The Powder of Death: What Readers are saying
Posted on October 19, 2016 6 Comments
I’m chuffed with the reception my second historical standalone The Powder of Death is receiving, especially the all five-star reviews on Amazon, comments on social media, and the numerous personal emails to me from readers. Here’s a selection of these comments. And there’s a contest to win a copy of the book at the end of the blog!
‘Once again Julian has written a compelling, “Can’t put it down” yarn. Beginning at the end of the 1200s in England, the story travels to the Holy Land, Italy and France. It tells the story of the use of gunpowder and its development by the Chinese as a novelty, The central figure, a blacksmith turned merchant, Jared, witnesses its use in battle and immediately realizes its potential, thus the tale of the challenges Jared faces in trying to replicate and harness the power of the powder. A wonderful, informative novel that would make a great movie.’
‘This is a remarkable book for weaving historical facts on the origin and development of gun powder into novel or storytelling format. I learned so much. Perhaps Julian Stockwin will one day write about all the research he did for this book. I have to admit I thought he was making up names for some of the instruments but then I looked up the names and found it was all true.’
‘We know Julian Stockwin best for taking us on adventures on the High Seas with Captain Kydd not the medieval world of knights and castles, but don’t let that put you off – this is every bit as good.’
‘Big fan of Kydd series, so thought I’d get a copy of this book and give it a go…no regrets as it is a wonderful yarn. Fast paced and compelling read, great character detail and interplay, with Jared the blacksmith becoming the central figure in Julian Stockwin’s tale of gunpowder and guns. Historical backdrops add to the tale, just a wonderful book.’
‘Once again Julian Stockwin has shown us his prowess as an author not only of maritime matters but historical matters as well… This account of the development of the ‘gunne’ and ‘gunne powder’ you get so involved with Jared the blacksmith willing him on to succeed in the development of his gunne and cannones. A brilliant read as usual so please Julian keep them coming. A must read for people who like historical novels.’
The Powder of Death is available in hardback, ebook and audiobook in the UK and in Australia in hardback and ebook. In the US and Canada it’s out in ebook and audiobook and the hardback will be launched October 27 in the US and in Canada on November 14.
For a chance to go into the hat to win a copy of the book email julian@julianstockwin.com with the name of the first title in my Moments of History series published by Allison & Busby.
Deadline: October 28
Previous posts on The Powder of Death
Thrilling and entertaining
Ten cool facts
BookPick: British Expeditionary Warfare and the Defeat of Napoleon
Posted on October 11, 2016 5 Comments
Britain’s naval victories in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars succeeded in protecting her from French invasion, but they could not of themselves defeat France. This required the support of allied armies and necessitated the shipping of formidable numbers of troops to, and successfully landing them on, French controlled territory – a major logistical operation much akin to D-Day in these times. Wellington’s expedition to Portugal and Spain led to Napoleon’s defeat in the Peninsular War, but there were many other British expeditions before this which were not successful, in part because they were too logistically ambitious and/or they lacked allied support.
‘British Expeditionary Warfare and the Defeat of Napoleon, 1793-1815‘ by Robert K Sutcliffe
Just how did Britain manage the transportation of decisive numbers of troops to French controlled territory during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and successfully land them? Sutcliffe examines the nature of combined operations and the planning and preparation of expeditions. He highlights the navy’s crucial role in amphibious warfare and describes the often complex logistical operations which supported British expeditionary warfare in the period, bearing in mind that it was all achieved without telephones, typewriters and massive bureaucratic support.
In outlining the role of the Transport Board, he explores how it periodically chartered a large proportion of the British merchant fleet in quite the same way as happened so recently in the Falklands operation, and picking up what the effects of this were on merchant shipping. He concludes that the Transport Board grew in competence; that the failure of expeditions was invariably due to circumstances well beyond its control; and that its pivotal role in the preparation of all the major military expeditions in which hundreds of thousands of British troops served overseas was significant and effective.
I have a particular interest in this book as not only will it be a valuable resource on my library shelves for writing my Thomas Kydd tales – but in more modern times Naval Control of Shipping (the logistics of deploying merchant vessels to meet wartime objectives) was my area of expertise when I was in the Royal Naval Reserve. The photo, taken during my active Service in the RNR, shows your reviewer on the bridge of such a merchant vessel in the South China Seas during a training exercise.
INFERNO Blog Tour!
