Search results for ""Author James MacManus""

It is January 1941, and the Blitz is devastating England. Food supplies are low and tube stations have become bomb shelters. As the U.S. maintains its sceptical isolationist position, Winston Churchill knows that Britain is doomed without the aid of its powerful ally. As bombs rain down over London a weary Harry Hopkins, President Roosevelt's most trusted advisor, is sent to London as his emissary and comes face to face with the Prime Minister himself and an attractive and determined young female driver who may not be what she seems. In Sleep in Peace Tonight, a tale of loyalty, love, and the sacrifices made in the name of each, James MacManus conjures to life not only Blitz-era London and the behind the scenes at the White House, but also the poignant lives of personalities that shaped the course of history during Britain's darkest hour.

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In nineteenth century Paris, the young bohemian Charles Baudelaire roams the streets. Dressed impeccably - thanks to an inheritance that is quickly vanishing - and lost in the decadences of alcohol and opium, he is about to meet one woman destined to change his life forever: the beautiful Haitian cabaret singer, Jeanne Duval. Inspiring Baudelaire's most infamous poems - leading to the banning of his masterwork, Les Fleurs du Mal, and a scandalous public trial for obscenity - Duval becomes Baudelaire's muse, the catalyst for a legacy spanning centuries. Their volatile and passionate affair explodes through the Parisian literary scene but, as the ever-more fractious world catches up with them, the strength of their love will be tested to the end. Unfolding among the bars and salons during revolutionary times, Black Venus is an intoxicating story of love and betrayal in which drugs, absinthe and lust prove the making, and the destruction, of a great poet.

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In this heart-warming tale of female empowerment, a young woman comes to terms with the revelation that she may be able to fly. This is an extraordinary novel, exploring one woman's identity whilst posing universal questions: Who is she? Where does she belong? And must she accept her lot, or can she spread her wings and be free at last?

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Foreign Correspondent Richard Brady arrives in Africa to report on a nationalist insurgency that has gripped a once-beautiful country. An innocent newcomer, he struggles to stay neutral in a bitter war waged with terror and atrocity by both sides. He is soon drawn to Patience, a young township teacher with a fast tongue and a sharp wit. Their affair is tested when Brady discovers that his lover is recruiting her students to join the guerrillas and helping smuggle them across the border. Lost in love, torn between the nationalist cause and an embattled white regime and with the war closing in on all sides, Richard faces the ultimate challenge. Can he keep the woman he loves in a world at war?

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Acclaimed author and managing director of The Times Literary Supplement, James MacManus, creates a compelling historical novel that brings to life an unbelievable but true love story set during the Second World War. In 1942, Cork-born Kay Summersby’s life is changed forever when she is tasked with driving General Eisenhower on his fact-finding visit to wartime London. Despite Eisenhower’s marriage to Mamie, the pair takes an immediate liking to one another and he gifts Kay a rare wartime luxury: a box of chocolates. So begins a tumultuous relationship that against all military regulation sees Kay travelling with Eisenhower on missions to far flung places before the final assault on Nazi Germany. She becomes known as “Ike’s shadow” and in letters Mamie bemoans his new obsession with ‘Ireland’. That does not stop him from using his influence to grant Kay US citizenship and rank in the US army, drawing her closer when he returns to America. When the US authorities discover Eisenhower’s plans to divorce from his wife they threaten the fragile but passionate affair and Kay is forced to take desperate measures to hold onto the man she loves…

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Berlin, 1938. Newly-appointed military attaché Noel Macrae and his extrovert wife Primrose arrive at the British Embassy. Prime Minister Chamberlain is intent on placating Nazi Germany, but Macrae is less so. Convinced Hitler can be stopped by other means than appeasement, he soon discovers he is not the only dissenting voice in the Embassy and finds that some senior officers in the German military are prepared to turn against the Fuhrer. Gathering vital intelligence, Macrae is drawn to Kitty Schmidt's Salon (a Nazi bordello) and its enigmatic Jewish hostess Sara Sternschein-a favourite of sadistic Gestapo boss Reinhard Heydrich. Sara is a treasure-trove of knowledge about the Nazi hierarchy in a city of lies, spies and secrets. Does she hold the key to thwarting Hitler or is Macrae just being manipulated by her whilst his wife romantically pursues his most important German military contact, Florian Koenig? In James MacManus' absorbing new novel the author evokes a time and place when the personal and political stakes could not be higher and where the urge for peaceful compromise conflicts with higher ideals and a vicious regime bent on war. As loyalties are stretched to the limit and Europe slides towards another war, could just one act of great courage and sacrifice change everything?

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