The titles in this booklist are just a selection of the titles available for loan from the
RNIB National Library Service.
Don’t forget you are allowed to have up to 6 books on loan.
If you would like to read any of these titles then please contact the Customer Services
Team on 0303 123 9999 or email library@rnib.org.uk
If you would like further information, or help in selecting titles to read, then please contact the Reader Services Team on 01733 37 53 33 or email libraryinfo@rnib.org.uk
You can write to us at:
RNIB NLS
PO Box 173
Peterborough
PE2 6WS

Old St. Paul's: a tale of the Plague and the Fire. 1841. 7v. UK Loan only.
Having passed so much of his time of late in the cathedral, Leonard began to regard it as a sort of home, and it now appeared like a place of refuge to him. Proceeding to the great western entrance, he seated himself on one of the large blocks of stone left there by the masons occupied in repairing the exterior of the fane. His eye rested upon the mighty edifice before him, and the clear sparkling light revealed numberless points of architectural grandeur and beauty which he had never before noticed. The enormous buttresses and lofty pinnacles of the central tower were tinged with the beams of the rising sun, and glowed as if built of porphyry.
Zorro. 2005. 8v.
Born in southern California late in the 18th century, Diego de la Vega is a child of two worlds. His father is an aristocratic Spanish military man turned landowner; his mother, a Shoshone warrior. At the age of 16, Diego is sent to Barcelona for a
European education. Diego joins La Justicia, a secret underground resistance movement devoted to helping the powerless and the poor. After many adventures,
Diego a.k.a. Zorro, returns to America to reclaim his hacienda and to seek justice for all who cannot fight for it themselves.
The Clan of the Cave Bear. 1980. 14v. (Interline)
(Sequel 1)
In this novel set 35,000 years ago, five year old Ayla is found and raised by the Clan.
She is clearly a member of the Others, a newer breed about to alter the face of the earth, but she is nurtured by her adoptive parents and accepted by some members of the Clan. Yet there are those who would cast her out. So she begins a conflict that could never be resolved.
Sequels also available.
Every man for himself. 1996. 4v. (Interline)
Four days after the Titanic left Southampton, she struck an iceberg and sank. This book recaptures those four crucial days. The story is told by Morgan, nephew of the owner of the shipping line. Was the Titanic travelling too fast? Why was she given a certificate of seaworthiness when there was a fire blazing in No. 10 bunker? And why did the mysterious Scurra, long before the tragedy, remark that it was 'every man for himself'?
2

The daughters of the prince. 1989. 11v. (Interline)
It is June, 1938 and in Settignano, just outside Florence, three young men - Steve
Price, a rich American; Kurt von Schill, a talented pianist; and Hamilton Johns, known as "Ham" - have just been invited to supper at the Villa Magari. That means they will not only meet Prince Giorgio Caeseri and the Principessa, his English-born wife; but also the three beautiful sisters - daughters of the Prince.
Contains sex scenes.
Chinese Alice. 1981. 9v. (Interline)
(Sequel 1)
Alice Greenwood, the child of English missionary parents, is captured by rioters during the massacre of missionaries at Tientsin in 1870. After years spent as a skivvy and concubine in a large Chinese household she escapes, only to find herself a misfit in the Westernised treaty ports. During all her ensuing adventures she is constantly torn between her European roots and her Chinese upbringing. Sequel also available.
The way of Wyrd: tales of an Anglo-Saxon sorcerer. 1983. 4v. (Interline)
This unusual story documents the physical and spiritual journey of a young man into the vast forests of pagan Anglo-Saxon England. Wat Brand is a Christian scribe sent on a mission deep into a pagan kingdom. His guide, a sorcerer and mystic named
Wulf, demonstrates awesome healing powers, and leads Brand through lessons in plant lore and runes, omens, fate and life force, and into direct encounters with the spirit world.
Come rack! Come rope! 1912. 6v. (Interline)
Among the best-known of Benson's works, "Come Rack! Come Rope!" tells of the suffering of Catholics under Elizabeth I of England, as shown through the eyes of one
Catholic family. Tragedy, divine love, and the doctrine of vocation play important roles in this early novel of faith and spiritual redemption.
The maid of Buttermere. 1987. 10v. (Interline)
In July 1802 a stranger calling himself the "Honourable Alexander Augustus Hope,
Member of Parliament", arrived in the Lake District. Hope's arrival was to put this beautiful corner of England at the centre of a nationwide manhunt, a mass of newspaper reports and one of the greatest scandals of the day. It was his meeting with Mary Robinson - "The Beauty of Buttermere" - daughter of a local innkeeper, which triggered these events.
Contains sex scenes.
3

