Showing results by author "James Philip" in All Categories

Christy was the most famous American painter of the Jazz Age, a time when an elite brotherhood of New York artists dominated the publishing world. Christy had eclipsed all of them with his "Christy Girl", an idealized woman who redefined beauty, influenced fashion, and inspired generations of women. In Romantic Illusions, Christy once again comes to life through the eyes of Nancy Palmer. Christy, his wife and former model, as she recounts her first Christmas with Howard and his family at his Ohio mansion, the Barracks, in 1912.

New York - July 1976 - in a world in which New England remains the sparkling jewel in the crown of the British Empire. It is the day before Empire Day - July 4 - the day each year when the British Empire marks the brutal crushing of the rebellion dignified by the treachery of the 56 delegates to the Continental Congress who were so foolhardy as to sign the infamous Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on that day of infamy in 1776.

It is December, 1963, and the tensions that have been simmering since the October war came to a boil in an atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion so poisonous that nobody in England or Washington, DC, realize that in the background, there is a third, malignant force at work.

After Midnight is the fifth and last book of the Until the Night series and is set in January 1944. The Until the Night Series about Bomber Command in the winter of 1943-44 and follows the experience of Adam Chantrey, a 25-year old veteran of the bombing war sent to Ansham Wolds in Lincolnshire to rebuild a shattered Lancaster squadron. Exhausted and tormented by his own demons he discovers, amidst the chaos of war and loss, love and an unlikely inner peace up on the High Wold of Lincolnshire while all around him the world is enveloped in madness. By January 1944 a tour of operations has become a virtual death sentence and yet the battle goes on; Bomber Command is at the crossroads and Adam Chantrey must confront his last demon.

September 1940. Squadron leader Paul Chantrey is a man under pressure, but he is one of "the few". Fighter Command is all that stands between Britain and defeat.

It is December 1943, and the Lancaster Force has settled into the long, hard slog of razing Berlin from end to end. Raid after raid presses on against the storms of winter and the fury of the gun lines and the fighters guarding the faraway cities on the Saxon plain. The storms that batter the Main Force and the seasonal fog and mist that regularly envelope their bases are enemies as deadly as the Luftwaffe; the time when any man on ops could cling to hope is quickly disappearing.

In the terrible "big picture" of the bombing war, Bielefeld suffered less than many places in Germany. Bielefeld was not - quite - wrecked from end to end; for Hannah Martin’s grandmother, that was no consolation because everything with which she had grown up was destroyed, and her father, the painter, was lost in the fire.

It is September 1943, and Bomber Command is gathering itself for what many in the High Command believe will be its final victorious campaign; but even the true believers in the "main aim" know the coming winter battle will be bloodier than anything which has come before. For Adam Chantrey, looking forward to the fifth year of his personal odyssey, duty has become his watchword, and life on the squadrons his only reality. And then one day, while waiting for a train that is late, he encounters a different fate...and afterwards, nothing will ever be the same again.

It was in November 1943 that Bomber Command commenced a campaign to level Berlin from end to end; at stake was the tantalizing prospect of knocking Germany out of the war by the spring of 1944. The fabled "main aim" of the bomber war briefly beckoned, and like a siren's call, it began to lure the Main Force to its doom. But all that was in an unknown and an unknowable future; in the beginning hope died hard. For Adam Chantrey, this is just the latest battle, and he is not alone in having to come to terms with the new realities of a cruel world.

For Adam Chantrey, looking forward to the fifth year of his personal odyssey, duty has become his watchword and life on the squadrons his only reality. Then one day, while waiting for a train that is late, he encounters a different fate, and afterwards, nothing will ever be the same again. But for a man like Adam Chantrey, who lives his life rubbing shoulders with the countless ghosts of the never-ending war with the distant cities, whose dreams are filled with burning aircraft falling into clouds soaked like mile upon mile of blood-soaked cotton wool, what has hope become?

In Winter's Spy, the Mystery Man is under arrest, suspected of having been an enemy agent for his whole career in the Metropolitan Police and throughout all his years working for MI5. Dammed by the evidence of a German spy whom he encountered in Paris before the war, it seems as if he must literally fight for his life. Then, transported to Camp 020, MI5’s South London interrogation center, and confronted by his accuser, the Mystery Man begins to suspect that nothing is quite what it seemed.

Guy Winter and his faithful sergeant, George Ransom, are heading for the English Midlands, where on a country estate a few miles south of Coventry, Helen Chase, the nation's most famous actress, has been grievously wounded in an apparent orgy of mindless violence that has claimed several other lives in the most bizarre and gruesome of circumstances.

She'd been promised a "proper" police job in the Homicide and Serious Crime Command, but what she'd got wasn't even close. She'd been promised she'd be working with an elite team of experienced detectives - what she'd got was a squad of malcontents, troublemakers, and time-servers. And worst of all, she discovers she's been appointed London's unofficial "Celebrity Cop." As if to add insult to injury, Professional Standards are on her case. Not because she's done anything wrong.

Seven years have passed since former SAS officer Harry Waters stood trial in Winchester for the murder of his best friend. He wants nothing more than to be left alone but then Harry has always understood that what you want and what get in this world are hardly ever one and the same thing.

In Winter's Exile the Mystery Man is exiled to the country to recover and recuperate from his injuries. Inevitably, there is no escaping the war. When the son of the local Squire is found dying within hours of a German bomber crashing in a nearby field Guy Winter is suddenly back in his element.

The Ripper continues his rampage and the last secrets of Guy Winter's life are stripped away. As the bombs fall the mystery man unravels one mystery after another, knowing that sooner rather than later he must confront his deadliest foe. This time it is not just Guy Winter's life and loyalties that are under the microscope. The past mistakes of friends and enemies alike suddenly come home to roost, but Guy Winter never stops hunting his man.

It is November 1963 - 13 months after the Cuban Missile Crisis went horribly wrong. In this timeline the swinging sixties are not going to happen and the survivors, far from counting their blessings are beginning to wonder exactly what sort of world they have created.

In The Plains of Waterloo, eight months have passed since the bloodbath at Harald Villas at the end of A Ransom for Two Roses. Frankie has been slowly piecing her life back together and coming to terms with her changed self. When she visits a notorious child killer in prison at Waddon Hall Maximum Security Unit in Dorset, she believes she is testing how far she has come since that terrible winter night.

August 1940 - Chief Inspector Guy Winter has been Fleet Street's favorite detective for over a decade. Dubbed the "Mystery Man" by his friends and enemies alike, for all his fame he cuts a lonely figure at Scotland Yard, where every newspaper story is fresh grist to an already tired mill. Laid low by personal tragedy, there are many who suspect that the great detective's career is over.

The Cuban Missiles Crisis didn't end peacefully and the "swinging sixties" didn't happen. On Saturday October 27th, 1962 American and Soviet geopolitical brinkmanship resulted in the most terrible war in human history. The forever changed world that remained when the thermonuclear fires had burned themselves out is the world of Timeline 10/27/62.