Books published by publisher Collins Clear-type press

The story of the remarkable Tom Crean who ran away to sea aged 15 and played a memorable role in Antarctic exploration. He spent more time in the unexplored Antarctic than Scott or Shackleton, and outlived both. Among the last to see Scott alive, Crean was in the search party that found the frozen body. An unforgettable story of triumph over unparalleled hardship and deprivation.

This is the true story of Grace O’Malley, or Granuaile, who ruled on land and sea in Connaught over 400 years ago. A Pirate Queen and Chieftain, she became a legend. We meet Grace as a young girl on Ireland’s west coast. Her father is a strong chieftain and loves the sea. Despite her parents’ objections, Grace becomes a better sailor than any of her father’s crew and so the adventures of the Pirate Queen begin. We set sail on her galley to Spain where war with England affects Grace and Ireland. We meet her husbands, Donal of the Battles and Richard in Iron, and are on board ship for her son’s birth and pirate attacks. After many escapades we sail to London for her famous meeting with Queen Elizabeth I. And we stay with her in her castle at Rock Fleet where she dies in 1603. This non-fiction account is a must for children who love Irish history! Similar to: Michael Collins: Most Wanted Man by Vincent McDonnell and Tom Crean: Ice Man by Michael Smith.

Irishman Francis Crozier was a major figure in nineteenth-century polar exploration. His voyages with Parry, Ross and Franklin lifted the veil from the frozen wastes of the Arctic and Antarctic, paving the way for Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton. The Antarctic cape named after him was immortalised in Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World. A failed romance drove him back to the ice one fatal last time with Franklin's North West Passage expedition in 1845. All 129 men perished. Crozier took command after Franklin's death and led the courageous battle to survive in the Arctic wilderness. In the bitter life-or-death struggle, which lasted for years, some even resorted to cannibalism. But, according to legend, Crozier was the last to die – the last man standing. • Also available: An Unsung Hero: Tom Crean

This great historical novel discloses the warm and colorful story of Saxon resistance to the Norman invasion of Britain. The story is a magical achievement: the reader shares, as in an immediate experience, in the life of a Saxon boy. With him, he watches the Danes come over the hill, lives as hostage in a Norman stronghold, escapes to Britain, shares in the memorable ride to the Battle of Hastings, and has to come to terms with a conquest that alters history. Saxon life and landscape, with brilliant reconstructions, take on a wonderful vitality. The eleventh century lives again in its own terms. The world of A.D. 1066 is that of any people whose freedom is ever threatened or whose way of life seems doomed.