New Releases

New Releases from ORs

Victor Lustig: The Man Who Conned the World Fightback

Christopher Sandford (1970) The History Press

The period after the First World War was a golden age for the confidence man. ‘A new kind of entrepreneur is stirring amongst us,’ The Times wrote in 1919. ‘He is prone to the most detestable tactics, and is a stranger to charity and public spirit. One may nonetheless note his acuity in separating others from their money.’ Enter Victor Lustig (not his real name). An Austro-Hungarian with a dark streak, by the age of sixteen he had learned how to hustle at billiards and lay odds at the local racecourse. By nineteen he had acquired a livid facial scar in an altercation with a jealous husband.

That blemish aside, he was a man of athletic good looks, with a taste for larceny and foreign intrigue. He spoke six languages and went under nearly as many aliases in the course of a continent-hopping life that also saw him act as a double (or possibly triple) agent. Along the way, he found time to dupe an impressive variety of banks and hotels on both sides of the Atlantic; to escape from no fewer than three supposedly impregnable prisons; and to swindle Al Capone out of thousands of dollars, while living to tell the tale. Undoubtedly the greatest of his hoaxes was the sale, to a wealthy but gullible Parisian scrap-metal dealer, of the Eiffel Tower in 1925. Orlando Kimber (1971) Arthur & Moose Publishing

A pulsating novel set in modernday Cornwall, where a desire to protect a cherished surf spot becomes a struggle between an individual and huge commercial interests.

Twenty-eight-year-old Sam Alder is a carpenter, living in a small, close-knit seaside town. Both home and work begin to fall apart, when he objects to a major building project that threatens a beautiful landscape. As he tries to restore the life he loves, he discovers a hidden world of powerful forces that want to exploit everything he holds precious … and he is in their way.

A Psalm a Day All In

John Nugée (1969) Laburnam Publishing

A Psalm a Day is a reflective study of the Book of Psalms, interspersed with a daily journal through the spring and summer of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic took hold of the UK. The book combines a study of the 150 psalms, guiding the reader through each with a daily meditation, with commentary on daily life as the pandemic came to dominate us all.

While the psalms have inspired and comforted the faithful for over 2,000 years, revisiting them during the first UK lockdown provided much hope and focus for the author and fellow members of his bible study group. Alongside the analyses of the psalms, each day has a diary entry taking the reader through the first five months of change as COVID-19 struck. Featuring both his personal life and that of the country as a whole, the journal entries provide a fascinating snapshot of this historic time.

The book is written in a straightforward style, and can be read in sequence or used as a book of reference for the Book of Psalms—one of the best-loved books of the Bible, as fresh and fitting today as the day the psalms in it were first written, searching for solace in a time of uncertainty and upheaval. Rod Gilmour (1990) Marylebone Publishing

All In is Laura Massaro’s, honest, raw and personal story of how she became one of the greatest female squash players the UK has ever produced. From a shy, young athlete sometimes crippled by nerves and self-doubt, to a World No.1 and World Champion in an intense, gruelling sport, All In takes you on a deeply personal and inspiring journey.

Laura is candid about the struggles of balancing relationships off the court with success on it, not least with her coach and husband Danny, and she takes you behind the scenes on the darkly competitive world of the professional squash circuit. From her battles on court to her fight behind the scenes to establish equal prizemoney at squash’s biggest tournament, this is a rollercoaster ride of emotions that takes the reader into the head and heart of one of the world’s most accomplished sportswomen.

All In is a story of tears, turmoil and, ultimately, triumph.

Puddings, Bullies and Squashes: Early Public School Football Codes

Malcolm Tozer (ed.) Independent Publishing Network

Pudding, bullies and squashes were terms used at Radley, Uppingham and Charterhouse to describe the melee, a feature of every early public school football game: half the school in one team attempting to drive the ball through the goal of the other half of the school in defence. The scrum of modern rugby is a pale imitation and soccer’s defensive wall just a flimsy substitute by comparison. This is the story of those early public school codes before the nationalisation of football by the FA from 1863 and the RFU from 1871.