Dragon seed. 1942. 6v. (Interline)
(Sequel 1)
A novel set in China in the early part of this century. It tells of the courage and sacrifice of a Chinese peasant family under the impact of war and the heel of the
Japanese invader.
Sequel also available.
A dead man in Deptford. 1993. 6v. (Interline)
At the centre of this kaleidoscopic portrait of the most vivid age in British history is the story of Kit Marlowe, towering genius of the theatre, but driven by sexual and political conflicts. Seduced into the devious world of espionage through his relationship with
Walsingham, the spymaster, his rapscallion drinking and roistering, and his passion for the theatre, poetry and language here is a novel with a cast including Raleigh, Kyd and Essex, written against the sights, smells and spectacle of 16th century London.
The crimson chalice. 1976. 3v.
(Sequel 1)
In the year 450 a young girl riding through the forest found a youth cruelly hanging from a tree; it was to be the beginning of an adventure concerning King Arthur.
Sequels also available.
Oscar and Lucinda. 1988. 10v. (Interline)
The year is 1865. A young American minister, who looks like a scarecrow, thinks like an angel and gambles like the devil meets a teenage Australian heiress on a boat bound for Australia, where their lives are changed forever...
Unsuitable for family reading.
The gossamer cord. 1992. 3v. American Braille.
UK Loan only.
Violetta Denver narrates this tale of her twin sister Dorabella's marriage to Dermot
Tregarland, and its consequences. Dorabella has always been impulsive, so it was not unusual for her to marry Dermot after a whirlwind courtship. Violetta soon discovers, however, that Dermot hides some secrets, including a previous marriage and the fact that his wife drowned. Haunted by premonitions of disaster at the marriage of her sister, Violetta finds her worst fears realized, and soon she must move to the Tregarland estate to care for her sister's children.
4

The secret of the world. 1997. 9v. (Interline)
A novel of seventeenth-century love and alchemy in the Old World and the New.
Enoch, Sal and Rusty are an unholy trinity who set up premises in Pudding Wharf.
Enoch carries on his alchemical practices in his laboratory, while Sal and Rusty engage in more corporeal pursuits in their brothel next door. But things take a disastrous turn for the worse, and suddenly it's every villain for himself.
Falling angels. 2002. 5v.
It's 1901, the year of the Queen's death. Two families visiting the cemetery to view their respective dead would never have become acquainted had not their two girls become best friends. And furthermore - and even more unsuitably - become involved in the life of the gravedigger's muddied son.
The winter king: a novel of Arthur. 1995. 11v.
(The warlord chronicles, sequel 1.)
Fifth-century Britain lies on the edge of darkness. Only fragile bonds unite its unruly kingdoms against the invaders, bonds cemented by the failing High King, Uther
Pendragon. Only one man could keep Uther's throne safe and hold the warring kingdoms together to face the Saxons. That man is Arthur: soldier, statesman,
Merlin's protégé, Uther's illegitimate son. But he has been banished. This is the story of his return.
Sequels also available.
The gift of stones. 1988. 3v. (Interline)
Before the advent of bronze, a community of stone-workers, wealthy and complacent, survive by the trade of their unrivalled skills. Alone among them, the story-teller ventures from the confines of the village and brings back with him a strange, angry woman, a woman whose defiant survival, without sustenance or skill, will threaten their own.
Spider's web. 1980. 5v.
Set in the reign of Mary Tudor, against a background of intrigue and shifting allegiance, this is the story of Katherine Pargyter, married against her will to a stranger whose every action serves only to give weight to the rumours of a disreputable past. Who of those around her can she trust? And is Katherine's reluctant husband, whose reckless charm she falls for despite herself, a traitor?
5

