Böcker av Hilary Green

Desperately tired after months living rough with Italian partisans, Richard makes a mistake behind enemy lines that results in devastating tragedy. Rose, performing for the troops crossing France, at last finds a man she feels she can love and is forced to make the most difficult decision of her life.Merry's lover is returned to him from the jaws of death only to be separated from him again by the demands of duty. But while the battle rages on they will fight for the future. In war and peace, in joy and despair, life continues - but never as expected.

Diana 'Steve' Escott-Stevens knows what she is getting herself into. For 12 months she has fed and looked after agents preparing for a mission in France. She knows that only half of them will come back. But she is young, brave and moreover speaks fluent French. When she applies to become an agent for the Special Operations Executive she is readily accepted and sent off for training to prepare her for the field. The training is demanding; sabotage, codes, hand-to-hand combat, parachute jumps. But it is only too quickly that she finds herself in a Lysander flying to France, where any mistake could mean capture, torture or death, for her and others.

France, 1944. Agent Kim Maxwell has a new mission. She's investigating the death of Bernard Leblanc, a local SOE leader. It looks like an accident, but Kim knows better . . . Her HQ is the Bistro Le Renard Rouge. The Red Fox. And the chef is none other than her lover and fellow agent Roland, AKA Foxy. But the Bistro soon attracts the custom of high-ranking German officers. Now Kim and Foxy are surrounded by the enemy, hiding in plain sight. Then Kim hears whispers of a code name: Enthaupten. Beheading. What are the Nazis planning? It's up to her to dig up the truth. But the Nazis' plot goes deeper than she could have ever imagined. They plan to murder the King of England, and they're closing in . . . Surrounded by spies and double agents, Kim doesn't know who to trust. She must use all of her wits to outsmart the plotters. The entire war effort is at stake should she fail . . . This breathtaking and gripping WW2 mystery will hook you from the very first page. Perfect for readers of Rhys Bowen, Jeffrey Archer, Rory Clements, Gretta Mulrooney, Kate Quinn and Lucinda Riley.

Hilary Green takes the reader on a journey through the complex developing trade of the Middle Ages, which is the foundation of trade today. Taking the production of wool in the abbeys of the north of England as a starting point, she follows its journey to Flanders where it was woven into a variety of textiles in the growing international marketplace of Bruges. The journey continues to Bordeaux where the wool was traded for wine, which found its way back to London where some of it was traded for more wool. She describes the trade fairs of the Champagne region of France where wool and leather goods along with salt, iron and other commodities were traded and where banking developed - and she explains why. The merchants of Genoa developed the various trade routes, whether by land over the Alps or by water via rivers or the Mediterranean. By these routes, silks and spices came from the repositories in Alexandria and before that via camel trains from Arabia. The author investigates the mysteries and intrigue of trade where silkworms were smuggled into Constantinople and precious gems and ivory were shipped from unknown locations. Arab and Indian merchants brought exotic spices - cumin, ginger, pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon - and aromatics such a myrrh and frankincense to Egypt via the Red Sea. As trade expanded and became more valuable, international relations became more sophisticated as governments moved to protect the valuable income it brought.

In an empty theatre at the end of the pier the cast of the Fairbourne Follies gathers round the radio to hear Neville Chamberlain declare war on Germany. Four firm friends are forced to part. Rose, the beautiful dancer, must return to her family in London and the blitz, leaving singer Richard to enlist in the army with their relationship still unresolved. Gay, asthmatic Merry, the musical director, is destined for the army too, while the object of his unrequited love, charismatic magician, Felix, chooses the RAF. Before long, Rose joins a group entertaining the troops in France. The Nazi war machine however is fast and merciless on the land and in the air and soon all of them find themselves in terrible danger. And as they are struck by the brutality of war they realise exactly who is most important to them and despite the odds, and in terrible circumstances, they determine to find each other again. With the threat of capture, injury and death ever present, the four of them will have to find reserves of courage, love and endurance that they did not know they possessed.

January, 1941. Dark days for Britain, standing alone against the menace of Nazi Germany, and for four friends fighting their own personal battles . . .When Rose Taylor receives two proposals on New Year's Eve she has to face an agonising choice that threatens to separate her from all those she loves. Meanwhile, Richard Stephens has to come to terms with his shattered dream - the only thing that sustained him through the chaos of Dunkirk and the long months on the run as an escaped prisoner of war. For beautiful Felix, badly burned when his Spitfire was shot down in flames, there is the prospect of weeks of painful surgery, watched by his anguished lover. But as the months go by each of them finds the courage to face danger. For it lurks on every side . . .

It is 1942. The theatres of war are North Africa and Italy. All eyes follow the front, but behind the scenes a messier war continues, an improvised game of snatched triumphs, terrible mistakes and terrifying uncertainty.Cabaret singer by night, spy by day, Richard risks his life to help British servicemen escape occupied France and get back to England. Rose leads a group of dancers with mixed morals high-kicking to entertain the troops as Hitler's bombers roar in the skies above. Then she is given orders to join the forces in the field, destination unknown.Meanwhile a phantom pianist, who has lost the love of his life, is following Montys soldiers across the African desert, mocking the enemies guns by playing Beethoven between the lines.

Liverpool 1942. Seventeen-year-old Frankie Franconi falls in love with charismatic British officer Nick Harper as quickly and certainly as the bomb that falls on their shelter. He is impressed by her good looks and intelligence, and the fact that, like him, she speaks fluent Italian. When she insists on staying to help rescue others who have been trapped he realises that she has courage, too. He gives her a business card with a Baker Street address, and suggests she put her skills to good use. Within a month Frankie has joined the FANYs and started her training. Stationed first in England, then Africa and finally Italy, Frankie and her fellow recruits work tirelessly decoding messages from agents in the field by day, and enjoying the wartime parties at night. But when she signs the Official Secrets Act she has no idea of the danger, adventure and terrible choices that are in store.