Books

The Horse: An Historical Author's and Reader's Guide Vol. II

This book will give the reader an insight into the way horses were treated, regarded and employed for both travel and pleasure, covering driving history and methods; harness; carriages and coaches; the arrival of the postal service; the major London inns, the main mail roads leading from the capital and the inns which sprang up along them.

Harvey and the Red Bus

Harvey, the adventurous black Labrador, escapes from the garden and becomes friends with a little girl in a big red bus. One day, when he visits the bus stop, she isn’t in her usual seat. Somehow he knows she needs his help and he sets out to find her.

Harvey and the Black Hole

Harvey the black Labrador has an adventurous spirit. One day he falls down a big black hole and finds a BIG surprise!

The Horse: An Historical Author's and Reader's Guide

The Horse: An Historical Author’s And Reader’s Guide is mainly aimed at those interested in the Georgian/Regency era, although it covers a wider historical period, including the development of various equine breeds and short histories of equestrianism, racing and racecourses already in existence. The two volumes offer a fascinating journey through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, packed with information vital to the historical author and of interest to any reader with a passion for horses. Bowling along the major routes, past picturesque coaching inns, we visit racecourses and other places of pleasure whilst meeting a rogue or two along the way.

This book will give the reader an insight into the way horses were treated, regarded and worked, their care – including ailments and methods of treatment when ill – and essential terminology.

Fortunes Turn

Fortunes can turn on a person’s whim, the toss of a coin, the spin of a roulette wheel or the back of a horse through a sporting wager. In this collection, which features the Number One Best Seller, Carpet of Snowdrops, a horse is instrumental in the direction taken by the protagonists’ fortunes.

In Carpet of Snowdrops, Eloise loses her poor belongings in a river when Joscelin unknowingly charges upon her in the snow.

In Chains of Fear, Helena finds herself in danger when the horseman entering the gates of Templeton Hall is the one from whom she fled.

Following the Duchess of Richmond’s famous ball, in Copenhagen’s Last Charge, Meg joins forces with a surly lieutenant in a chase through the streets of Brussels – after the Duke of Wellington’s famous charger. Revised edition.

This collection also includes a hitherto unpublished, magazine-length short story, A Contemptible Abduction, in which Amanda becomes embroiled with smugglers.

Chains of Fear                      

When diplomat Sir Julian Templeton falls over a stricken gentlewoman, he little expects to end up marrying her. Neither does he anticipate the pitfalls he must negotiate, nor the shifts he must make, in order to win his bride’s love and trust. Impoverished and desperate, Miss Helena Dorking reluctantly accepts the handsome stranger’s offer of help after she is left for dead in the snow. When, on finding his mother unexpectedly from home, Sir Julian honourably offers marriage to save Helena from ruin, she has little choice but to accept him. Yet how can she be the wife he wants and needs? How can she overcome her fears and allow herself to love him? Somehow Julian must find a way to cut the chains which bind Helena to her fear so he can win her heart.

Carpet of Snowdrops

Heavily enceinte, penniless and widowed, Eloise Wakefield travels from her native France to petition the military for assistance at Horse Guards in London. Dismissed by the officers there, she journeys to visit her husband’s grave at his family’s estate. By then almost destitute, she is turned away on a snow-driven night and faces an uncertain future.

Having narrowly avoided crushing the waif-like woman with his horse and caused her poor possessions to be ruined, Joscelin, Lord Rollaston, feels a certain responsibility for the widow and her unborn child. He escorts her to the home of his former nurse and soon finds himself embroiled with his best friend’s little family.

However, Eloise is a respectable woman. How can he provide for her without jeopardizing her reputation when her husband’s brother, the Duke of Ottley, is adamant she is not part of his family?

A Sense of the Ridiculous

When a prank goes wrong, headstrong squire’s daughter Jocasta Stanyon wakes up in the bedchamber of an inn with no memory of who she is. The inn is owned by widow Meg Cowley and her handsome son Richard, who proves to be more than a match for the unconventional Miss Stanyon.

Having enjoyed a carefree childhood, Jocasta has refused all offers for her hand in the hopes of one day finding a soul mate who shares her sense of the ridiculous. She is drawn to Richard, but their stations in life are far apart and despite prolonging her stay by devious means, the idyll cannot last. When, by chance, her brother Harry turns up at the Holly Tree Inn, Jocasta has no choice but to return home. She hopes to persuade her father of Richard’s qualities, but then she is summoned to receive the addresses of a fashionable stranger...



