Books published by publisher House of Stratus

Further adventures from the much-loved Captain Blood, the ‘Robin Hood' of the Spanish Seas. In his latest exploits, 'The Chronicles of Captain Blood' takes him to new adventures with as much excitement and swashbuckling adventure as ever before. Winning invaluable treasures, rescuing his crew from almost certain death and saving an English settlement are all in a day's work for this remarkable hero of land and sea.

‘The Phantom Rickshaw & Other Eerie Tales’ brings together four of Kipling’s most-loved short stories. Each deals with events that can’t quite be explained away, whether a traditional ghost story, a terrifyingly realistic nightmare or a sumptuous and lavish romance. Powerful, exotic and extravagant, these tales are rated, by some, to be the best stories Kipling ever wrote, with ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ being hailed as the finest story in the English language.

First published in 1921, this absorbing tale has all the ingredients of a 21st-century best-seller: infidelity, sex, drunkenness, violent death, football corruption, urban and rural poverty, and explicit coverage of human frailties and desires. Abner Fellows, a miner and semi-professional footballer, is found a surface job to ensure that industrial injury does not impede his prowess at football. Abner's stepmother is only a little older than himself and, when his hard-drinking miner father is hospitalized, he becomes the breadwinner. Just as his father returns home, Abner is sacked for refusing to 'throw' a cup match for his boss. Fellows senior unjustly accuses his son of impropriety with his stepmother, a fight ensues and Abner leaves home. He tramps west and after several skirmishes finds lodgings with a casual acquaintance. Again he finds himself the breadwinner of a small family. His landlady keeps him at arm's length but, just before the release of her husband from gaol, succumbs to his advances. Following another fight, Abner leaves and, whilst intoxicated in Shrewsbury, accepts an offered panacea for all his problems.

The Sleeper Awakes is H. G. Wells's story of London in the twenty-second century and the man who by accident becomes owner and master of the world. In 1897 a Victorian gentleman falls into a sleep from which he cannot be waked. During his two centuries of slumber he becomes the Sleeper, the most well known and powerful person in the world. All property is bequeathed to the Sleeper to be administered by a Council on his behalf. The common people, increasingly oppressed, view the Sleeper as a mythical liberator whose awakening will free them from misery.

It was into the famous and powerful Baring family of merchant bankers that Maurice Baring was born in 1874, the seventh of eight children. A man of immense subtlety and style, Baring absorbed every drop of culture that his fortunate background showered upon him; in combination with his many natural talents and prolific writing this assured him a place in literary history. In this classic autobiography, spanning a remarkable period of history, Maurice Baring shares the details of an inspirational childhood in nineteenth-century England and a varied adulthood all over the world, collecting new friends and remarkable experiences. It has been said that Baring’s greatest talent was for discovering the best in people, that he had a genius for friendship, and in this superb book his erudition and perception are abundantly clear.

When Cartwright and Maxell visit the theatre in Tangiers, Cartwright boldly liberates the Irish singer Miss O'Grady from her infamous surroundings, so angering the theatre owner's son and the Spaniard Jose Ferreria. Then the news from El Mograb is good so Cartwright leaves to arrange the necessary finance. In the Crown room of the Law Courts, Mr Justice Maxell is asked by the Attorney General if he is doing business with Cartwright. 'No,' he lies.

When Foreign Secretary Sir Philip Ramon receives a threatening, greenish-grey letter signed “Four Just Men,” he remains determined to see his Aliens Extradition Bill made law. A device in the members' smoke room and a sudden magnesium flash that could easily have been nitroglycerin leave Scotland Yard baffled. Even Fleet Street cannot identify the illusive Manfred, Gonsalez, Pioccart, and Thery—four just men dedicated to punishing by death those whom conventional justice cannot touch.

Julian Linchcombe is the remarkable heir to the Earl of Linchcombe’s estate and he has the voice of an angel. When he is taken to the festival of San Januerius in Italy to witness a miracle, his uncle arranges for him to go sailing with a local fisherman. But Julian is soon lured into running away. A massive search goes underway to find the missing boy until eventually a body turns up broken and tangled in a fishing net. A sinister plot is uncovered involving fraud, kidnap and murder. Has Julian been stolen away for his voice? And who is dead?

Employing his unique style of innocent and endearing humour, Bones has written to the newspapers 'The Surrey Star' and 'The Middlesex Plain Dealer' inviting the Foreign Secretary to pay a visit to the African territories which they administer. It is against the regulations and his boss Hamilton is furious. While world powers vie for colonial honours, Sanders and his assistants attempt to administer an uneasy peace in a climate of ju-ju and witch doctors, and all the while Bosambo, chief of the Ochori, watches closely.

Recently released from prison, John Gray visits his old friend Peter Kane. Although it is the day of his daughter's wedding, Kane agrees to an audience with Emanuel Legg, the criminal and cop-killer with whom he has some business. Gray wanders into the garden and a tornado of fury sweeps through him. The debonair Major Floyd, the new husband to whom Kane has entrusted his precious daughter, is a fraudster of the most sinister kind.