nature. The natural world reverberates throughout what is, ultimately, a humane vision.

This year … take a road trip of a lifetime, in an automobile that’s the first, and last, of its kind, in a world where the thrill and suspense of the movies come to life ... and your Counterpart has a script of its own …Welcome to Movieville! Intrigued during an investigation, journalist Richard Morrow never imagined that following a mysterious girl into a basement would lead them, along with a group of bystanders, to a barren, barely populated new world, a world inadvertently created by the fusion of MovieMagic! and Creative Energy by burnt-out film critic, Magnus Hope. Instantly merged with fictional Counterparts, they run, propelled by their hosts’ ongoing stories, thrust into menacing movie-like scenarios that seem to appear at random. Meanwhile, the enigmatic Movieville Moguls seek Talents from Earth to populate their domains, deploying sinister Extras and Agents to ensnare the heroes as they search for the portal back to Earth, or to the mythical Land of Independents. Aided, amongst others, by a conflicted Agent and a wise-cracking non-humanoid ally, the group strives to discover the truth about their Counterparts and the creation of the extraordinary world of Movieville.

‘If I can’t get off – get me out – at any price!’ When millionaire property tycoon Billy Danvers is arrested and awaiting trial for murdering his wife’s lover, his best friend – a respectable city banker – turns to London’s most powerful criminal to pull off the ultimate escape. But when it comes down to huge sums of money, the line between loyalty and betrayal begins to blur. Miracles Cost Extra is a razor-sharp thriller that delivers a stunningly authentic look at how justice can be bent, bought, or broken. It takes readers deep inside the world of high-stakes prison breaks, underworld fixers, and the shadowy border between law and crime. Written by Henry Milner, a legal heavyweight who has defended some of Britain's most notorious criminals. With decades of firsthand courtroom experience, the author crafts a story so true-to-life, it could have been ripped from his case files. ‘Drawing on a lifetime defending crime, Milner writes with elegant, compelling clarity; a novel that’s simply a joy to read.’ Judge Rinder‘A well plotted and thoroughly entertaining tale of lust, murder, bribery, loyalty, betrayal and revenge.' James Morton, Author of Krays: The Final Word

Eighteen-year-old Adam is unique. Not only is he an old soul on young shoulders, but he has a supernatural power. When he falls for his teacher, Sarah, and confesses his talent, she promises to keep it a secret and the pair embark on married life together. However, their path won’t be easy. Facing trolling, judgement and tragedy, their relationship becomes strained to the limit. And when the couple get caught up in the scene of a violent crime, Adam must choose whether to remain in the shadows or use his power to help others – a decision that will change their lives forever.

Test your football knowledge and brush up on your sports trivia with Football’s Full English Puzzle Book, a compendium of football fun covering every team that has played in the Football League, including a dedicated section on each of the 65 clubs that have tasted football at the top table of England’s beautiful game. If you know your Arsenal from your Accrington and your Loughborough from your Liverpool, give your brain cells a run out!The footy fun doesn’t stop there; as well as crosswords, there are Codewords, Hidden in Plain View, Transformers, Identity Crisis, Word Spiral, Fantasy Five-a-side, Read All About It, Name Drop, Lions & Lionesses, Name Link, Who’s Driving The Bus? Mixed Bag & True or False?

More Battles, Boudoirs and Bedsports. In the gripping sequel to Glory Beckons, three very different men find themselves in the collapse of Napoleon’s empire. Marshal Ney, Napoleon’s famous ‘Bravest of the Brave’, at the height of his illustrious career, with a secret that could destroy the Emperor’s infallible reputation. Sir Robert Wilson, an English general and diplomat, harbouring a hatred of Bonaparte, determined to be the man who assassinates him. Michael Bruce, young hedonistic Etonian with little interest in Napoleon’s ambitions, apart from when they interrupt his travels and erotic adventures. The exciting, dangerous and intertwining lives of these three men give them ringside seats to the end of a conflict that tore Europe apart and defined the shape of the world for the next century. Opening with Napoleon’s fateful entry into Russia and his advance towards Moscow, following the famous retreat through a Russian winter, and ending in the aftermath of Waterloo, Fleeting Glory is a non-stop page turner. Its racy depiction of gory battles, immoral court life and elegant lifestyles tells what it was really like for those caught in the finale of an empire.