Posted on October 5, 2016 9 Comments
I’m excited about the upcoming Inferno Blog Tour, kicking off tomorrow with an excerpt from the book at The Tattooed Book Geek. The following day I’ll be answering questions about the Kydd Series and my life as an author from Stuart Simpson at Always Trust in Books. Then, on the 8th I’ll be at Kirsty’s Book Reviews with a Guest Post – ‘Inferno: the Creation of a Kydd Tale.’ The last stop on the Blog Tour is at Parmenion Books for another q & a session about my work, with Robin Carter. Hope you can join the Blog Tour – and I’d love to hear your own thoughts on Inferno.
Read my recent blog at H for History, ‘On the Trail of the Second Battle of Copenhagen’
You can also download a free 17-page guide to KYDD’S WORLD
BookPick: Hornblower’s Historical Shipmates
Posted on September 26, 2016 3 Comments
Among the many larger-than-life naval officers who strode the quarterdeck in the period I write about (1793-1815) Edward Pellew ranks among the most memorable. Not far from where I live in Devon is the site of his heroic action in saving the lives of some 500 men, women and children from certain death aboard the troopship Dutton that had come to grief just off Plymouth Hoe. He was ashore at the time, heading to a social function in full evening dress. Seeing Dutton‘s plight he stopped his carriage, divested himself of his finery and swam out to the ship and at the point of a sword took matters in hand in the panic that had ensued. Pellew served the Royal Navy with great distinction for 50 years. He was undoubtedly one of the greatest fighting captains of the Napoleonic wars but has somewhat been overshadowed by Horatio Nelson. He died in 1833, a vice-admiral of the United Kingdom, peer of the realm and holder of many foreign honours. As well as great seamanship skills, indomitable courage and sheer grit, Pellew excelled in man management and mentoring. He has been criticised by some as an over-partial father to his own sons but he nevertheless earned the lasting devotion of his men.
Hornblowers Historical Shipmates by Heather Noel-Smith and Lorna M Campbell
The book sets out the lives of seventeen ‘young gentlemen’ who were midshipmen under Pellew. Together, aboard the frigate HMS Indefatigable, they fought the celebrated action in 1797 against the French ship of the line Les Droits de l’Homme. C. S. Forester placed Horatio Hornblower aboard Pellew’s ship as a midshipman – this book tells the actual stories of Hornblower’s shipmates in real-life and provides a fascinating and absorbing snapshot of the later eighteenth-century sailing navy in microcosm.
From diverse backgrounds, aristocratic and humble, they bonded closely with Pellew, learned their naval leadership skills from him, and benefited from his patronage and his friendship in their subsequent, very varied careers. Besides tracing the men’s naval lives, the book shows how they adapted to peace after 1815, presenting details of their subsequent civilian careers. The colourful lives recounted include those of the Honourable George Cadogan, son of an earl, who survived three courts martial and a duel to retire with honour as an admiral in 1813; Thomas Groube, of a Falmouth merchant family, who commanded a fleet of boats which destroyed the Dutch shipping at Batavia, capital of the Dutch East Indies, in 1806; and James Bray, of Irish Catholic descent, who was killed commanding a sloop during the American war of 1812.
An Appendix, of a remarkable exchange of letters between Pellew and Lord Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty, and Bibliography of primary and secondary sources, are offered for those wishing to delve deeper into the lives of Hornblower’s historical shipmates and their gallant commander.
Much enjoyed and recommended, and until October 3 you can take advantage of a 40% discount on this book and other titles.
Standalones Sail Stateside!
Posted on September 20, 2016 4 Comments
The GameChangers : Moments of History
I’m delighted to announce that my two historical standalones, The Silk Tree and The Powder of Death have been released in ebook and audiobook formats in the States and Canada. These books are the first two of my standalone series: The Gamechangers: Moments of History. Physical books of the titles will be released a little later in the year in these markets.
The Silk Tree
‘I have to say that I approached reading this book with some trepidation having been a devoted follower of “Kydd” and had read all his stories. Would the author’s new venture live up to what had gone before? Would the change of time and location hold as much fascination for as my great love of the sea and the Napoleonic wars? Well, I have to say that The Silk Tree exceeded my expectations. What a story; what characters; what detail; what descriptions! I felt that I was there travelling and suffering with Nicander and Marius. The final twist at the end was masterpiece – I didn’t see it coming.‘ – an Amazon reviewer
After escaping the sack of Rome in 549 AD two adventurers risk all to steal the secret of silk from China.