The 20 schools are Bradfield College, Charterhouse, Christ’s Hospital, Clongowes Wood College, Durham School, Edinburgh Academy, Eton College, Forest School, Harrow School, King’s School Canterbury, Marlborough College, Radley College, Repton School, Rugby School, Sherborne School, Shrewsbury School, Tonbridge School, Uppingham School, Westminster School and Winchester College. With a preface by sports historian Tony Collins tracing the sweep of these remarkable innovative versions of football.

Who How When Where

Dmitri Kasterine (1945) Independently published

A book of Dmitri Kasterine’s photographs taken between 1956 and 2020, with extended anecdotal captions by the photographer.

Oedipus: The Branching Road A Strong Woman in Belgravia

Neville Spencer Lewis (1959)

Neville Spencer Lewis Publishing

Greek myth has Oedipus killing a stranger at the Branching Road. Oedipus does not know it is Laius, his father, whom he has murdered, just as he is later ignorant that he is entering into matrimony with his mother.

This novel dares to tell the story differently. When Oedipus encounters a man at the crossroads, he knows it is his father, and after his father attacks him, hot-tempered Oedipus kills him in a fit of rage. Succeeding Laius as king of Thebes and marrying Epicaste, his beautiful cousin from Erythrae, Oedipus gains the life he has always dreamed of, graced by the respect of the city’s nobles and the love of a loyal queen. Yet this blessed existence depends on the dark secret of his patricide staying hidden... Nemesis comes in the form of Oedipus’ own son, Eteocles. If Eteocles is able to prove his father’s guilt he can seize the crown – and all that Oedipus has fought for will be lost.

The Branching Road is set in its historical context in the beautiful landscape of central Greece, vividly brought to life by the author. It is an intelligent retelling that touches on themes of family rivalry and redemption, which has in Oedipus a character whose enigmatic nature makes him a source of fascination, even today. Roderick Archer (1963) Vanguard Press

Sable Fairfax is beautiful, smart and a fighter.

After reading modern languages, she begins a promising career in the Foreign Office and trains as a diplomat.

Her love life is not quite so straightforward, but she remains sharp, poised and ready to take advantage of any opportunities that come her way, especially as she starts to move in higher political circles.

The Devil’s Atlas: An Explorer’s Guide to Heavens, Hells and Afterworlds Waypoints: A Journey on Foot Selling St Christopher Sad Little Men: Private Schools and the Ruin of England

Edward Brooke-Hitching (1996) Simon & Schuster UK

Edward Brooke-Hitching delivers an atlas unlike any other. The Devil’s Atlas is an illustrated guide to the heavens, hells and lands of the dead as imagined throughout history by cultures and religions around the world. Packed with colourful maps, paintings and captivating stories, the reader is taken on a compelling tour of the geography, history and supernatural populations of the afterworlds of cultures around the globe.

Whether it’s the thirteen heavens of the Aztecs, the Chinese Taoist netherworld of ‘hungry ghosts’, or the ‘Hell of the Flaming Rooster’ of Japanese Buddhist mythology (in which sinners are tormented by an enormous fire-breathing cockerel), The Devil’s Atlas gathers together a wonderful variety of beliefs and representations of life after death. These afterworlds are illustrated with an unprecedented collection of images, ranging from the marvellous ‘infernal cartography’ of the European Renaissance artists attempting to map the structured Hell described by Dante and the decorative Islamic depictions of Paradise to the various efforts to map the Garden of Eden and the spiritual vision paintings of nineteenth-century mediums. Robert Martineau (1999) Jonathan Cape

A spellbinding travel book, exploring the psychology of walking, pilgrimage, solitude and escape.

