THE PENAL COLONY - SECOND HAND

A sweeping, heartbreaking novel following Daniel in his troubled marriage with Rosie as they navigate the unsettled time between the World Wars.Rosie and Daniel have moved to Ceylon with their little daughter to start a new life at the dawn of the 1920s, attempting to put the trauma of the First World War behind them, and to rekindle a marriage that gets colder every day. However, even in the lush plantation hills it is hard for them to escape the ties of home and the yearning for fulfilment that threatens their marriage.Back in England, Rosie's three sisters are dealing with different challenges in their searches for family, purpose and happiness. These are precarious times, and they find themselves using unconventional means to achieve their desires. Around them the world is changing, and when Daniel finds himself in Germany he witnesses events taking a dark and forbidding turn.By turns humorous and tragic, gripping and touching, So Much Life Left Over follows a cast of unique and captivating characters as they navigate the extraordinary interwar years both in England and abroad.

For thousands of years a secret war has been fought between Heaven and Hell. Daemons and angels, vampires and knights clash for the future of mankind, and as the two sides wage war across the world, innocent people are caught up in the conflict—men like Captain William Saxon and Lieutenant Kieran Harte, two great friends who have recently survived the horrors of the Battle of Waterloo. But now they face a greater struggle, against the daemonic forces of Count Ordrane, and the clandestine ambitions of the Vatican. They must try to survive assassination attempts, political machinations, epic battles on land and sea, and above all the power of a mysterious bronze pyramid—the Scarimadean—that brings everlasting damnation to all who come into contact with it. Their only allies are an old man, a fading secret organization in the Church, and an enigmatic warrior, who may hold the key not only to the friends’ fates, but to the fate of all mankind.

Paul Fisher sees the world from behind glasses so thick he looks like a bug-eyed alien. But he’s not so blind that he can’t see there are some very unusual things about his family’s new home in Tangerine County, Florida. Where else does a sinkhole swallow the local school, fire burn underground for years, and lightning strike at the same time every day?

The chaos is compounded by constant harassment from his football-star brother, and adjusting to life in Tangerine isn’t easy for Paul—until he joins the soccer team at his middle school. With the help of his new teammates, Paul begins to discover what lies beneath the surface of his strange new hometown. And he also gains the courage to face up to some secrets his family has been keeping from him for far too long. In Tangerine, it seems, anything is possible.

A group of elegant monster dogs in top hats, tails, and bustle skirts become instant celebrities when they come to New York in 2008. Refugees from a town which had been completely isolated for 100 years, the dogs retain the 19th century Germanic culture of the humans who created them. As the dogs struggle to adapt to their new surroundings, a young woman befriends them...and discovers that a strange, incurable illness threatens them with extinction.

"An effective fantasy in the tradition of Robert Louis Stevenson and Mary Shelley. It is loaded with metaphor and reflection -- on nature and culture, on science, on the place of artists in society." -- The Wall Street Journal

"One of the most unique and unusual works of fiction to come along in many years....Like Frankenstein before it, Monster Dogs is a fabulous fable well told." -- Cathy Hainer, USA Today