Arrow Books In Gallant Company Kent Alexander

1774: Bolitho is now a newly appointed third lieutenant joining the 28-gun frigate Destiny at Plymouth. It is a far step from midshipman's berth to wardroom - and, at a time when most of the fleet is laid up, Bolitho is considered fortunate • Bolitho's promotion is tinged by personal sadness, but his new captain soon points out that Bolitho's loyalty is to him, the ship and His Britannic Majesty - in that order • Despatched on a secret mission far south to Rio and then to the Caribbean, Destiny and her company face the hazards of conspiracy, treason and piracy - and, as the little ship sails on, Bolitho has to learn how to accept his new responsibilities as a King's officer • All amid broadside battles at sea and the clash of swords in hand-to-hand actions

1789: NEW SOUTH WALES. Into Sydney, capital of Britain's infant colony, sails the frigate Tempest. She is one of His Majesty's ships employed in policing the new southern trade routes. Her captain is Richard Bolitho, who hopes to be ordered home to England • Instead he is despatched on a mission to the islands of the Great South Sea, where he must face hazards of fickle winds, pirates and native islanders • But he is menaced by deeper fears: the men of the Bounty have mutinied in these same waters and from distant Europe comes news of a revolution in France • Bolitho's adventures continue in With All Despatch

1778: a seminal year for the young Richard Bolitho... The American War of Independence changes to an all-out struggle for freedom from British rule - and Bolitho takes command of the Sparrow, a small, fast and well-armed sloop of war • As the pace of war increases, the Sparrow is called from one crisis to another - and when the great fleets of Britain and France convene on the Chesapeake, Bolitho has to throw aside the early dreams of his first command to find maturity in a sea battle that might decide the fate of a whole continent • Bolitho's adventures continue in To Glory We Steer

1774: The new year seems to offer Richard Bolitho and his friend Martyn Dancer the culmination of a dream. Both have been recommended for promotion, although they have not yet gained the coveted lieutenant's commission • But a routine passage from Plymouth to Guernsey in an untried schooner becomes, for Bolitho, a passage from midshipman to King's officer, tempering the promise of the future with the bitter price of maturity • Will he rise to the occasion?

Without even noticing, Esther Fairchild has become locked into routine • Living with her adored brother, Christian, she divides her time between illustrating children's books, nightly shifts as a waitress, weekly visits to her father and fortnightly meetings with her married lover • Then one day she encounters a face in the crowd which jolts her out of her mundane existence and makes her question both her life and the past that has helped to shape it. Memories she had long chosen to forget begin to resurface. Memories of an eccentric childhood in a large and shabby house, where the children were left to fend for themselves within the loose boundaries of their parents' unorthodox values. A chaotic existence peopled by a rich collection of feckless 'guests'

1794: as the year draws to a close Richard Bolitho, commanding the old Hyperion, leaves Plymouth to join a squadron blockading the rising power of Revolutionary France. After six months of repairs his ship is ready to fight again, but her company is mostly raw and untrained • Unfortunately, Bolitho finds himself under a commodore who is no match for the French admiral, Lequiller, whose powerful squadron uses guile and ruthless determination to elude him and vanish into the Atlantic. Hyperion gives chase, the desperate voyage taking them from the Bay of Biscay's squall to the heat of the Caribbean - and for each mile sailed and every battle fought, Bolitho finds himself being forced into the ever more demanding role of strategist and squadron commander

At a dinner party given by his parents-in-law, Commissario Brunetti meets Franca Marinello, the wife of a prosperous Venetian businessman. He's charmed - perhaps too charmed, suggests his wife Paola - by her love of Virgil and Cicero, but shocked by her appearance • A few days later, Brunetti is visited by Carabinieri Maggior Filippo Guarino from the nearby city of Marghera. As part of a wider investigation into Mafia takeovers of businesses in the region, Guarino wants information about the owner of a trucking company who was found murdered in his office. He believes the man's death is connected to the illegal transportation of refuse - and more sinister material - in his company's trucks. No stranger to mutual suspicion and competition between rival Italian police departments, Brunetti is nevertheless puzzled by the younger man's behaviour

'A Dance to the Music of Time' is universally acknowledged as one of the great works of English literature. Reissued now in this definitive edition, it stands ready to delight and entrance a new generation of readers • In this first volume, Nick Jenkins is introduced to the ebbs and flows of life at boarding school in the 1920s, spent in the company of his friends: Peter Templer, Charles Stringham, and Kenneth Widmerpool • Though their days are filled with visits from relatives and boyish pranks, usually at the expense of their housemaster Le Bas, a disastrous trip in Templer’s car threatens their new friendship. As the school year comes to a close, the young men are faced with the prospects of adulthood, and with finding their place in the world

A darkly comic tale about Mr Less-Than-Average in an average world from the No. 1 Bestseller • Crime fiction obsessive Martin Reed is the proverbial butt of everyone's jokes. Working as a glorified accountant at Southern Toilet Supply and still living with his cantankerous mother, he has become resigned to the world in which he lives - the school bullies now pick on him in the workplace, women still spurn him and his arch enemy is now his supervisor • But then he arrives at work one morning to find the police on site. A co-worker has been brutally murdered and her body abandoned in a ditch. And the overwhelming evidence points to Martin - especially when he can't or won't admit that he has an alibi • When a second victim is found in the company bathroom, things really conspire against Martin

Alexander Kinross is remembered in his native Scotland only as a shiftless boilermaker's apprentice. But when he writes from Australia to summon his bride, his relatives realize he is now a man to be reckoned with • Arriving in Sydney after a difficult voyage, sixteen-year-old Elizabeth Drummond meets her husband-to-be and discovers that he frightens and repels her • Isolated in Alexander's great house, Elizabeth finds that marriage does not prompt her husband to enlighten her about his past life - nor his present one, in which his mistress, the sensuous, tough, outspoken Ruby Costevan, still plays a part • Will she be able to forge a happy new life in this new world?

Kent 1815 • Her heart led her to him, but will loyalty be enough to make her stay • When the beautiful but naive Grace Lennicker falls for Isaiah Feasey, son of a rival smuggling family and owner of a local tavern, her sisters try to intervene. But as tensions grow, there is another suitor also hoping to win her hand in marriage, the dashing and more favourable Albert Enderby, a young lieutenant in the Revenue • Grace is unwittingly drawn back into the world of smuggling that her sisters fought hard to leave behind, and as violence erupts, she finds herself unable to stand by, knowing the rival gangs will kill anyone who stands in their way • When her husband becomes involved, Grace is forced to make a difficult decision - turn him in and risk her life, or stay loyal and risk the lives of those she loves

In the 60s, Ronnie and Reggie Kray were Britain’s most notorious gangsters. With violence and intimidation they were the kings of London. They sipped champagne with celebrities and rubbed shoulders with politicians. They were untouchable • Until they weren’t • After an undercover operation, the Kray twins were found guilty of murder and were sentenced to life in prison. They were just 35 years old • But once inside, the twins were determined to make their stay truly historic. The Twins began earning more money inside than they ever did on the streets. They sold branded t-shirts and memorabilia and they allowed books and films to be published about their lives. They didn't stop • Whilst locked up, their mother died as did their brother Charlie, and their associates and friends all fell away