Three hands in the fountain. 1997. 7v. (Interline)
Marcus Didius Falco is with an old friend when a human hand is found in the local fountain. The two friends learn that body parts have been turning up for years in the water systems of Rome. The killer strikes during public festivals, and the Roman
Games are imminent. Finding the killer among thousands will be next to impossible, but Falco and Petro must start the desperate search before the killer's next strike.
The conjuror's bird. 2005. 4v.
Spans three centuries of secrets and surprises. It seems a long time ago that Fitz and
Gabby were together, with his work on extinct species about to make him worldfamous. Now, it's his career that is almost extinct. Suddenly, though, the beautiful
Gabby reappears in his life. She wants his help in tracing the history of The
Mysterious Bird of Uileta, a creature once owned by the great 18th Century naturalist
Joseph Banks. It soon becomes clear that Fitz is getting involved in something more complicated, and dangerous, than the search for a stuffed bird.
Aristotle, detective. 1978. 4v. UK Loan only.
On a September morning in 332 BC an eminent Atheian citizen is discovered brutally and bizarrely murdered…
A star called Henry. 1999. 7v. (Interline)
Born in the slums of Dublin in 1902, his father a one-legged whorehouse bouncer,
Henry Smart has to grow up fast. He eventually becomes a Fenian, a rebel, a republican legend - one of Michael Collins's boys, an assassin on a stolen bike
The lady for ransom. 1953. 5v. (Interline)
The story of Roger, a Norman mercenary of the eleventh century in the service of the
Byzantine empires.
Elephants and castles. 1963. 8v. (Available in Interline)
Demetrius, known as the Besieger of Cities - spent all his time on the battlefield, fighting to restore the vast empire of Alexander the Great. Demetrius failed in his objective, and spent the rest of his life in semi-imprisonment in Greece, having enjoyed the status of a God, and having brought great changes in the fortunes of the country.
6

James Miranda Barry. 2000. 8v. (Interline).
At the turn of the 19th century, James Miranda Barry enrolled as a medical student in
Edinburgh, the start of a glorious career as a military surgeon, famed as a physician, duellist and social figure. But James Miranda Barry was also a woman, who passed as a man for over 50 years.
The birth of Venus. 2003. 5v.
Set in 15th-century Florence, this is a novel of mystery, history, politics and passion.
Fourteen-year-old Alessandra's love of art and her lively independence lure her into a world of all sorts of taboos. She must make crucial decisions about her life, as
Florence itself must choose its future.
Hiding from the light. 2002. 7v.
The parish of Manningtree and Mistley has a dark history. In 1644, Matthew Hopkins,
Cromwell's Witchfinder General, tortured scores of women there; and today it is claimed that the spirits of Hopkins and his victims haunt the old shop in the High
Street.
The amateur gentleman. 1913. 7v.
This is a story of adventure, daring and love. And who could be more entrancing than the gloriously beautiful, proud, unpredictable heroine? But I lost my heart to handsome, brave, honest Barnabas. I know you too will adore the man who thought he had lost the fight for his heart's desire... only to find, in the last round, he had won!
7