Forced to flee Rome from the barbaric rampages of the Ostrogoths, merchant Nicander meets an unlikely ally in the form of Marius, a fierce Roman legionary. Escaping to a new life in Constantinople, the two land upon its shores lonely and penniless. Needing to make money fast, they plot and plan a number of outrageous money-making schemes, until they chance upon their greatest idea yet.
Armed with a wicked plan to steal precious silk seeds from the faraway land of Seres, Nicander and Marius must embark upon a terrifyingly treacherous journey across unknown lands, never before completed. But first they must deceive the powerful emperor Justinian and the rest of his formidable Byzantine Empire in order to begin their journey into the unknown…An adventurous tale of mischief, humour and deception, Nicander and Marius face danger of the highest order, where nothing in the land of the Roman Empire is quite what it seems.
The Powder of Death
‘Once again Julian has written a compelling, “Can’t put it down” yarn. Beginning at the end of the 1200’s in England, the story travels to the Holy Land, Italy and France. It tells the story of the use of gunpowder (“The Powder of Death” ) and its development by the Chinese as a novelty. The central figure a blacksmith, turned merchant, Jared, witnesses its use in battle and immediately realizes its potential, Thus the tale of the challenges Jared faces in trying to replicate and harness the power of the powder. A wonderful, informative novel that would make a great movie.‘ – an Amazon reviewer
A tale of the re-discovery of gunpowder and one man’s obsession to bring it to Medieval Europe.
The Powder of Death opens with a returned envoy to China meeting an English scholar in Oxford in the mid-13th century to share a deadly secret. They vow that the knowledge of gunpowder must die with them as the consequences otherwise are too terrible to contemplate.
The novel tells the story of its re-discovery, one man’s obsession with the powder of death, and Edward III’s determination to use it to his advantage. He does so at the Battle of Crecy, the first full-scale battle at which guns are deployed in the field. The nature of warfare is changed forever, and the world hears the death-knell of Knightly chivalry.
A selection of retail outlets
Amazon UK
Waterstones UK
Amazon US
Barnes and Noble US
Amazon Canada
As always, I love to hear from readers so do get in touch if you’ve enjoyed these books! They are obviously a departure from my Kydd sea tales but I’ve always been fascinated by pivotal points in history and I was delighted when Allison & Busby invited me to write these two standalones. More are planned in the future!
INFERNO: Out next month!
Posted on September 16, 2016 28 Comments
UK Edition
US Edition
Just a few weeks to the official launch on October 6 of Inferno, my latest Kydd tale! For this book Kathy and I travelled to Denmark and Sweden on location research, braving the Baltic chill in winter. The book sees Captain Thomas Kydd involved in the Second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807.
UK Edition
US Edition
This is what Quarterdeck magazine had to say of the book:
‘Julian Stockwin’s stock-in-trade throughout the Thomas Kydd naval adventures has been creating stirring original, authentic, history-based stories, which often cover completely new subject matter in the genre. Stockwin splices a mariner’s sense of the sea, with a historian’s keen eye, to craft matchless true-to-life historical naval adventures. Immersing himself in minutiae, he leaves no stone unturned in bringing a Kydd novel to life. Whether it’s describing sail handling, a famed naval action, or a slice of Georgian England, the passage is based on factual resources. Inferno, the seventeenth instalment in the Thomas Kydd canon, brings another compelling epic to the fore.
It’s 1807 and Captain Sir Thomas Kydd is ashore, while his frigate, Tyger, is under repair in dry-dock, after her gallant action against three enemy frigates in the Baltic. Hailed as a hero, Kydd craves “space to find himself again; to get away somewhere blessedly remote and peaceful . . .” This lands him in a small, remote village along Scotland’s rocky western coast, with Tyger seaman Toby Stirk, who is recovering from wounds suffered in the recent frigate battle. When a mysterious gold doubloon surfaces, the mates are drawn into a perilous undersea treasure hunt, thrusting Kydd into an ethical dilemma.
At the same time, Napoleon Bonaparte’s victories across Europe and his Continental System – a broad embargo against British trade – threatens England’s economy. But the Emperor’s plan has one critical weakness: Denmark and her navy control the straits through which Baltic trade flows. In an effort to thwart the French, Nicholas Renzi – Lord Farndon – is dispatched by the government on a diplomatic mission to Copenhagen to prevail upon the Danish government to turn its fleet over to the British. Faced with the French army on its border and the Royal Navy at sea, the Danes demur, and risk being caught between two warring forces.
