Iain Lawrence – författare

A swashbuckling thriller, part one of THE HIGH SEAS ADVENTURES, set on the oceans of the eighteenth century – drama, horror, adventure…It is 1799. John Spencer is fourteen when his father’s ship, the ill-fated Isle of Skye, is shipwrecked on the coast of Cornwall as she makes for her home port. John survives the disaster, but soon learns to his horror that the villagers are not rescuers but wreckers – pirates who lure ships ashore in order to plunder their cargo… When John discovers that his father is alive but being held prisoner, he must try and rescue him – without knowing who can be trusted to help.

A swashbuckling thriller, part two of THE HIGH SEAS ADVENTURES, set on the oceans of the eighteenth century – drama, horror, adventure…“Steer clear of that ship,” warns the mysterious gentleman who shares the coach to Dover with John Spencer and his father. “Death she’ll bring you. It’s the way of a ship that was christened in blood.”This is an ominous introduction to the schooner John is about to be entrusted with for a voyage north to London. But he’s too charmed by the pretty Dragon to heed the advice. The ship looks clever and quick, and John, now sixteen, can’t wait to sail her. She was a smugglers’ vessel once, but that was in the past. Now she’s the Spencers’ Dragon, and she will proudly carry wool for honest trade.But soon John will be forced to consider the gentleman’s warning. Could a ship that’s seen a smuggling run truly be spoiled for anything else? And what does John really know about his “bonny” crew of four?Alive with breathtaking action and unforgettable characters, this companion to The Wreckers is masterfully entertaining – a rousing nautical adventure full of danger and surprise.

A swashbuckling thriller, part three of THE HIGH SEAS ADVENTURES, set on the oceans at the turn of the nineteenth century – drama, horror, adventure…"There's pirates in the West Indies. Cannibals. They cook you alive. They shrink your head to the size of a walnut," says Mr Spencer to his son. These words will haunt sixteen-year-old John Spencer as he embarks on his first voyage to foreign lands. Carrying cargo destined for Jamaica, John and his Dragon crew set off from London for waters few of them have sailed before. When they come upon a lifeboat adrift at sea, some are wary of the sailor aboard. His name is Horn, and something about this imposing and mysterious sailor isn't right. He carries a chest full of clinking glass, and his story doesn't quite make sense. Still, John respects the stranger's awe-inspiring seamanship. With Horn on deck, both John and the ship's captain believe the Dragon is in the best of hands.But is Horn to be trusted? The answers become more and more complicated as the Dragon encounters a very real – and very dangerous – pirate ship. Now John starts to believe his father's warnings, especially after he becomes separated from his shipmates and is stranded on an island reputed to conceal buried treasure. A place teeming with buccaneers…Brimming with furious high-seas adventure, this companion to The Wreckers and The Smugglers concludes with a bloodcurdling tale of pirates – and a surprise ending…

A young boy gradually comes to understand the difference between his toy soldiers and the bloodshed of the First World War in this poignant story.Ten-year-old Johnny loves the army of nutcracker soldiers his toymaker father whittles for him. Johnny eagerly plays at war, demolishing imaginary foes. But in 1914, war with Germany looms, and all too soon Johnny's father is swept up in the war to end all wars as he proudly enlists to fight at the front in France. Johnny believes his father will be back in a few months, in time to celebrate Christmas with him and his mum. But the war is nothing like any soldier or person at home expected. It is brutal and horrific.The letters that arrive from Johnny's dad reveal the ugly realities of combat – and the soldiers he carves and encloses begin to bear its scars. Still, Johnny adds these soldiers to his armies of Huns, Tommies, and Frenchmen, engaging them in furious battle out in the muddy garden. His war games bind him to the father he longs to see again. But when these games seem to foretell his dad's real battles, Johnny thinks he possesses godlike powers over his wooden men. He fears he controls his father's fate, the lives of all the soldiers in no-man's-land, and the outcome of the war itself.In this haunting and poignant tale, Iain Lawrence explores the irrationality of war and its effect on lives that are all too fragile.