Human traces. 2005. 15v.
Jacques Rebiere and Thomas Midwinter, both sixteen when the story starts, come from different countries and contrasting families. They are united by an ambition to understand how the mind works in sickness and in health and whether madness is the price we pay for being what we are. As psychiatrists, their quest takes them from the squalor of the Victorian lunatic asylum to the crowded lecture halls of the great
Professor Charcot in Paris; from the heights of the Sierra Madre in California to the plains of unexplored Africa. Their search is made urgent by the case of Jacques's brother Olivier, for whose severe illness no name has yet been found. Thomas's sister
Sonia becomes the pivotal figure in the volatile relationship between the two men, which threatens to explode with the arrival in their Austrian sanatorium of an enigmatic patient, Fraulein Katharina von A, whose illness epitomises all that divides them. As the concerns of the old century fade and the First World War divides
Europe, the novel rises to a climax in which the value of what it means to be alive seems to hang in the balance.
The Singapore grip. 1978. 13v. (Interline)
(Sequel 3)
Singapore, 1939: life on the eve of World War II just isn't what it used to be for Walter
Blackett, head of British Singapore's oldest and most powerful firm. No matter how forcefully the police break one strike, the natives go on strike somewhere else. His daughter keeps entangling herself with the most unsuitable beaus, while her intended match, the son of Blackett's partner, is an idealistic sympathizer with the League of
Nations and a vegetarian. Business may be booming - what with the war in Europe, the Allies are desperate for rubber and helpless to resist Blackett's price-fixing and market manipulation. But something is wrong. No one suspects that the world of the
British Empire - of fixed boundaries between classes and nations - is about to come to a terrible end. The Singapore Grip completes the classic historical "Empire Trilogy," which also includes Troubles and the Booker Prize-winning The Siege of Krishnapur.
Sequels also available.
Get out or die. 2003. 7v.
Set in 91AD in Roman Britain, Aurelia Marcella is a young innkeeper from Italy and runs the Oak Tree Mansio on the road to York. A string of savage murders disrupts her peaceful life, and she and her Roman friends find themselves under attack from a secret native war-band, the Shadow-men, whose aim is to drive all Romans out. A traveller, Quintus, is nearly killed close to the inn, and she and Aurelia must track down the rebel warriors and identify their mysterious masked leader, the Shadow of
Death.
8

Salammbo. 1886. 4v. (Interline)
An epic story of ancient Carthage combining lust, cruelty, riches, ritual and sensuality, few French historical novels can stand comparison with Salammbo.
The pillars of the earth. 1989. 24v. (Interline)
In twelfth-century England, a time of civil war, famine, religious strife, and battles over royal succession, a magnificent cathedral was being built at Kingsbridge. Against this richly imagined backdrop are the intertwined lives of Tom, the master builder; Aliena, the noblewoman; Philip, the prior of Kingsbridge; Jack, the artist in stone; and Ellen, the woman from the forest who casts the curse. Contains sex scenes.
Lady's maid. 1990. 13v. (Interline)
Elizabeth Wilson left home to become lady's maid to Elizabeth Barrett. She became housekeeper, nursemaid, companion and confidante. She married and had two sons yet she remained so emotionally tied to her mistress that she could never forget that she was first and foremost a lady's maid.
Flashman, from the Flashman papers. 1969. 5v. (Interline) UK Loan only.
(Sequel 1)
Flashman's adventures as a reluctant secret agent in Afghanistan and his entry into the exclusive company of Lord Cardigan's Hussars, culminates in his finest hour - his part in the historic disaster of the Retreat from Kabul.
Sequels also available
Up she rises. 1977. 5v. (Interline)
A fictionalised account of the hard life of the author's great-grandmother, daughter of a crofter on the East coast of Scotland, whose life took her first to London, then to
France, Germany and, finally, Russia.
The glass palace. 1973. 3v. (Interline)
Tabitha Sackroyd, niece and adopted daughter of Sir Joseph Sackroyd, is engaged to the local curate and incurs his displeasure when she volunteers to help out at St.
Ursula's, a small hospital for women. The story is set in a time when it was condemned as unladylike and unfeminine for a young lady to nurse the sick, especially the sick "poor".
9

Electricity. 1996. 6v. (Interline)
Set in Victorian London, this novel is about connections, contracts and shocks - electrical, emotional, sexual, and intellectual. Charlotte Mortimer, a spirited, sensual young woman, is testing the limits of her world. A world bound by strict conventions, a world on the brink of change. And Charlotte is going too far...
Bunter Sahib. 1985. 4v.
William Bunter is the Great-great-grandfather of the "Fat Owl of the Remove". Apart from his addiction to food, William is, in the parlance of the 1920s, remarkably "well hung". Hence his appeal to the Befum of Saroo and too many other masterful women.
When we first meet Bunter he is recovering from the insatiable demands of an exceptionally lustful Begum in the remote Indian state of
Sumroo. Now exhausted by his first session with the Begum, he has been confined by her to quarters for a period of enforced dieting and recuperation to equip him for his next tour of duty. With moral enemies prowling outside the palace, and an uncertain but unpleasant future within it, he is driven, at the early age of twenty-two, to write his memoirs. Contains sex scenes.
The constant princess. 2005. 6v.
Katherine of Aragon is born Catalina, the Spanish Infanta, to parents who are both rulers and warriors. Aged four, she is betrothed to Arthur, Prince of Wales, and is raised to be Queen of England. She is never in doubt that it is her destiny to rule that far-off, wet, cold land. Her faith is tested when her prospective father-in-law greets her arrival in her new country with a great insult; Arthur seems little better than a boy; the food is strange and the customs coarse. Slowly she adapts to the first Tudor court, and life as Arthur's wife grows ever more bearable. But when the studious young man dies, she is left to make her own future: how can she now be queen, and found a dynasty? Only by marrying Arthur's young brother, the sunny but spoilt Henry. His father and grandmother are against it; her powerful parents prove little use. Yet
Katherine is her mother's daughter and her fighting spirit is strong. She will do anything to achieve her aim, even if it means telling the greatest lie, and holding to it.
Pompeii. 2003. 4v.
Engineer Marcus Attilius Primus has taken charge of the Aqua Augusta, the aqueduct which brings water to a quarter of a million people. His predecessor has disappeared.
When a crisis strikes the Augusta's main line, Attilus discovers that there are forces which even the Roman Empire can't control. Contains swear words.
10

Frederica. 1965. 7v. (Available in Interline).
Schoolboy brothers cause complications when Frederica embroils the cynical Marquis of Alverstoke in her scheme for introducing her lovely sister to Regency high society.
Uncertain friend: a biographical novel. 1969. 6v.
(Interline)
Based on the life of Ferdinand Lassalle, the German socialist politician.
First night. 1989. 4v. (Interline)
It is 1802, peace is breaking out in Europe, and two young women set out to seek their fortune. The author conjures up a world where the hazards of Napoleonic power politics are mixed with the glamour of early nineteenth-century opera, to create a story which keeps the reader guessing to the last page.
The belt of gold. 1984. 6v. UK Loan only.
Constantinople in AD 802 is at the height of power and influence - the centre of a great Christian and commercial empire. It is ruled over with an iron hand and scheming heart by the Basileus - the Empress Irene. Into this world comes Hagen, a
'barbarian' from Frankland. Unwittingly he is drawn into a complex web of double dealings and betrayal. The struggle for power of the empire itself comes to a dramatic and explosive climax.
Crown in candlelight. 1978. 10v. (Interline)
The story of Katherine of France, married first to Henry V and then to Owen Tudor, and of the plots and betrayals that surrounded her.
Bettany's book. 2000. 16v. (Interline)
When sisters Prim and Dimp come into possession of revealing documents concerning their ancestors, they begin to gain radically new perspectives on their roots. This novel traces the white origins of Australia and presents a portrait of two spirited young women, 150 years apart.
11

Augustus. 1987. 7v. (Interline).
(Emperors, sequel 1)
Allan Massie has created a dramatic array of characters and incidents in this reconstruction of the lost memoirs of Augustus, true founder of the Roman Empire, son of Julius Caesar, friend and later foe of Mark Antony and patron of Horace and
Virgil. His novel captures all the colour, cruelty and splendour of a great pagan civilisation.
Sequels also available.
The deceivers. 1952. 5v. (Interline)
An exciting story of life in India in the early 19th century. It is an account of the struggle of the British authorities to put down the religious association known as the
Thugs who had been responsible for innumerable murders. The central figure is
Captain William Savage who becomes a member of the sect in order to find out the means of destroying it.
As meat loves salt. 2001. 13v. (Interline).
A gripping portrait of mid-seventeenth century England and of the grim experience if civil war. Jacob is an educated manservant in a loyalist household. He is fearful of being identified as the murderer of a local boy, and is forced to flee on the day of his wedding feast, dragging his new wife with him. He proceeds to wreak havoc on the lives of others, but mostly on his own fortunes.
Centennial. 1974. 25v. (Interline)
Through the small north-west town of Centennial, and through its history the author tells a story rich in excitement, drama and human conflict. It is a story of the Indians, fighting for their land, of the trappers, gold-seekers, cowboys and ranchers who tried to take it from them, but, most of all, it is a panoramic vision of the West.
Ingenious pain. 1997. 6v. (Interline). UK Loan only.
The rise, fall and redemption of an extraordinary man born unable to feel pain.
Growing up in the West Country in the mid-18th century, James Dyer grows up to become a brilliant surgeon. En route to St Petersburg he meets a witchlike woman who proves both his nemesis and saviour.
12

Labyrinth. 2005. 8v.
When Dr Alice Tanner discovers two skeletons during an archaeological dig in southern France, she unearths a link with a horrific and brutal past. But it's not just the sight of the shattered bones that makes her uneasy; there's an overwhelming sense of evil in the tomb that Alice finds hard to shake off. Eight hundred years ago, a book was entrusted to Alais, a young herbalist and healer. Although she cannot understand the symbols and diagrams the book contains, Alais knows her destiny lies in protecting their secret, at all costs. The lives of the two women are divided by centuries but united by a common destiny.
The morning gift. 1985. 4v. UK Loan only.
It is customary for a Saxon lord to give his wife a present the morning after the wedding night if he has found her sexually pleasing. Matilda's morning gift is
Dungesy, a marshy island in the Fens. As civil war tears England apart in the 1140's,
Matilda is very glad of the refuge when she is forced to fight for her land, her son's safety and for her own life.
A morbid taste for bones. 1977. 4v. (Interline)
Brother Cadfael is sent to a remote Welsh village to recover the bones of a saint for his Monastery. He encounters murder and poisoning before he can fulfil his mission.
Other Cadfael novels are also available.
Madame Serpent. 1951. Interline. 6v.
(Sequel 1).
Sullen-eyed and broken hearted, fourteen year old Catherine de'Medici rode into
France. She was to marry Henry of Orleans, second son of the King, at the most immoral court in 16th century Europe sparked by humiliation and jealousy as she spied on Henry's lovemaking. Catherine plotted her revenge-a revenge that would change the destiny of Europe.
Sequels also available.
The cloister and the hearth. 1861. 9v.
An adventurous novel of Renaissance times in Germany, Italy, and the Low
Countries.
13

Witch child. 2000. 4v. (Interline).
When, in the 1600s, Mary sees her grandmother accused of witchcraft and hung for the crime, she is hurried to safety by an unknown woman. The woman gives her paper and ink to record her days, and she sets off for the New World only to find that she, like her grandmother, is the victim of ignorance and stupidity.
The boat of fate. 1971. 5v. UK Loan only.
It recalls an age of violence and disintegration when the old values of Imperial Rome were under attack on all sides, from without by waves of Goths and Vandals and from within by the followers of a fanatical new sect who worshipped by the Christos.
The proprietor. 1983. 6v. (Interline)
The story spans some twenty years of the middle decades of the nineteenth century.
Augustus Walmer is the lessee of a group of islands off the Cornish coast. He is the sole survivor of his own family and creates substitute ties through his paternalistic proprietorship of this land and the people who work it.
Boudicca: dreaming the eagle. 2003. 11v.
This is the story of Boudicca: the last defender of Celtic culture; the only woman to have openly led her warriors into battle; the only British warrior to stand against
Imperial Rome and triumph. But is it also the story of the two men she loved most: the warrior Caradoc and her half-brother Ban.
The dark room. 2001. 7v.
"The dark room" tells three stories: that of Helmut a young photographer in the 1930s;
Lore a 12-year-old girl at the end of the war; and Micha, a young school teacher, half a century later. Between them, the reader traces the legacy of the Nazi period on the lives of ordinary Germans.
Contains swear words. Contains violence.
14

River god. 1993. 16v. (Interline) UK Loan only.
(Sequel 1)
Pharaoh’s loyal subjects gather in Thebes for the festival of Osiris, and pay homage to their leader, but Taita, a wise and formidably gifted eunuch slave sees him as a symbol of fading glory. Taita and his protégés, Lostris, daughter of Lord Intef, and
Tanus, a young army officer share a dream of restoring the majesty of the Pharaoh of
Pharaohs on the banks of the Nile.
Contains violence.
Sequels also available.
The prince and the pilgrim. 1995. 4v. (Interline).
Alexander, nephew of the evil King March of Cornwall, sets out on a journey to
Camelot, seeking to avenge his father and in quest of justice. Alice and her widowed father, on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, find themselves involved in a murderous coup d'etat. As the prince and pilgrim are eventually brought together they find what they were really seeking - love, the greatest mystery of all.
Robert the Bruce: the steps to the empty throne. 1969. 8v. (Interline)
(Sequel 1)
The story of Scotland's hero-king who, tutored and encouraged by the great William
Wallace, united his despairing people in a deadly fight for the throne and national survival. Tranter charts these turbulent years revealing the flowering of Bruce's character.
Sequels also available.
Music & silence. 1999. 8v.
In 1629, and a young English lute-player arrives at the court of Danish King Christian
IV to play in the Royal Orchestra. From the moment he learns that the musicians must perform in a freezing cellar, he understands that he's come to a place where Good and Evil are waging a war to the death.
Gertrude and Claudius. 2001. 4v. (Interline).
Using details from the ancient Scandinavian legends that were the inspiration for
"Hamlet", this tale brings to life Gertrude's girlhood as the daughter of King Rorik, her arranged marriage to the man who becomes King, and her middle-aged affair with her husband's younger brother.
15

The friends of God. 1963. 6v. (Interline)
Following the disastrous Peasants' Wars in Germany in the sixteenth century, thousands of the poor led by the Antibabtists denounced both the Pope and Martin
Luther, with equal venom. Their power increased, and against the frenzied background of a world gone made, of sacked churches, torture, and the massacre of unbelievers, the book's action is seen through the eyes of Zimri, a nobleman disillusioned with his own class and searching for a new order in life.
Fingersmith. 2002. 8v. UK Loan only.
Set in a den of thieves in 1860's London, this novel focuses on Susan, a pickpocket, who is persuaded by her cohorts to pose as a lady's maid and infiltrate the household of Maud, a young heiress in possession of a large inheritance.
Contains swear words.
A fringe of leaves. 1976. 8v. (Interline)
Returning to England in 1840, the "Bristol Maid" is shipwrecked on the Queensland
Coast and Mrs Roxburgh is taken prisoner by a tribe of Aborigines. In the course of her escape, she is torn by loyalties - to her dead husband, to her rescuer, to her own and to her adoptive class.
A fool and his money: life in a partitioned medieval town. 1995. 5v. (Interline)
Near the end of the fourteenth century, the countryside around Rodez, in South-
Central France, was ravaged by marauding English bands during the Hundred Years
War. Peyre Marques is a merchant who forgets where he has buried his gold. When, in 1370, two workmen discover a hoard of coins while unblocking a drain, Marques's pathetic situation highlights the history of the town against a background of compassion and brutality.
Compiled June 2007
16