Returning from Scotland, Captain Kydd resumes command of Tyger and sails with a grand fleet and a military force bound for the Baltic on a mission to sway Denmark’s Crown Prince to surrender the Danish fleet. Failing this, the Danish ships could be unleashed by the French against the British. This leads to the Second Battle of Copenhagen, with the British bombarding the city over four days. Meanwhile, Lord Farndon and his wife, Cecilia – Thomas Kydd’s sister – are caught in the blazing inferno.
Stockwin’s passion for the sea, naval service, and the time of Nelson oozes from the pages like fresh hot pitch between the seams of a man-of-war’s deck.’
The book will be available in hardback, ebook and audiobook formats
Read an excerpt
For UK Kydd fans I will be signing copies of Inferno at various venues:-
On Saturday October 8 I’ll be at Waterstones Drake Circus, Plymouth, 11am – 1:00
- Waterstones
1 Charles St
Plymouth
PL1 1EA
Tel: 01752 669 898
On Saturday October 15 I’ll be at Torbay Bookshop, Paignton, at 11am
The Torbay Bookshop
7 Torquay Road
Paignton
Devon
TQ3 3DU
Tel: 01803 522011
A MegaBundle of Kydds!
Posted on August 23, 2016 5 Comments
To celebrate the upcoming launch of the paperback of Tyger in the US on October 1 my US publisher McBooks Press has put together a very special contest prize — the entire Kydd series to date plus a Union Jack tote! For a chance to win this fabulous bundle of goodies just email me with the name of the free bi-monthly newletter published by McBooks. Please include your full postal addresss and put ‘MegaBundle’ in the subject line (this contest is restricted to addressees in Continental USA)
Deadline for entry: September 15
What reviewers have said about Tyger
‘Characterization is strong, even for secondary characters. The setting features just enough detail to provide a framework for the imagination to fill in, lending a feel to the novel that Stockwin found Kydd’s journal and filled in the dramatic details. Engaging and engrossing, Kydd’s adventure commanding Tyger is a swashbuckling good time…With strong pacing and a well-built plot, this book is good not only for historical-fiction fans but for anyone who loves a solid yarn. Kydd is a heroic figure to rival Horatio Hornblower or Jack Aubrey, and a great addition to the nautical-adventure genre.’ –– Foreword Reviews
‘This latest cracking yarn in the Kydd and Renzi saga is a very, very, good novel… as fresh as the first in the series. As the sixteenth story in the series, this is an achievement in itself. Successful authors often become bored with their characters, or simply cannot think of how to develop them further. Fortunately, Stockwin is still enjoying his characters and their unfolding saga as the most avid fan. Having worked through to Trafalgar, the author would have been forgiven for resting on his laurels as so many before him have. Happily, he appreciated the rich seam of adventures that stretched out for the Royal Navy after 1805. He has already built instalments around two very important early dashes for Empire and this tale picks up the aftermath of the second dash.’ – FIRE Reviews
‘There are only really two kinds of readers: Those who are devoted fans of British seafaring novels, particularly novels set in the swashbuckling era of the Napoleonic wars, and those poor benighted souls who aren’t. And for those who do love a good seafaring yarn, there are also two – and only two – classifications: Those who have been lucky enough to have stumbled on Julian Stockwin’s Thomas Kydd saga, and those who have yet to discover these treasures, which have delighted many a sailor, armchair and otherwise, since the turn of the century.
Tyger [is] the best one yet, a gripping yarn about a self-made captain whose loyalty to a man he admires earns him the wrath of those higher-up – and causes him to be stuck with command of a down-at-heels frigate fresh from a bloody mutiny. You won’t fall asleep reading this book. Action and adventure is one thing, but Tyger, like Mr. Stockwin’s other Kydd books, has a genuinely authentic feel to it.’ – Toledo Blade
Tyger is also available in hardback, ebook and audio download
BookPick: Letters of Seamen in the Wars with France
Posted on August 16, 2016 2 Comments
Behind my decision to begin the Kydd series with a common seaman, rather than an officer, was my curiousity about (and admiration for) that tiny handful of men who crossed the great social divide in the eighteenth century from before the mast as a seaman to the quarterdeck as a king’s officer. In the bitter French wars at the end of the 18th century, there were, out of the hundreds of thousands of seamen in the Navy over that time, probably only 120, who by their own courage, resolution and brute tenacity made the awe inspiring journey to the quarterdeck. This meant of course that they changed from common folk to the gentry; each of these became a gentleman. And that was no mean thing in the 18th century. And of those 120, a total of 22 became captains of their own ship – and a miraculous 3 to Admiral!
