Antony Johnson – författare

She hates him. He doesn’t understand her. Alice and Robbie: two youngsters forced to step reluctantly fast towards adulthood and marriage. Layered, lyrical, atmospheric: this is a book to engage and enthrall older children, young adults and those of any age who like to adventure in Tudor England.In 1520s England, Alice, twelve years old, daughter of impoverished Sir Lionel and Lady Catherine, is to be married to Robbie, the fourteen-year-old son of an up-and-coming family of Bristol merchants. Sir Lionel, together with Robbie’s father, is seeking to nudge King Henry into supporting exploration and enterprise in distant, just-discovered lands. However, unexpected opposition suddenly threatens not only their plans, but also their lives.

Redemption Time is the enthralling story of a 16 year old boy, William Carpenter, from a reasonably privileged family who is told by his father that the family has been hit by a major financial disaster. The family home and land will have to be sold and he will have to leave his public school as his father can no longer afford to pay the fees. In other words, they are 'bust'.What he does, having delved into the family archives and history, forms the essence of the story taking him, as a deckhand, on a banana boat to the West Indies. There, on the island of Barbados, on a chance meeting on shore leave with a businessman, he discovers that his ancestor of 200 years ago who he knew had spent time there, had been one of the first and most successful sugar planters. It was this ancestor who had made the family fortune, now dissipated by his heirs and successors. On the island, his ancestor's name is still a legend.On the banana boat, his deckhand duties catches the eye of a passenger, a self-made businessman and his wife taking a leisurely cruise as part of a recovery programme from a heart attack. He mentions to Will to contact him should he ever feel in need of a change or advice in the future. After more voyages on the ship, Will decides that the time to change has come and contacts his man, Mr Mallory. The offshoot is that Mallory offers him a job but that is all. The rest, he says "Is up to you"Will's progress up the ladder to assistant manager of one of the leading branches of the firm, to, a couple of years later, to be appointed to start up a new branch of the business in Ireland, follows.What happens in Ireland - the ups, downs and pitfalls of starting a new business, together with his childhood knowledge and skill of riding a horse, stands him in good stead with the locals and takes his love life to a new level.The prospect of a return to his Caribbean island, Barbados dawns and the discovery of an underworld criminal enterprise. What happens if the dream turns into reality or not forms the ultimate climax as to whether his original decision to take the job as a deckhand was a good or bad idea.

A Crack of the Whip is the unvarnished, blissfully politically incorrect memoir of Antony Johnson. From the unhappy privations of a 1940s prep school to high jinks in the Caribbean, Antony has led a full and remarkable life. Packed with tales from National Service, the City, industry, racing, travel and high and low society, A Crack of the Whip is a romp through life and history.'These are memoirs without rancour, enlivened by some splendid anecdotes. Read and enjoy.' Robin Oakley

Young love and conviction clash with authority in sixteenth-century England in this exciting and vividly written novel. Challenging times are tenderly and evocatively portrayed in ‘Robbie and Alice – Tudor Voyage’: the second book of Robbie and Alice’s Tudor adventures.1521. England’s Cardinal Wolsey, doggedly pursuing his ambition to be elected Pope, plots to challenge Spain’s new American empire and so gain prestige from the King of France. Robbie, fifteen years old and Alice, thirteen, find themselves unwittingly at the hub of Wolsey’s plot. Together they do their utmost – while on a journey that takes them to the far side of the world - to thwart it. ‘Robbie and Alice - Tudor Voyage’ is a coming-of-age novel that anyone interested in life in Tudor England should enjoy.

Description‘Robbie and Alice – Tudor Reformation’ is a highly entertaining and greatlyengaging novel, suitable for readers aged 12 to 112. Within it, Tudor Englandcomes vividly to life: the challenges of those who are young in particular. Christmas1521. Robbie (15) and Alice (13) face terrible danger because of theirfriendship with a priest who promotes controversial opinions. A warning letter,sent to Alice by Beatrice (10 years old), sparks pursuit. Henry VIII’schancellor, Thomas Wolsey, seeks the arrest and death of the priest. A chase toEurope ensues: an underworld of reformist idealists is encountered: thecertainties of a thousand years are challenged.

A wounded soldier. A Sicilian farm. A second chance—until war’s shadow returns.In 1943, British Commando Benedict Kelly is left for dead behind enemy lines in Sicily—until a local farmer’s family risks everything to save him. Two years later, Kelly returns to the island, seeking the people who gave him life—and finds unexpected peace, purpose, and love...But beneath Sicily’s beauty, danger still brews. As Kelly rebuilds his life among the blood orange groves, he’s drawn into a deadly web of Mafia rivalries and heroin smuggling.Blood of Orange is a gripping novel of survival, renewal, and the cost of justice in a land haunted by war.

Alexander Murray grows up on a farm in Gloucestershire with a fascination for a family legend linking his ancestors to the Russian Decembrist uprising of 1825. Determined to uncover the truth, he studies Russian and plans to trace his roots in St Petersburg.Before university, Alex spends six months in South America, working as a gaucho on a ranch in Argentina and later in the wild landscapes of Chilean Patagonia. There he meets a Russian businessman and his wife—an encounter that will unexpectedly open the door to the country that has long fascinated him.In Russia, Alex’s search for his family history takes him deep into Siberia, where he discovers distant relatives and meets Olga Derevenko. What begins as a tense first meeting soon becomes a powerful romance.But Alex’s connection to Russia will draw him into far more dangerous territory.Back in London, his flawless Russian catches the attention of a shadowy British intelligence officer known only as Colonel Jack. A Russian spy working secretly for Britain has been exposed after uncovering a vast corruption scheme reaching into the highest levels of the Kremlin. Extracting him from Russia will require someone who can move unnoticed across the country—and Alex is the perfect candidate.As Russian security services close in, Alex is thrust into a deadly mission across the vastness of Russia, where courage, loyalty and survival are tested at every turn.The Black Stone is an international thriller of secrets, espionage and divided loyalties, moving from the English countryside to Patagonia, St Petersburg and the immense landscapes of Siberia.