BANG!!’… "What was that sound?!" asks an inquisitive 9-year-old Bean. "It was a balloon bursting" responds his seemingly sure-footed father Meabo. "Was there a bang inside the balloon?" responds the now even more confused child. As is often the case with children, a simple question can easily lead a conversation down a rabbit hole of what, why, when, and how. So begins a journey deeper (both physiologically and intellectually) than Bean had ever thought possible. In a world where information is literally at our fingertips, it’s easy to just respond with an answer to an ostensibly basic question from a child. Simple factual answers often lack context, and abstract analogies can provide even further confusion. The graphic educational fiction novel ‘What was that BANG?!’ is a dialogue between two characters Meabo, and his son Bean. Through playful conversation, the characters take readers through the journey a sound can take from source to conscious perception. Beyond leaving children with just scientific facts, the story encourages active questioning, developing logical thought processes, and instilling a growth mindset.

Germany 1920. A new political movement is born. It is led by a charismatic ex-serviceman whose aim is to create a ‘National Community’ in the war-devastated country. His followers call him ‘Führer.’ But this is not Adolf Hitler. His name is Friedrich Lamberty, better known as Muck, and his methods are very different from Hitler’s. He and his followers, who call themselves the New Crowd, trek through the centre of Germany singing, dancing and playing with local people. By the end of 1920 they have brought hundreds of thousands of people out of their homes to join in a ‘revolution of the soul.’ But then an unexpected and shocking development causes the New Crowd to break up. Muck disappears from the scene as quickly as he arrived. The story of Muck-Lamberty’s rise and fall, told here for the first time in English, throws new light on Germany in the early twentieth century. It examines the country’s unique youth movement, the impact on young people of world war and revolution, the strange post-war dance craze, the revolution in sexual behaviour, and the development of new ways of thinking about what it meant to be German - and Jewish. In each of these areas, Muck-Lamberty is compared with Adolf Hitler to find out why he was initially more successful than the Nazi leader, but then failed to establish himself as a ‘Führer.’

Neville Stack was once one of Britain’s favourite aviators. He came to fame as the first man to fly a light plane to India. And, having been honoured by the king for that achievement, he followed it with more than a decade of derring-do. Stack circled the Med, crossed Arabia countless times, and even flew down to Banjul. He served in both World Wars and all three branches of the Armed Forces, broke record after record, and had his own flying circus. He piloted a prime minister, the Shoe King, and the odd sultan. But he also crashed more often than he was willing to admit, wrote bawdy songs – and recorded them, too – and played a controversial role in the Spanish Civil War. And he left behind a rich chronicle of his exploits, including newspaper articles, a memoir in song, and flight commentaries actually dictated in mid-air. Drawing upon that chronicle, and also upon British Government files and a host of other fascinating sources, this book takes a close look at Captain Stack’s life and flights. It talks about his aeroplanes and his friends, who included Amy Johnson, Sir Alan Cobham, and the treacherous Master of Sempill. It goes back to the places he saw first-hand. And it tells the full story of his final, tragic fall from grace. Exuberant, colourful, and ever so light on its feet, STACK provides an intimate and singular account of one of the true heroes of flying’s Golden Age.

Behind the elegant façade of No. 28, a Victorian terraced house in a tree-lined avenue, five women try to outrun the darkness that threatens to consume them. Cloistered in separate apartments, seeking ways to fill the hours of solitude, their privacy is assured, each woman remaining oblivious to a strange secret that binds them all. The owner of No. 28, and occupant of the attic apartment, is unravelling at an alarming rate. Her psychiatrist, an enigmatic figure coaxed out of retirement, believes he is more than qualified to take on Alana’s case. But, as the sessions with his client dive deeper, the line between memory and fantasy blurs, and he begins to question his own view of reality. Those who cross paths with the residents of No. 28 find themselves drawn into a growing maelstrom of deception and chaos. And when the storm breaks, lives will be claimed. Darkly humorous and deliciously unsettling, No. 28 is a suspense-laced study of fractured minds and fragile alliances. A cautionary tale, it explores the tapestry of invisible strands that binds the fate of unsuspecting souls, and the destructive forces unleashed when the anchoring thread snaps.

Earl Edward Chester is to inherit Brimstone Lodge. To escape his mother's continuous drive towards him producing a suitable wife and the next heir, he takes a bet with friends to marry the first single girl he meets. Eleanor, a country girl, goes against all her natural instincts when she marries Edward, who she believes is the estate manager. After a blissful period, all Eleanor's dreams come tumbling down when she finds out who Edward really is. Decision time. Does Eleanor give up on her marriage to Edward, or rise to the challenge as the new Countess of Buxto? surprising opportunity of help comes from an unexpected connection. Will this person mould her new life? Will they give her hope?