Letters of Seamen in the Wars with France 1793-1815 by Helen Watts and Anne Hawkins
The introductory material to this substantial work, besides highlighting what the letters tell us about seamen’s lives and attitudes, also discusses the extent of literacy amongst seamen, setting this into its wider contemporary popular context.
Letters of seamen below the rank of commissioned officer are rare, both in original form and in print. This edited (but not abridged) collection of hundreds of letters, written by seamen in the British Navy and their correspondents between 1793 and 1815, gives voice to a group of men whose lives and thoughts are otherwise mostly unknown. The letters are valuable for the insights which they give into aspects of life below decks and the subjects close to the writers’ hearts: money matters, ties with home and homesickness. They also provide eye-witness accounts of events during a tumultuous and important period of British and European history. The contextual presentation is invaluable in placing the writer at the centre of events that perhaps even he was unaware of at the time, and opens the reader’s eye to the true significance of what is being said. One large group of letters, included as a separate section, comprises the letters of seamen and their family and friends which were intercepted by the authorities during the mutinies of 1797. These letters shed light on the extraordinary events of that year and of seamen’s attitudes to the mutinies, which I felt I had to write about in my Kydd novel Mutiny.
As would be expected in a book of this calibre there are extensive add-ons – two appendices, a bibliography and an index. Of particular interest to me was Appendix 1: Biographies. Each entry gives the rate of every seaman mentioned in the text and a brief overview of his career to provide insight into the service background of the letter.
It is an expensive book, but as a scholarly reference work an invaluable addition to the resources available for all those interested in the human elements of maritime history. It is undoubtedly a monumental pillar of scholarship but behind the words laid out, emerges picture after picture of the warmth, yearnings and hopes of the often unlettered men who laboured by mess-deck glims to reach out to their loved ones in the midst of the titanic struggle of the war at sea.
The Powder of Death MegaContest!
Posted on August 9, 2016 5 Comments
The GameChangers : Moments of History
In the run-up to the official launch of The Powder of Death on August 18 we’re running a MegaContest with a fabulous bundle of prizes – a signed hardback of The Powder of Death & a signed paperback of The Silk Tree, cover postcards and an information sheet; an unabridged CD set of the audiobook of The Powder of Death – and a smart Allison & Busby tote!
To enter, email julian@julianstockwin.com with the name of the English univerity town associated with Roger Bacon. Please include your full postal address and ‘Bumper Contest’ in the subject line. One winner will be drawn on August 18 and notified by email.
Please include your full postal address and ‘Bumper Contest’ in the subject line. One winner will be drawn on August 18 and notified by email.
The Powder of Death
‘A thrillingly entertaining story‘ – FIRE review
‘Fast-paced prose, vivid characters, & matchless authenticity‘ – Quarterdeck
1261. Oxford, England. An envoy returns from the land of the Tartars to meet with an English scholar and share a deadly secret that touches on the future of Christianity itself. The two men vow that the knowledge of gunpowder must die with them as the consequences are otherwise too fatal to contemplate.
1290. Hurnwych Green, England. After his quiet life is shattered by tragedy, local blacksmith Jared begins a pilgrimage to the Promised Land. Aboard a ship to Venice, he meets Sir Nicholas Gayne who invites him to join the Knights Hospitallers as their blacksmith on a holy crusade for King Edward.
The adventure that follows sees Jared encounter men from distant Cathay who harbour the secret of huo yao, and so begins one man’s obsession with the powder of death and a king’s determination to change the very nature of warfare . . .
Whet your appetite with chapter one!
The Powder of Death will be released in the UK and Europe on August 18, in hardback, ebook and audiobook
It will be available in South Africa in September; Australia and New Zealand on October 1. It can also be purchased via Book Depository, which offers free postage worldwide. The Powder of Death is the second title in the GameChangers: Moments of History Series, following The Silk Tree.
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The Powder of Death: ‘a thrillingly entertaining story’
Posted on August 2, 2016 8 Comments
Once a manuscript goes off to the publisher the wait begins. When will I know whether my editor and agent like the book? Will structural adjustments or other major changes be required? How will early reviewers rate the book? I am lucky in my publisher Allison and Busby – they have great respect for an author’s vision and writing style. Of course they will speak up if they feel the manuscript needs serious work but I was delighted to hear this back about The Powder of Death from Susie Dunlop, Publishing Director at Allison and Busby: ‘Such a fantastic tale! Such a well-crafted novel, cleverly marrying history and adventure …The historical accuracy makes it engaging and memorable, and yet the characters feel as real and accessible as if they were part of our modern world.’
