Why, for example, were Pablito, my elder brother, and I dark-haired with olive skin when the rest of my classmates were sandy and pale? Why did our family have a second way of speaking, which I didn?t understand? Why was ours the only home I knew where the walls were dominated with pictures of men in spangly waistcoats and tight trousers?' For Antonio, growing up Spanish in Glasgow is a nightmare - one of shame and potential embarrassment on every...

John Pearce discovers that Madrid plans to desert the British-led coalition and join the enemy. In company with Lord Langholm, he has taken a Spanish treasure ship. But a violent Atlantic westerly forces them into a deep bay, overlooked by Spaniards who have created a trap with cannon on the heights aimed at the narrow entrance. Pearce must take the lead, exposed to plunging fire, lucky the guns do not quite have the range and, having succeeded, he...

Funny, insightful and real, the book became an international bestseller. A PARROT IN A PEPPER TREE, the sequel to Lemons, follows the lives of Chris, Ana and their daughter, Chloe, as they get to grips with a misanthropic parrot who joins their home, Spanish school life, neighbours in love, their amazement at Chris appearing on the bestseller lists . . and their shock at discovering that their beloved valley is once more under threat of a dam. A Parrot...

?If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?? England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith?s son from Putney emerges from the spring?s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness...