In the ancient Greek city-state of Plataea, teenage warriors trained in the ways of the battlefield long before they reached the age of eighteen. They also trained in the vicious, no-holds-barred form of unarmed combat called pankration. Similar to today's Ultimate Fighting and MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), this extreme style of man-on-man battle was featured in the original Olympic games.And sometimes, those pankration techniques were used not just for glory on the battlefield or in t...

In 431 B.C., Ancient Greece experienced its own "Pearl Harbor"—a treacherous sneak attack that would mark the start of the bloody war between the democracy of Athens and the tyranny of Sparta. Caught between these superpowers, the independent city-state of Plataea became the arena where their battle for control of all of Greece would begin.In Plataea, the young Greek warrior Nikias dreams of glory in the Olympic games as he trains for the pankration—the no-holds-barred ulti...

In The Wisdom of the Shire , Noble Smith sheds a light on the life-changing ideas tucked away inside the classic works of J. R. R. Tolkien and his most beloved creation—the stouthearted Hobbits.How can simple pleasures such as gardening, taking long walks, and eating delicious meals with friends make you significantly happier? Why is the act of giving presents on your birthday instead of getting them such a revolutionary idea? What should you do w...

The Peloponnesian War has begun. An army of merciless Spartan invaders have arrived at the gates of Plataea, bent on obliterating the independent city-state and its inhabitants. Plataea's oldest allies, the Athenians, are spread too thin in their own campaigns to send help. Cut off and alone, the Plataeans have dug in behind their high walls for the coming attack, while the tyrannical Spartans prepare to lay siege.On a rugged mountain road, a young Plataean warrior named Nikias ride...

The action-packed finale of the trilogy set during the epic war that tore apart ancient Greece from the award-winning author of Spartans at the Gates.Nikias of Plataea has survived battle, shipwreck, and torture. But now the young warrior must face his greatest challenge: leading the people of his city-state on a desperate exodus to Athens while being hunted down by the largest Spartan expeditionary force in history.From the burning forests of the le...

Coinciding with the release of the first of Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy, his follow-up to the huge Lord of the Rings success, The Wisdom of the Shire is a practical and fun guide - for Tolkien fans everywhere - showing us how to apply the wisdom of The Hobbit to our everyday lives.Hobbits are those small but brave little people, whose courage, integrity and loyalty allow them to triumph against odds that might appear overwhelming to the rest o...

The charmingly eccentric Otto Draxinger appears to be your typical pipe-smoking Oxford professor, doing his best to preserve his sanity while his beloved former students are being slaughtered at the Western Front. But the American expatriate has diagnosed himself with the newly coined term “schizophrenia.” And he believes the nightmarish waking visions he’s been experiencing are caused by the psychological trauma of the catastrophe that is The Great War.But after a chance encounter...

A twisted tale of love lost, alluring demons, idiotic servants, beautiful ladies, magicians, spells, pirates, and duels, Stolen from Gypsies has been called a comedic tour de force comparable to Shakespeare. The unusual hero is British nobleman Ambrogio Smythe, a rich but comical hypochondriac. Obsessed by childhood memories of Gypsies, the frail but determined Ambrogio leaves his ancestral estate in Warwickshire and makes his way to Italy during the Napoleonic Wars. Happily maroo...

PREORDER DAVID GILMAN'S THRILLING NEW HISTORICAL NOVEL THE KNIFE MAKER OF VENICE NOW!THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR COMES TO LIFE WITH DAVID GILMANSir Thomas Blackstone undertakes a perilous mission to the lands of his deadly enemies in this thrilling medieval historical adventure set during the Hundred Years' War.Provoked by the Dauphin's refusal to honour the terms of his father's surrender, Edward III h...

PREORDER DAVID GILMAN'S THRILLING NEW HISTORICAL NOVEL THE KNIFE MAKER OF VENICE NOW!THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR COMES TO LIFE WITH DAVID GILMANThe third powerful historical adventure novel in the Master of War series sees Thomas Blackstone fighting as a mercenary in the Italian states.Tuscany, 1358: Thomas Blackstone has built a formidable reputation in exile, fighting as a mercenary amid the ceaseless...

480 BC. Arimnestos of Plataea has already lived through several lifetimes' worth of adventure, from being a rich man's slave in Ephesus to winning glory at the battle of Marathon against the might of the Persian Empire. But the gods - and the Persians - aren't finished with him yet. As an experienced sea captain - his enemies might say pirate - he has a part to play in the final epic confrontation of the Long War between the Greeks and Persians, the Battle of Salamis. It is a battle where ...

PREORDER DAVID GILMAN'S THRILLING NEW HISTORICAL NOVEL THE KNIFE MAKER OF VENICE NOW!THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR COMES TO LIFE WITH DAVID GILMANA powerful historical adventure set during the bloody conflict of the Hundred Years' War from critically acclaimed author David Gilman.Winter, 1361. After two decades of conflict, Edward III has finally agreed a treaty with the captive French King, John II. In r...