I was also chuffed to be given an early peek at a major review coming out in Quarterdeck magazine, August/September issue. It’s reprinted below, followed by another review, from FIRE online.
‘Gunpowder was invented in China during the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD) but it was not until the Mongol conquests in the thirteenth century that awareness of it spread to the Old World. (Africa, Europe and Asia). How the black powder, the earliest known chemical explosive, eventually reached England has been lost to history. It was this thread that inspired Julian Stockwin to create The Powder of Death, the second title in his GameChangers: Moments of History Series, which engages memorable fictional characters with marked turning points in the past. By 1261, the secret of the deadly powder was known to Oxford scholar Roger Bacon and his friend, Flemish Franciscan missionary and explorer William of Rubruck. The colleagues vowed to remain silent about what they rightly perceived to be a terrible threat to mankind.
The Powder of Death picks up in 1287, the fifteenth year of the reign of King Edward I, when Jared of Hurnwych, a young English blacksmith suffers unbearable tragedy. Tormented by heartbreak, he embarks on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land ‘until the remembrances had finally quite faded.’ On a voyage to Venice, Jared encounters Sir Nicholas Gayne, who bids him to join the Knights Hospitallers as the blacksmith for King Edward’s holy crusade. At the siege of Acre, the Crusaders and the city fall to the Saracens, and he is imprisoned. In a fateful move, Jared is sold ‘as a skilled foreign craftsman’ to the Mongols, who take him to Tabriz.
While working in the Mongol capital, ‘a flash and almighty clap of thunder’ expose him to the capacity behind huo yao – the secret powder – for devastation. Although half a world away, Jared dreams about Hurnwych and wreaking vengeance on those who shattered his quiet life.
Closely observing his Mongol captors, he pieces together the formula for the volatile powder. On a warring expedition to Armenian Celicia, the Mongols are defeated, and Jared is liberated by Knights
Hospitallers, who are Christian allies of the Celicians. Months later, he returns to Hurnwych, carrying the mystery of huo yao.
What will Jared do with his knowledge? Sensing a ‘divine charge,’ he ventures forth on a path that leads him across Europe and, finally, to the Battle of Stanhope Park, County Durham, England, in
1327, during the First War of Scottish Independence.
Julian Stockwin, a master of the historic novel, writes with a zeal, recreating ancient times, with fast-paced prose, vivid characters, and matchless authenticity. Powder smoke and the stench of brimstone waft off the pages.’ – Quarterdeck magazine
‘This new standalone book is very different in many respects [from the Thomas Kydd stories] and has managed to provide a gripping tale of Medieval life with the story of gunpowder. It is a Stockwin page turner that further enhances his reputation. This is not a book to miss, with its thrills and spills, joys and sorrows, another best seller. In this new book, Stockwin has set it against one of a handful of genuinely world changing events. The discovery of gunpowder, and its use mainly as a form of entertainment in the Far East, was perhaps not life changing, but its deployment as a bomb hurled at fortifications was the start of a giant leap forward in military equipment and deployment. Stockwin has cleverly combined several separate European developments in a single story written around the main character. In the process, he has produced a thrillingly entertaining story of depth that also contains a great deal of information about gunpowder and the Medieval development of the gun.
Stockwin has produced a roller coaster ride with the hero facing all sorts of challenges and overcoming them to take forward his belief in the future for gunpowder. There is rich description of village life, life in towns and ports, sea travel and the life of armies at war. The hero travels far and wide in a series of adventures, survives set backs and eventually triumphs. It is a great tale that carries the reader along with it. It is to be hoped that there will be more treats like The Powder of Death yet to come.’ – FIRE Project Reviews
Win the audiobook!
For a chance to win an unabridged audiobook https://wholestoryaudiobooks.co.uk/product/the-powder-of-death of The Powder of Death email julian@julianstockwin.com with the name of the reigning king when the book opens. Please include your full postal address and ‘Audiobook’ in the subject line.
Deadline: August 10.
The Powder of Death will be released in the UK and Europe on August 18, in hardback, ebook and audiobook
It will be available in South Africa in September; Australia and New Zealand on October 1. It can also be purchased via Book Depository, which offers free postage worldwide.
The Powder of Death is the second title in the GameChangers: Moments of History Series, following The Silk Tree.
View my Pinterest board on The Powder of Death
I also have a Facebook Page on The Powder of Death
Copyright notices
Edward III: (credit: By William Bruges (1375-1450) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
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Julian Stockwin 