Historical Humor

There was a time when the Red Gods ruled the land. The Dark Lady and her horde dealt in death and blood and fire. That time has long since passed, and the neighbouring kingdoms of Mireces and Rilpor hold an uneasy truce. The only blood spilled is confined to the border, where vigilantes known as Wolves protect their kin and territory at any cost. But after the death of his wife, King Rastoth is plagued by grief, leaving the kingdom of Rilpor vulnerable.

One minute, Joe, Sam, and Fred are shooting hoops in Brooklyn; the next, they're on a court that is definitely not in New York and surrounded by a bunch of players wearing feathered headdresses and not much else. And the other team is saying something about losers being the next blood sacrifices.

Blandford Candy is sent to London, after an illicit affair, and joins the Roundhead army to fight against the King, taking part in the Battle of Edgehill. A reluctant hero if ever there was one, he becomes a spy for the cause - and, through luck or judgement, uncovers more than one Royalist plot. His love of wine and the fairer sex prove both a curse and a blessing for the agent. Blandford soon earns the enmity of the King’s spy mistress Jane Whorwood, and patronage of the great parliamentarian leader John Hampden.

Emmy Lake is an agony aunt at Woman’s Friend magazine, doing all she can to help readers as they face the challenges of wartime life. With her column thriving and a team of women behind her, Emmy finally feels she is Doing Her Bit. But when the glamourous new owner arrives, everything changes. Charming her way around editor Guy Collins, Emmy quickly realises the Honourable Mrs Cressida Porter plans to destroy everything readers love about the magazine.

Peace has broken out, and World War I flying ace and all-round chancer Bartholomew Bandy isn’t exactly making a success of being a commercial pilot in the USA. But when a job lot of aircraft bits purchased with the last of his pay turns out to be a complete Vickers Vimy bomber, he feels his luck has changed. With the help of his very tall, very sweet girlfriend Cissie, and the hindrance of his very short, very bad, and beautiful girlfriend Dasha, Bart smashes (literally) straight into the exciting new world of the movies.

Erstwhile hot-dog-restaurant manager Adam Newman has a lot on his plate - and usually more than a bit in his drinking glass. With an ex-wife to win back, a fiancée to lose, a son to mentor, and a load of missing diamonds to locate, Adam may have finally bitten off more than he can chew.

Ne "I Miserabili" Victor Hugo narra con assoluta sensibilità ed estrema modernità la solitudine dell'uomo, il contrasto tra ceti sociali, ma anche la redenzione attraverso la rivolta e l'amore. Il romanzo, dal ritmo incalzante, magistrale e irripetibile per l'autenticità delle emozioni e per la complessità della trama narrativa, viene qui tradotto ad alta voce da un unico narratore, Moro Silo, che con la sua più che trentennale esperienza di lettore, riesce a cogliere l'enorme quantità di significati presenti nel libro nel massimo rispetto dello stile unico e originale dell'autore, del suo contesto storico-culturale e filologico.

In "Ghosts Want Privacy" a man seeking to pry into the affairs of guests staying in Boston’s Omni Parker House, the city’s historic, notoriously haunted, landmark hotel discovers the ghosts there not only have a sense of humor but also value their privacy and the rights of their human guests to the same and unfortunate things happen when people breach the privacy of others in their domain. The story "Ghosts Want Privacy" is a standalone excerpt from the comedy "Josh, Josh, Josh and Josh Go To Yale" a romantic comedy, coming of age, buddy story, in which all Josh ever wanted to do was go...

This novelette is an homage to the amazing P. G. Wodehouse and his legendary characters Jeeves and Bertie Wooster. While living in 1920's New York City, Bertie is saddled with looking after the son of one of his Aunt Agatha's best mates, the Lady Mallowan. Bertie thinks that the young Lord Wiltshire is a useless, annoying nitwit, but he has no idea that left on his own a completely different side of the young Dermot will start to emerge, putting Bertie in a serious pickle.

Franny Steinberg knows there’s powerful magic in laughter. She’s witnessed it. With the men of Chicago off fighting WWII on distant shores, Franny has watched the women of the city taking charge of the war effort. But amidst the war bond sales and factory shifts, something surprising has emerged, something Franny could never have expected. A new marvel that has women flocking to comedy clubs across the nation: the Showstopper.

When her beloved dies in battle, Lady Lydia Daughtry assumes she'll never love again. Until a deliciously handsome duke awakens a part of her she never knew existed. But how can she have such feelings for Tanner Blake, who is a constant reminder of all she has lost? Tanner Blake, duke of Malvern, promised his dying friend he'd take care of his "dearest Lyddie." So how dare he covet the lush, lovely young woman for himself—especially since he is all but betrothed to another? His solution: find Lydia a suitable husband immediately. But when both their lives become fraught with mystery and ...