At the age of twenty-seven, and afraid of falling into a life he doesn’t want, Robert Martineau quits his office job, buys a flight to Accra and begins to walk. He walks 1,000 miles through Ghana, Togo and Benin, to Ouidah, an ancient spiritual centre on the West African coast.

Martineau walks alone across desert, through rainforests, over mountains, carrying everything he needs on his back, sleeping in villages or on the side of paths. Along the way he meets shamans, priests, historians, archaeologists and kings. He begins to confront the lines of slavery and exploitation that binds his home to theirs. Through the process of walking each day, and the lessons of those he walks among, Martineau starts to find the freedom he craves, and to build connections with the natural world and the past.

In an extraordinary account of an adventure, and the inner journey that accompanies it, Martineau discovers how a walking pilgrimage can change a person.

Sven Hughes (1987)

Independently published

A British MP is assassinated outside Westminster Palace, London. The Chief of the Security Services tasks a disgraced spy and her team of young agents to conduct a discreet investigation.

They are quickly drawn into an international web of conspiracy involving election fraud on an industrial scale. As they begin to unmask the real power behind power, they must learn to play the modern influence industry at its own game. To defend democracy. To stay alive. Richard Beard (1980) Mereo Books

In 1975, as a child, Richard Beard was sent away from his home to sleep in a dormitory. So were David Cameron and Boris Johnson.

In those days a private boys’ boarding school education was largely the same experience as it had been for generations: a training for the challenges of Empire. He didn’t enjoy it. But the first and most important lesson was to not let that show. Being separated from the people who love you is traumatic. How did that feel at the time, and what sort of adult does it mould?

This is a story about England, and a portrait of a type of boy, trained to lead, who becomes a certain type of man. As clearly as an X-ray, it reveals the make-up of those who seek power - what makes them tick, and why. Sad Little Men addresses debates about privilege head-on; clearly and unforgettably, it shows the problem with putting a succession of men from boarding schools into positions of influence, including 10 Downing Street. Is this who we want in charge, especially at a time of crisis?

It is a passionate, tender reckoning - with one individual’s past, but also with a national bad habit.

Decarbonomics: & the post-pandemic world Randomly Moving Particles Earth Detox: How and Why we Must Clean Up Our Planet Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of the Stapletons

Charles Dumas (1960) Profile Editions

A book of two halves, Decarbonomics first sets the scene of current global economics, outlining the effect of the pandemic, the trade war between the US and China and the resulting fragmentation of globalisation. In the second half of the book, leading financial analyst Charles Dumas examines the economic reasons for action on climate change, and what form that might take.

Dumas argues that investment to combat the changing climate will provide not only a boost to growth but also a rebalancing of geopolitics, benefiting those economies best placed to exploit the new technologies - possibly away from the oil-rich Middle East and towards the sun-rich Southern Hemisphere. He also examines the implications of a carbon tax, shifting economics to forge a financial solution to climate change.

Drawing on original analysis by one of the world’s leading macroeconomic forecasters, Decarbonomics shows how climatechange economics has shifted from a story of necessary sacrifice to one of opportunity. Randomly Moving Particles is built from two long poems that form its opening and close, connected by three shorter pieces. The title poem, in a kaleidoscope of compelling scenes, engages with subjects that include migration, placement, loss, space exploration, and current British and American politics.

It is a clarifying action and reaction between terra and solar system, mundanity and possibility, taking us from the grit of road surfaces to the distant glimpses of satellites. The final poem, “How Do the Dead Walk,” combines mythic reach with acute observation of the familiar, in order to address issues of contemporary violence. It is altogether more dreamlike, even in its tangibly military moments, grasping as it does at phantoms and intermediate plains.

Andrew Motion’s expansive new poetry collection is direct in its emotional appeal and ambitious in its scope, all while retaining the cinematic vision and startling expression that so freshly lit the lines of his last, Essex Clay.

