Saul David Ltd - Böcker

'Gems like this are too rare. I was hooked in ten pages.' Conn IgguldenGEORGE HART just wants to serve his Queen and honour his family. It's not that simple.BASTARDHe doesn't know his father, only that he's a pillar of the Establishment. His beloved mother is half Irish, half Zulu.ZULU In a Victorian society rife with racism and prejudice, George's dark skin spells trouble to his regimental commander.WARRIORBut George has soldiering in his blood - the only question is what he's really fighting for: ancestry or Empire. In the heat of battle he must decide . . .

Back in England following his heroics in the Zulu Wars, George Hart is summoned to a new adventure when Prime Minister Disraeli asks him to go on a secret mission to Afghanistan, where the British fear Muslim extremists are poised to overthrow the local ruler and threaten the jewel in the Imperial crown, India. Hart has severe misgivings. Always an outsider in British society, he doesn't like Whitehall's arrogant way of meddling in other people's religious and political affairs, but desperate for money, he takes the job and descends the Khyber Pass into a strange and violent land. When his warnings are ignored by the pompous British Resident in Kabul, a terrible massacre occurs and soon Hart is on the run with a beautiful Afghan princess, in a race to prevent an uprising and head off a catastrophic British invasion.

'A rattling good yarn... A compelling, sexy hero who could give Cornwell's Sharpe a run for his money' The Times on ZULU HARTLondon 1888: George 'Zulu' Hart is the mixed-race illegitimate son of a Dublin actress and (he suspects) the Duke of Cambridge, commander-in-chief of the army. George has fought his way through wars in Africa and Afghanistan, won the VC and married his sweetheart, but he's also a gambler, short of money and in no position to turn down the job of 'minder' to Prince Albert Victor, second in line to the throne. George is to befriend the charming young cavalry officer and keep him out of trouble - no easy task, given that the Prince is a known target for Irish nationalist assassins, while his secret sexual orientation leaves him open to blackmail and scandal. To make matters worse, the Prince is also in the habit of heading out late at night to sample the dubious pleasures of the East End. Both outsiders in their different ways, perhaps the two men have more in common than they know, but when a series of horrible murders begins in Whitechapel, on just the nights the Prince has been there, George is drawn into an investigation which forces him to confront the unthinkable...A brilliant standalone adventure based on detailed research, this is a thrilling novel of suspense and a fascinating new twist on the Jack the Ripper story.

*By the historical consultant to the major motion picture Entebbe*'The definitive work on the subject....This is the achievement of a masterly, first-rate historian' New York Times Book Review'It's a brilliantly orchestrated book, wonderfully rich in detail, but at the same time roaring along at a heart-thumping pace...' Mail on Sunday'A brilliant, breathless account that reads like the plot of an action movie.' Sunday TelegraphThis edition is updated with new material on recent discoveries. On 3 July 1976 Israeli Special Forces carried out a daring raid to free more than a hundred Israeli, French and US hostages held by German and Palestinian terrorists at Entebbe Airport, Uganda. The legacy of this mission is still felt today in the way Western governments respond to terrorist blackmail. Codenamed Thunderbolt, the operation carried huge risks. The flight was a challenge: 2,000 miles with total radio silence over hostile territory to land in darkness at Entebbe Airport in Idi Amin's Uganda. On the ground, the Israeli commandos had just three minutes to carry out their mission. They had to evade a cordon of élite Ugandan paratroopers, storm the terminal and free more than a hundred hostages. So much could have gone wrong: the death of the hostages if the terrorists got wind of the assault; or the capture of Israel's finest soldiers if their Hercules planes could not take off. Both would have been a human and a PR catastrophe. Now, with the mission largely forgotten or even unknown to many, Saul David gives the first comprehensive account of Operation Thunderbolt using classified documents from archives in four countries and interviews with key participants, including Israeli soldiers and politicians, hostages, a member of the Kenyan government and a former terrorist. Both a thrilling page-turner and a major piece of historical detective work, Operation Thunderbolt shows how the outcome of Israel's most famous military operation depended on secret diplomacy, courage and luck-and was in the balance right up to the very last moment.