Set in the fifteenth century this book tells the story of Lady Elizabeth Grey, whose husband was killed at the Battle of St. Albans and who desperately wants his lands back for her two little boys. So she stands out in the road as the new king, Edward IV, rides by, holding their hands and hoping he’ll see her.

He does see her and takes note not only of her problems, but of her beauty, and before she knows it, Elizabeth becomes his wife and is crowned queen of England and gets in almost over her head with politics and intrigue, including the mystery surrounding the deaths of her two two sons, the Princes John & Edward, who were locked up in the Tower of London and who died under strange circumstances…

The first part “The Lay of the Voslings” tells the story of Sigurd (Siegfried), who slayed the great Dragon Fafnir, who was guarding stolen treasure, which was supposed to be paid for the building of Valhalla, but which had been “liberated“ by a rather angry dwarf.

The poem also tells of how he awoke the Valkyrie Brunhilde, who had been put to sleep, surrounded by a wall of fire, as punishment for disobeying Odin, and how Siegfried entered into a blood Brotherhood with powerful princes called The Niebelungs, and his dealings with an evil enchantress, who was skilled in the arts of magic, shape-shifting & potions.

The second poem “The Lay of Gudrun” tells the story of Gudrun” the Niebelung, after the death of Siegfried, of her marriage against her will to the Mighty Atilla the Hun, his subsequent murder of all her brothers, the Niebelung, and her hideous revenge

It is a crime thriller set mainly at Thornleigh Hall, the seat of the Earl of Sussex,during 1780. whose heir suddenly goes missing, and the once vigorous family is then reduced to a dying man, his whore and his alcoholic second son.
Then when the grim discovery of the body of an unknown man bearing the Thornleigh Arms, is made on the borders of two country estates, the event brings two main characters into focus. Gabriel Crowther, a reclusive anatomist and unwilling investigator, and Harriet Westerman, the wife of the owner of Claveley Park, the estate next door, who both set out to discover just why the man was found with his throat cut.

Then on that same day, a chap named Alexander Adams is also found dead in a London music shop, leaving his young children orphaned. Could there be a chance that the two deaths are linked, and why?

Whilst there she finds a loving family. However her happiness is short lived and she is forced to flee, but is rescued by a mysterious stranger called Ben Devereaux, and together they take the first step on a dangerous new journey…

When Two dead bodies are found at the hotel – one a businessman and the other a Jewish boxer. Bernie has to dig to unearth the truth, and discovers a vast labour and construction racket designed to take advantage of the huge sums the Nazis are spending to showcase the new Germany to the world, and he uncovers a sinister plot…

His family are shattered by the event and his sister is presumed dead. So Johnny risks everything to find out the truth, which leads him to the dark side of his hometown in a last, desperate search for her. And he finds a city with an underbelly far blacker than anyone could’ve imagined

So he seeks the help of a Detective named Clyde Hunt, who has devoted an entire year to Alyssa’s case, and it shows: he is haunted and sleepless, he’s lost his wife and put his shield at risk. But he can’t put the case behind him – he won’t – and when another girl goes missing, the failures of the past year harden into iron determination. Refusing to lose another child, Hunt knows he has to break the rules to find out the truth & solve the case; and maybe, the missing girl will also lead him to Alyssa…

When his bride Catherine finally does arrive, looking prim and dour, she isn’t what she appears to be, either – She threw her extravagant party dresses out the train window a few miles from town, and she has hidden jewels in the hem of her black wool dress. She’s not even the woman in the photo she sent Ralph during their summer of tentative correspondence. And she’s carrying a bottle of arsenic and a long and complicated scheme….

Strawberry Fields by Marina Lewycka
This is a tender and hilarious novel about a crew of migrant workers from three continents who are forced to flee their English strawberry field for a journey across England in pursuit of their various dreams of a better future. They hail variously from Eastern Europe, China, and Africa and have come here to harvest Strawberries for delivery to British supermarkets, and end up living in two small trailer homes, a men’s trailer and a woman’s trailer. They are all seeking a better life (and in their different ways they are also, of course, looking for love) and they’ve come to England, some legally, some illegally, to find it.

Supervising (some would say exploiting) them is Farmer Leaping, a red-faced Englishman who treats everyone equally except for the Polish woman named Yola, the boss of the crew, who favours him with her charms in exchange “for something a little extra on the side” Unfortunately Farmer Leaping’s wife finds out about this little “arrangement” and does what any woman would do in this situation: She runs him down in her red sports car.

By the time the police arrive the migrant workers have piled into one of the trailer homes and hightailed it, thus setting off one of the most enchanting, merry, and moving journeys across England. Along the way, the workers’ ideals are shattered by the ignominious, brutal, and sometimes dangerous realities of life, some give up and go back home, and some even find love

A Short history of tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
Hilarious novel about two Ukrainian sisters, Nadezhda and Vera, who are raised in England by their refugee parents, and have as little to do with each other as possible, until a bosomy young synthetic blonde from the Ukraine named Valentina, enters their ageing father’s life, intent on seeing that he leaves this world with as little money as possible, unless Nadazhda and Vera can stop her.

Unfortunately separating their addled and annoyingly lecherous dad from his new love is no easy task because Valentina is a ruthless pro, who causes chaos & soon turns the family house upside down. Meanwhile their Father, who is oblivious to everything that is going on, carries on with the great work of his dotage, a grand history of the tractor.

It is the story of a very unlikely friendship between a woman named Georgie, whose husband has walked out; and whose sixteen-year-old son is busy surfing born-again websites, and Mrs Shapiro, an eccentric old Jewish emigre neighbour with an eye for a bargain and a fondness for matchmaking, Although they mistrust each other at first, a firm friendship is formed over the reduced-price shelf at the supermarket.

Then when Mrs Shapiro is admitted to hospital Georgie is surprisingly named as her next of kin. But sorting out Mrs Shapiro’s semi-derelict mansion in Highbury, is no easy job, what with seven cats, all with agendas of their own, a handyman who turns out to be not what he seems and two assistants who seem to be doing more breaking than fixing. Matters are complicated further when two slimy estate agents (one with a charming penchant for bondage) start competing to trick Mrs Shapiro into selling her rickety old house, and a social worker tries to commit her to a nursing home…

When the new premier, Kruschev, orders the publication of a speech that he made criticising the actions of the government under Stalin, it triggers a series of murders – the victims are all people who participated in Stalin’s repression of the innocent. The deaths force Leo to confront his first arrest as an MGB agent, where he infiltrated and betrayed an Orthodox priest, Lazar. Soon Leo’s past will put him and his family in danger as a figure from Leo’s past seeks revenge, sending him on a dangerous mission to save his family….