Joy Eramian: The Agha’s Children
(Nicosia)

The Agha’s Children traces the adventurous history of the Eramian dynasty in Cyprus over the last two hundred and fifty years.

Around the middle of the eighteenth century in the face of the Ottoman oppression of the Armenians, Stepan Eramian Agha bought land in Cyprus for his second son, Borghos-Berge, and sent him away from the family’s ancestral estate in Turkey. Although life was safer on the island, this, too, was a troubled land. The stories of the Agha’s descendants are tales of love and hatred, cruelty and compassion, murder, piracy, slavery, tragedies and triumphs. Through it all the family survived and prospered and the Agha’s decision to move his family to Cyprus secured the future of his line when so many perished in the genocide of the Armenians.

The accounts in this book of the lives of the Eramian family members are based on the memories and traditions of their descendants, many of whom live in Cyprus to this day.

Robert Turner: Kishkinda – Adventures in The East
(Reverb)

In June 1991 Robert Turner arrived at the ruined South Indian city of Vijayanagar, which lies in a bend of the Pampa river known as Kishkinda, the mythical Kingdom of the Monkeys and Bears from the epic love story of the Ramayana. His visa had expired, he had very little money and good reason not return to the UK. He ended up staying for four years.

Robert has superbly documented the landscape, history, myths and people he encountered there, from the local Raja and a mad sadhu to a vengeful hunchback and a capable country harlot. Interspersed with the tales of Kishkinda is the astonishing story of how Bob came to be in India in the first place after a colonial childhood that led to a youth detention centre, a three-year sentence in a Lebanese jail and many other adventures besides, across Britain, Pakistan, China and elsewhere.

Intriguing, compelling, surprising – you will not read another travel autobiography like it. In Robert’s own words: To err is human – and to get away with it is fun!

Jackie Todd – Spanish Pointers
(Trafford Publishing)

When Jackie Todd and husband Stephen went to live in Spain they planned on having one Spanish Pointer and two tabbies. So how did it happen that they wound up with eight dogs, none of them Spanish Pointers?

All royalties from this book will be donated to The Costa Animal Society.

‘“Spanish Pointers” . . . the best book I have ever read.’ - Jackie’s Mum

Lisa Jane Weller - Amazing Gracie

            (Troll Boy Books)

LISA JANE WELLER 

Lisa Jane Weller was born in 1980 in Woolwich, London, but spent most of her childhood in Bexley, Kent. There she studied at Townley Grammar School for Girls and Orpington College of Further Education. English Language was her favourite subject at school, as it allowed her to indulge her growing passion for writing.

Lisa wrote her first short story at the age of eight and continued to write creatively throughout her time in education. Since then, she’s penned numerous short stories and screenplays of many different genres. Amazing Gracie is her first full-length novel.

When she’s not writing, Lisa enjoys reading, watching cult television shows, and cheering on her favourite football team, Blackburn Rovers. She is currently hard at work writing her second novel, an intriguing fantasy/horror/chick-lit hybrid.

Find out more about Lisa Jane Weller by visiting the Troll Boy Books website: www.trollboybooks.com

 AMAZING GRACIE

Dumped by her fiance, stuck in a dead end job, and living at home with her parents - things certainly look grim for twenty-four-year-old Gracie Parker. But when Gracie lands a personal assistant's position, working for heart-throb actor Roman Pearson, her life takes a sudden turn for the better. Under Roman's guidance, Gracie finds herself thrown into a world of glamour, excitement and fame - a world in which nothing is quite as it seems. For behind the scenes, Roman's life is a mess, and Gracie finds herself having to pick up the pieces alongside Roman's loyal aide, Billy. But as Gracie and Billy grow closer, a familiar face reappears on the scene. Suddenly, Gracie finds herself overwhelmed with choices to make about love and life...

John Ruttley

The Devil Finds Work

( Holroyd Publications)

John Ruttley has been writing for twelve years. He has had numerous magazine articles published, including commissioned pieces for local Antiquarian and History societies, self-published two local interest books, which are still selling well, and was runner-up in a BBC/Orange short story competition.

He has had a varied employment career - always useful to a writer - working in a warehouse, nightclub, the Merchant Navy, a foundry, shipyard, brewery and, for the last twenty-one years of his working life, insurance. He retired (very) early from the position of Area Manager in 2000.

He is currently putting the finishing touches to his second novel, Idle Hands, and has also started work on his third book, a detective thriller.

THE DEVIL FINDS WORK

This novel captures the atmosphere of the north's shipyards in the 1970s, the humour, resourcefulness and comradeship of the men, and their feelings of desperation and emasculation when they are unable to work.
Against a background of national industrial unrest, a small group of ordinary shipyard labourers fight a David and Goliath battle against organised crime as they fight to save their workplace from being taken over. They struggle to find enough money to survive during a series of unofficial strikes, which are endangering the yard's very survival. When they discover that an American crime syndicate is behind the yard's industrial disputes, proposed takeover and the death of a workmate, things really start to move.