An Improper Marriage

When her stepfather suggests she should marry ironmaster Jeremiah Knight, Eleanor Honeybourne knows a lifetime of dullness awaits her, but at the annual glass-maker’s ball, the discovery of an injured man in a summer-house and an overheard conversation lead her to suspect Mr. Knight is not all that he appears. With both her own and Robert’s life at risk, Eleanor sees only one way out of the fix… and when she meets her childhood hero, she is forced into a situation which could well spell her ruin…

For Charles Ribblesford, meeting again the hoyden who once tagged behind him on his boyish adventures is a revelation. She is now a beautiful young woman who troubles him in an entirely different way. How can he preserve her reputation and keep her safe? What is the family secret behind Knight’s malevolence and why has the man in the summer-house appeared at Sir Thomas Winningham’s house party?

Treasure Beyond Words

Having trusted the wrong man, bluestocking Miss Amelia Burcott is forced to seek employment as a governess in order to support herself and hide from the polite world. Little does she suspect, when she joins the household of the Earl of Raftesbury, that her new employer has a secret as great as her own and has need of a special woman to help him conquer his past.

Hugo Marchbanks, son of the Earl of Raftesbury, had never expected to succeed to his father’s title with two hale and hearty brothers before him. Yet following the wars with the French, he returns to the family estate not only in that position, but guardian to seven children.

Somewhat nervous of feminine company, Hugo finds himself drawn to Amelia in a way unprecedented in his life before. She is quiet and restful, yet he detects a mischievous sense of humour. Then an excursion with the children reopens an old wound and he finds himself blurting out his secret…

Copenhagen’s Last Charge

When Meg Lacy encounters a broodingly handsome Light Dragoon at the Duchess of Richmond’s grand ball, she little expects that in the hours following the Battle of Waterloo she will be accompanying him around the streets of Brussels. Romance is the last thing on her mind as they seek a lost and valuable item belonging to the Duke of Wellington himself.

Lieutenant James Cooper is surly and unhelpful, but Meg senses the Dragoon will need her help if they are to succeed. As they bicker their way around the narrow streets, a strange empathy begins to develop as gradually glimpses of the man beneath start to be revealed. Meg finds herself drawn to that person, but when they finally recover and then return the item to the Duke, Cooper makes a grave error of judgement which jeopardizes their budding friendship…

Beaux, Ballrooms and Battles

For Readers who enjoy a bit of history with their Romance…

A historic confrontation

Beaux, Ballrooms, and Battles is a celebration of the bicentenary of the showdown between Wellington’s “Infamous Army” and Napoleon’s Grande Armée. Wellington’s Allied Army consisted of a hastily organized mélange of inexperienced men from several countries who didn’t even speak the same language.

A backdrop of war

While life in Regency England continued much as it had been, the war with Napoleon was a constant source of preoccupation as young men who eagerly set off to become heroes in battle sometimes returned with life-changing injuries or worse, didn’t return at all.

Nine stories of love tested by the trials of war

A collection of sweet Regency stories of courage, hope, and the miracle of love surviving in uncertain times, brought to you by nine distinguished historical romance authors.

Devil's Hoof

Matthew Swift, Special Forces veteran of the Iraq wars and invalided out of the army following an act of heroism, is struggling to adjust to civilian life. Suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, he is a loose cannon ready to explode, beset by horrific flashbacks and images. If that were not enough, Matt has broken up with his girlfriend and his father is fighting a hostile takeover, in the process hiding a heart problem from his family.

Sparks fly when Matt meets alternative therapist Shani Stevens, but then they become stranded in Rhandor Forest by unprecedented storms and have no choice but to help each other.

Both have scars, yet slowly they learn to trust. Mutual sympathy and understanding soon grow into an abiding passion, but Matt has a secret he cannot reveal…

Writing as Vandalia Black

Vampires Don’t Drink Coffee and Other Stories

Out of the night steps a figure; mysterious and dangerous, sensual and otherworldly. An individual destined to spend eternity alone, forced to hide in the shadows, preying on the innocent to survive and yet nursing a deep need for love. Is this lost and troubled soul predator or protector? Callie is mugged when walking home with her daughter and rescued by a man who is the image of her dead husband. Melissa inherits a house with a vampire living in the basement. Sabrina, a healer at the time of the Civil War, is drained of blood and left for dead by an evil vampire, then saved by his twin. Condemned to death in the seventeenth century for being possessed by a demonic presence, Katalin shocks vicar Christopher when she turns up at his church claiming he is the reincarnation of her long-lost love… With both contemporary and historical settings, this tantalizing collection of stories is a romantic feast, full of humour, passion and love.