The Doughty Warriors All At Sea

Another Doughty Warriors daring adventure. Joseph, Ibrahim, Vinod, Xin-Hui, Faradilla and Toby discover that local fishermen are killing the dolphins. Why? What is happening? Their curiosity leads them to a terrible discovery. They have to put matters right.

Contains articles on the White Mountains and a map.

The American artists John La Farge preceded Gauguin to the Pacific, and in their time his reputation as the modern Pacific painter far overshadowed that of the Frenchman. This remarkable work is the record of a year-long artistic odyssey through the South Seas, during which La Farge braved the volcanoes of Hawaii, visited Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa, was adopted by a noble Tahitian family and journeyed through the wild hills of Fiji, painting and sketching lyrical studies of island life. Lavishly illustrated with his work, this account of the Polynesian adventures that La Farge shared with his friend the historian Henry Adams is an important contribution to the literary and artistic heritage of the Pacific and a revealing insight into the life of a complex and fascinating man.

In The Wanderer, Michael of the charmed life continues his erratic career as an adventurer with an interlude which takes him through much of the 16th century Islamic empire. The holocaust in Rome singed his conscience a bit, and he decided - with his brother in arms, the bull-like Andy, to seek peace in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. But Fate decreed otherwise. The pilgrim ship was seized by the infidels. Michael, chameleon like in his loyalties, became for all purposes an aspirant to Islam, and - though a slave - rose rapidly in the service of his masters, until he was confidante, adviser, military leader, political intriguer, whatever suited his mood, and landing - as one of his owners said - "always on his feet." Richly detailed with the lushness of a tawdry era in Europe and the Near East, the novel is more tightly plotted than was "The Adventurer," and Michael finds himself smitten by the strange woman of the evil eye who has captured his heart and imagination. A complex plot, with successive interlocking episodes, this adds up to another picaresque romantic adventure novel which those who enjoyed its predecessors will want to read for sure.

What the Wild West was for America in the 19th century, Outremer - Beyond the Sea - was to Europe in the 12th: the wild east, land of opportunity, of warlike adventure, and of terror. The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted from 1100 to 1187. In that time European noblemen and women came here to do penance in war against the "infidels", to escape the law in their homeland, mostly to seek their fortune. Among the immigrants were also paupers. Niall, a young fugitive from England, was one of those. Our story tells of his rise from destitution to nobility: a major baron in the Kingdom. Niall's sons, Guillaume and Enguerrand, carry the story to its end through rivalry to reconciliation on the eve of the fateful Battle of Hattin, against turmoil, war and intrigue in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

What Herodotus the Halicarnassian has learnt by inquiry is here set forth: in order that so the memory of the past may not be blotted out from among men by time, and that great and marvellous deeds done by Greeks and foreigners and especially the reason why they warred against each other may not lack renown. - Herodotus.