UNITED KINGDOM AUTHOR · BIOGRAPHY · HISTORY
Roy Hattersley
Also known as: Hattersley, Roy., ROY HATTERSLEY
I don't know if I will live to finish this.
— from Borrowed Time, 1995
Most acclaimed
Borrowed Time
1995
The new novel by the most compulsive storyteller of them all.It is a golden evening of high summer in July 1990. Robin Timariot has set out that morning on what he has planned as a six-day tramp along part of Offa's Dyke. At the close of his first day's walk he encounters an elegant middle-aged woman who seems strangely out of place among the sheep and gorse of Hergest Ridge. They exchange only a few words of conversation, but their talk is enigmatic - and unforgettable. A few days later, at the end of his walk, Timariot returns home to learn from the newspapers that, just a few hours after their meeting, the woman, whose name was Louise Paxton, was raped and then murdered, along with an artist, Oscar Bantock, who lived near by.A man is swiftly charged and convicted of the crime, but a string of inexplicable events begins to convince Timariot - and others - that all is not what it seems. Timariot, fascinated by Louise Paxton's memory, is drawn irresistibly into the complex motives and relationships of her family and friends, searching against his better judgement for the secret of what really happened on the day she died.The closer he gets to the truth, the more hideous and uncertain it seems to be. And far too late he realizes that it may threaten many powerful people. So much so that anybody who uncovers it is unlikely to be allowed to live.
John Wesley
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was a great evangelist. He toured the British Isles for fifty years in the eighteenth century, preaching in churches, tiny chapels, village squares and in vast open areas, where he attracted enormous crowds. By the 1770s he was probably the most recognisable man in Britain, so much did he travel. He was also a sensitive counsellor, a concerned pastor, a thoughtful theologian and a brilliant organiser. There are some who believe that his influence was so great that he and his associates saved England from the ravages of a revolution similar to that which occurred in France at the end of that century. John Wesley: The Man, his Mission and his Message paints a picture of Wesley that is vivid and enduring. He appears in these pages as a real man, not a plastic saint, with all his astonishing talents, his clever sense of humour and his tragic weaknesses.
Nelson
"Among military and naval commanders, Nelson stands in a small circle as one of the finest examples of inspirational leadership. The historian John Sugden charts the period of his career neglected by earlier writers - from his character-forming childhood to his breathtaking victory against the Spanish fleet at Cape St. Vincent, when he became an admiral and won international fame. It ends dramatically with his bloody defeat at Tenerife, where he lost an arm. Like Alexander of Macedon, Nelson led from the front (not always a sensible custom). But he was a hero, and his actions invariably raised his stock with his men, who trusted him as a commander willing to share their dangers." "Nelson: A Dream of Glory combines scholarship with a vivid narrative style. Dealing with every facet of his crowded life, the author offers the only full account of Nelson's early voyages and the first complete analysis of the formative incidents in his career. Throughout, there are revealing, startling, and sometimes shocking discoveries about Nelson's relationships with family, patrons, officers and men, and women. Previous biographies have failed to penetrate the mythology encrusting one of history's greatest naval heroes, and none has been based on a thorough review of original sources."--BOOK JACKET.