Books published by publisher House of Stratus Ltd

The Feltons are a family with a long lineage stretching back beyond the Norman Conquest. They now have a daughter, Ianthe, but prior to her birth Tobias, or Toby, was fostered and then adopted as their heir after he had miraculously survived the sinking of a refugee ship by a German U-Boat. Then, someone who is clearly Toby’s twin turns up as an under-gardener. He had been fostered by a Scottish couple, now dead. There is now general and disturbed confusion on everyone’s part – including the boys themselves. Stewart explores magnificently the nature of the complicated relationships, including those from outside of the family such as Toby’s lover; the irony of the situation; and the many ramifications of class and culture in the absurd situation the characters find themselves. The Author: John Innes Mackintosh Stewart (who also wrote as ‘Michael Innes’) was born in Edinburgh where his father was Director of Education. He attended Edinburgh Academy before going up to Oriel College, Oxford where he was awarded a first class degree in English and won the Matthew Arnold Memorial Prize and was named a Bishop Frazer scholar. After a short interlude travelling with AJP Taylor in Austria, including studying Freudian psychoanalysis for a year, he embarked on an edition of Florio’s translation of Montaigne’s Essays. This subsequently helped him secure a post teaching English at Leeds University.In 1932, Stewart married Margaret Hardwick, who practised medicine, and they subsequently had three sons and two daughters. By 1935, he had been awarded the Jury Chair at the University of Adelaide in Australia as Professor of English and had also completed his first detective novel, ‘Death at the President’s Lodging’, published under the pseudonym ‘Michael Innes’. This was an immediate success and part of a long running series centred on ‘Inspector Appleby’, his primary character when writing as ‘Innes’. There were almost fifty titles completed under the ‘Innes’ banner during his career. In 1946, he returned to the UK and spent two years at Queen's University in Belfast, before being appointed Student (Fellow and Tutor) at Christ Church, Oxford. He was later to hold the post of Reader in English Literature of Oxford University and upon his retirement was made an Emeritus Professor. Whilst never wanting to leave his beloved Oxford permanently, he did manage to fit into his busy schedule a visiting Professorship at the University of Washington and was also honoured by other Universities in the UK. Stewart wrote many works under his own name, including twenty-one works of fiction (which contained the highly acclaimed quintet entitled ‘A Staircase in Surrey’, centred primarily in Oxford, but with considerable forays elsewhere, especially Italy), several short story collections, and over nine learned works on the likes of Shakespeare, Kipling and Hardy. He was also a contributor to many academic publications, including a major section on modern writers for the Oxford History of English Literature. He died in 1994, the last published work being an autobiography: ‘Myself and Michael Innes’. J.I.M. Stewart’s fiction is greatly admired for its wit, plots and literary quality, whilst the non-fiction is acknowledged as being definitive.

Enchanted by the theatre, Dan and Una decide to recreate their own version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Finding the perfect spot, an old fairy ring, they set about their play, and are so enchanted that they perform it three times in a row. After a final bow, they sit down in the centre of the fairy ring – whereupon, the bushes part and Puck enters, stage left. Using his fairy magic, Puck then conjures up the past to entertain the two amazed children – a Roman centurion, a Renaissance artisan and a bygone village all appear before their very eyes. Puck of Pook’s Hill is an innocent and charming tale to delight readers of all ages.

Artist, connoisseur and private detective, Philip Trent, features in this classic and unputdownable collection, comprising eleven short stories. Included are 'The Genuine Tabard', in which a clergyman and unique objets d'art are involved in a neat confidence trick; 'The Foolproof Lift', in which a blackmailing valet is found murdered; and 'The Ordinary Hairpins', in which a golden-haired opera singer commits suicide - but Trent is wisely suspicious.

Theodore Honey is a scientist with an interest in the paranormal and a job testing metal fatigue in aircraft. When a new transatlantic plane, the Reindeer, is found to have crashed in Labrador, Theodore believes he knows why. The scientist is sent to the scene of the crash. En route to Canada Theodore learns he is flying in a Reindeer and is in danger.

Sir Percy leads a band of musicians whose play is of questionable quality. Nonetheless, the disguise enables him to listen in to conversations as revolutionaries lay their plans in an ale house. But his mission on this occasion is to save the La Rodiere family and others from the Guillotine. The band uses the rabble to mask the rescue, as whilst they sing and dance around Chateau Rodiere, it becomes possible to outwit even Citizen Chauvelin, who has arrived on the scene. Treachery from within the band is afoot, however, and Sir Percy has to rely on wit and judgment to bring about an astonishing conclusion.The Author: Emmuska Orczy was born in Tarnaörs, Heves, in Hungary, the daughter of a composer, Baron Felix Orczy, and Countess Emma Wass.Her parents left Hungary in 1868, fearful of the threat of a peasant revolution. They lived in Budapest before moving to Brussels and then on to Paris. There, she studied music with limited success before the family moved on again; this time to London, at which point her interest turned to art. She studied at the West London School of Art, followed by Heatherley's School of Fine Art, where she met a young illustrator, Henry Montague MacLean Barstow, the son of an English clergyman who was to become her friend, lover, and husband in a happy marriage that lasted nearly fifty years. They were to have one son."My marriage was for close on half a century one of perfect happiness and understanding, of perfect friendship and communion of thought. The great link in my chain of life which brought me everything that makes life worth the living."To start with there was little money and the pair worked as translator (Orczy) and illustrator, before she embarked upon a writing career in 1899 which, to start with, was not a success. By 1901, however, she had produced a second novel and a string of detective stories for a magazine which were received a little more kindly. In 1903, in co-operation with her husband, she wrote a play about an English aristocrat, Sir Percy Blakeney, whose mission in life was to rescue French aristocrats from the extreme events affecting their class during the French Revolution.The play got off to a shaky start, but soon developed a following and eventually ran for four years in the West End of London. It was translated and revised and performed in many other countries. In tandem with the play, Orczy novelized the story and this became a huge success. There followed over ten sequels which featured the central character, Blakeney, along with his family and other members of what was referred to as the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel. The first of these, I Will Repay, was published in 1906 and the last, Mam'zelle Guillotine, in 1940.She also wrote many other novels, mainly romances, but also within another genre she mastered; detective fiction. Lady Molly of Scotland Yard was one of the first novels to feature a female detective. The Old Man in the Corner stories are of particular significance, as they represented a new departure in fiction, with an ‘armchair’ detective literally attempting to reveal solutions based on logic alone.Success brought financial reward and eventually she bought an estate, Villa Bijou in Monte Carlo, Monaco, which was to become her home and where her beloved husband died in 1943. England, however, remained important to her and in addition to working tirelessly during the First World War in aid of the recruitment of male volunteers for the services, it was in Henley-on-Thames, near London, that she died in 1947.Many film and TV adaptations of Orczy’s work have been made, and her novels remain sought after and avidly digested by successive new generations of readers.

Sir Percy leads a band of musicians whose play is of questionable quality. Nonetheless, the disguise enables him to listen in to conversations as revolutionaries lay their plans in an ale house. But his mission on this occasion is to save the La Rodiere family and others from the Guillotine. The band uses the rabble to mask the rescue, as whilst they sing and dance around Chateau Rodiere, it becomes possible to outwit even Citizen Chauvelin, who has arrived on the scene. Treachery from within the band is afoot, however, and Sir Percy has to rely on wit and judgment to bring about an astonishing conclusion.