Lady Nicole Daughtry has vowed never to be vulnerable to any man. Despite the many suitors vying for the dazzling beauty's hand, she has seen the damage love can inflict and wants no part of it. Until she meets Lucas Paine, Marquess of Basingstoke, whose aura of danger and mystery draws her like no other…. Lucas is a man with a mission—and a powerful thirst for revenge. The last thing he can afford is the distraction of a pretty face. But a scandalous affair with Nicole could be just the cover he needs to outwit his enemies. With treachery everywhere, and Nicole's very life in his hands...

Rilporin has fallen and Corvus, King of the Mireces, reigns over an occupied land. The raiders and their dark religion have conquered, but victory came at a terrible price – the death of a god – and sparks of resistance glimmer on all sides. In the south, Mace gathers the survivors of Rilpor’s armies. Among the fierce tribes of Krike, Crys and Dom search for allies and for the truth of what binds them to the Gods of Light. And in the royal palace itself, Tara – once a soldier, now a slave – hopes to ignite a rebellion.

In the spirit of Flashman, and in the inimitable George MacDonald Fraser style, comes a rousing story of prize fighting in the 19th century. Reissued in a stunning new package, Black Ajax will attract a new generation of fans. When Captain Buck Flashman sees the black boxer catch a fly in midflight, he realizes that he is in the presence of speed such as the prize ring has never seen.

Okano, a convenience store employee with a troubled past, is but one of the many unforgettable characters found in this collection of four stories. Among the others are three boys facing a frightening lesson in mortality, a woman using garbage to fill a hole in her heart, and a nurse struggling to cope with the oft-brutal cycle of birth, life, and death. Remaining constant even as it fades in and out of view is the great Mount Fuji, one of Japan’s Three Holy Mountains. It serves as the anchor for these characters’ lives, and for Randy Taguchi’s Fujisan, an exploration of redemption, discovery, loss, and remembrance.

The story picks up from the end of Blue at the Mizzen when Jack Aubrey receives the news, in Chile, of his elevation to flag rank: Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron, with orders to sail to the South Africa station. This new novel, unfinished and untitled at the time of O’Brian’s death, would have been a chronicle of that mission, and much else besides. As the novel opens, we are able to visit these friends we have followed so very far in a rare state of almost perfect felicity.

He always gets his lady… Billy Darling doesn’t enjoy being a wanted man until the day a duke’s prim and proper granddaughter comes marching into the Tumbleweed Saloon and points her derringer at his heart. Lucky for him, she's a mighty poor shot. She always gets her man… Instead of killing him, Esmerelda Fine hires him to find her runaway brother. Billy knows he should turn down her offer. He should resist her charms. But he doesn't. Because there comes a time in every man's life when he's got nothing left to lose...but his heart. New York Times bestselling author of Heather and ...

Bartholomew Bandy has become an air ace. On the ground, he causes disasters wherever he goes, but in the air, he's deadly, shooting down dozens of German planes in the course of thrilling aerial combats. As a handy but disposable war hero, he encounters a number of hair-raising adventures, not to mention English plumbing and an unforgettable honeymoon night.

A prequel to the bestselling classic The Mouse That Roared. Set in the year 1450, the tiny Duchy of Grand Fenwick, ruled by the benevolent and noble Sir Roger and armed with its army of expert longbowmen, had existed peacefully without threat of invasion for decades. But when a rascally Irish Knight stumbles across its borders with news that the French were set to attack and that they had a new weapon of mass destruction called "the cannon," the Irishman and Sir Roger must find a way to drop their differences and fight together, a feat made even more difficult when Sir Roger's daughter, the...

Salzburg, März 1913. Der Schausteller Otto Witte wird in eine Irrenanstalt eingewiesen, weil er steif und fest behauptet, König von Albanien gewesen zu sein. Der junge Doktorand Alois Schilchegger ist von diesem Mann fasziniert und nimmt sich seiner an. Ottos Version der Weltgeschichte beginnt im Oktober 1912 in Konstantinopel. Das Osmanische Reich droht auseinanderzubrechen. Albanien nutzt die Gunst der Stunde, erklärt sich unabhängig und sucht einen König. Otto und sein Kumpan, der Schwertschlucker Max Hoffmann, riskieren einen waghalsigen Coup: Albanien sucht einen König?