The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network. A new generation of Courtneys fight for freedom in an epic story of tragedy, loss, betrayal and courage that brings the reader deep into the seething heart of the French and Indian War. But a female general who gloriously leads a counterattack to achieve unprecedented fame for her people resigning her station to be with Hal? It’s a story of high adventure on the seas, with pirates, sea battles, hidden treasures, slavery and dastardly villains. Some picked out Hal's virile broad-shouldered figure and shouted unintelligible invitations to him, making their meanings plain by the lewd gestures that accompanied them" (p.

Hal needed no telescope to aid his bright young eyes – besides, only one of these costly instruments was aboard. Film and television rights to the book were bought by Corona Pictures, but as of 2013 [update] no adaptation has been filmed. A breath-taking adventure from start to finish, Birds of Prey by Wilbur Smith is a fabulous addition to The Courtneys of Africa series. His father was as determined as Hal himself to bring that about, and, at seventeen years of age, his goal was no longer merely a dream. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsover without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.He could recognise Ned Tyler, the helmsman, bowed over the whipstaff, holding the ship true; and his own father stooping over the binnacle to read the new course, the lantern lighting his lean dark features and his long locks tangling and whipping in the wind. A century and a half ago, by Papal Bull Inter Caetera of 25 September 1493, the Line had been drawn down the mid-Atlantic, north to south, by Pope Alexander VI to divide the world between Portugal and Spain. There is Piracy, War battles, Swordsmanship, A Historical aspect, Adventure on the seas and the continent, Romance, and even an Arthurian legend thrown in.

At first he moved stiffly, his muscles cramped and chilled after the long vigil, but he soon warmed up and swung down lithely. The two pinnaces maintaining their formation, beads in the necklace, were spread out fifteen leagues on each side of the Lady Edwina, part of the net his father had cast wide to ensnare the Dutchmen. Then he looked northwards to the land mass that crouched like a great rock sphinx, dark and inscrutable, upon the horizon. The attentive reader will enjoy a character or two, in hopes of their reemergence in subsequent novels.From there he dropped to land lightly on his hard bare feet, flexing his knees to absorb the impact on the scrubbed white planks. The Second Anglo-Dutch War is in full swing and the capturing of the Royal Charles and successful attack by the Dutch Fleet under Admiral Michiel de Ruyter is still painfully fresh in English memory. yours isn't the stuff of literary legend, but usually you buckle a *mean* swash and cause images of Erroll Flynn to dash around your reader's head (thanks for that, BTW). Sir Francis Courteney and his son Hal attack ships of the Dutch East India Company off the coast of Africa. He made out the others’ sails then exactly where they should be, tiny pale flecks against the dark sea.

Transporting readers back to 1667, the Anglo-Dutch naval war is at its zenith as Sir Francis Courtney and his son, Henry (Hal), sail off the coast of southern Africa. The true beginning of the Courtney saga, even though it was written well after the other Courtney books. She is also impossible to resist, as that every single character in the entire novel falls heedlessly in love with her, no matter how far her antics go. After being double-crossed, Francis and his entire crew are captured by the Dutch and the elder Courtney is executed before his son. There are some strong languages, morbid descriptions, and gruesome details throughout the book, which made me flinch from time to time.As the Gull crossed upwind, there were howls of exaggerated disgust from the crew of the Lady Edwina. Every one of those fighting men would be needed if they were to overwhelm one of the huge Dutch East India galleons. The main sail filled with a boom like the discharge of cannon, she heeled eagerly to the south-easter and pressed her shoulder into the next blue swell, bursting it asunder. Sir Francis Courtney, his son Hal and their crew are carried around the southern tip of the African colonies by the good ship Lady Edwina, licensed to attack and seize the treasure-laden ships of the Dutch East India company.

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Soon the surface was thrashed white by the diving birds and the struggling silver anchovies on which they gorged. Of course, the human bowels held no mysteries for him, but he did not understand much of the rest of it, for he had never seen those parts of a woman to which the seamen in both ships referred in such graphic detail, nor knew of the uses to which they could be put, but it excited his imagination to hear them so described. Above his plaid he wore half-armour, which gleamed in the fresh morning light, but his head was bare, his red hair and beard bushed together like a haystack, the curls dancing on the wind as though his head was on fire.