Andrew Motion (1966) University of Pittsburgh Press Julian Cribb (1964) Cambridge University Press

Every person on our home planet is affected by a worldwide deluge of man-made chemicals and pollutants - most of which have never been tested for safety. Our chemical emissions are six times larger than our total greenhouse gas emissions. They are in our food, our water, the air we breathe, our homes and workplaces, the things we use each day. This universal poisoning affects our minds, our bodies, our genes, our grandkids, and all life on Earth.

Julian Cribb describes the full scale of the chemical catastrophe we have unleashed. He proposes a new Human Right - not to be poisoned. He maps an empowering and hopeful way forward: to rid our planet of these toxins and return Earth to the clean, healthy condition which our forebears enjoyed, and our grandchildren should too. James Lovegrove (1979) Titan Books

1894. The monstrous Hound of the Baskervilles has been dead for five years, along with its no less monstrous owner, the naturalist Jack Stapleton. Sir Henry Baskerville is living contentedly at Baskerville Hall with his new wife Audrey and their three-year-old son Harry.

Until, that is, Audrey’s lifeless body is found on the moors, drained of blood. It would appear some fiendish creature is once more at large on Dartmoor and has, like its predecessor, targeted the unfortunate Baskerville family.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are summoned to Sir Henry’s aid, and our heroes must face a marauding beast that is the very stuff of nightmares. It seems that Stapleton may not have perished in the Great Grimpen Mire after all, as Holmes believed, and is hell-bent on revenge...

Sherlock Holmes & the Three Winter Terrors Nile Sleeper Stasiland The Pegasus Bridge Show

James Lovegrove (1979) Titan Books

1889. The First Terror. At a boys' prep school in the Kent marshes, a pupil is found drowned in a pond. Could this be the fulfilment of a witch’s curse from two hundred years earlier?

1890. The Second Terror. A wealthy man dies of a heart attack at his London townhouse. Was he really frightened to death by ghosts?

1894. The Third Terror. A body is discovered at a Surrey country manor, hideously ravaged. Is the culprit a cannibal, as the evidence suggests? These three linked crimes test Sherlock Holmes’s deductive powers, and his scepticism about the supernatural, to the limit. The Cairo-Aswan flight is full, so Ben and Sophie have to take the overnight train south, the Nile Sleeper. Where they find themselves plunged into the terrifying world of Middle East terrorism.

After Egypt the focus moves first to Israel, then Lebanon and the interminable problem of Palestine. We are in the turbulent 1980s, a fictional story set within the framework of real events. On every side passions run high, so readers of a sensitive disposition should steer clear.

Having said that, this aims to be an entertainment, the complex history and mayhem being spiced with humour and romance.

Rolf Richardson (1947) Independently published Rolf Richardson (1947) Independently published

After a messy divorce, Ed Blake is trying to forget the past by spending the summer driving around Europe in his silver Porsche. He gets no further than a small town on the river Elbe when he is arrested for a crime he did not commit. Although in what is now a united Germany, this is the former Communist East, once ruled by the feared secret police, the Stasi. This is STASILAND.

The past has not gone away. Germany’s tectonic plates are shifting, maybe heading for the sort of chaos last seen in the 1930s. Ed finds himself pulled into a whirlpool of violence as right-wing extremism starts to shake the foundations of Europe. This novel is about the here and now. What happened to Ed Blake could happen to you. Michael Bawtree (1951) Mereo Books

This dramatic story by famous actor and producer Michael Bawtree is told in ‘free-cantering’ verse, and tells of the capture of Pegasus and Horsa Bridges during the opening minutes of D-Day, 1944.

This book is a dramatised account of the critical operation to capture Pegasus Bridge by Allied forces in 1944, in the opening stages of D-Day. It is based on an earlier show and DVD presentation by the same author, with original words and music that set the event within the history of previous crossChannel campaigns.

This account draws on the memories of some of those involved and the author’s own experience of serving in the same regiment. As with the show, all profits from sales of the book will be donated to The Veterans’ Charity, set up to provide assistance to ex-servicemen and women in time of need.