Bøker av Richard Marman

Ten years ago Zach McAlister compiled his notes covering his Grandpa Danny's memoirs into a series of books we called The McAlister Line. This stand-alone story results from material discovered a few years later. It records Zach's Great Uncle Callan and Great Aunt Ivy's adventures during the Spanish Civil War and WWII. Much of the information was gathered from military unit histories, personal diaries and some rare interviews by those who survived that terrible conflict, most of whom have now passed on. As with his previous investigations, Zach includes a brief prologue. Zach is still exploring his family history and hopefully he'll discover more hidden anecdotes filled with action and adventure.

While trolling through the family's past, Zach and Angela uncover the story of how the first McAlisters came to Australia.It all started in the quite Dorset town of Cerne Abbas during the Napoleonic Wars.Vicar's daughter, Christina Proud marries smithy, and sometime smuggler, Will Jenkins, who soon falls foul of the law. Will is given a choice - take the King's shilling or the noose. So, Will joins the army and Christina's begins her odyssey as a camp follower.The battalion is quickly deployed to Spain to join General Arthur Wellesley's Peninsula Army, fighting against the French. Threatened by platoon Sergeant Jack Newell and with her husband powerless to help, Christina is befriended by Lieutenant Jonathan McAlister who offers her projection.With the French Army massing at Talavera, the battalion marches into battle. Under the blistering Spanish sun, Christina must now fight for her life and those she loves. Beset on all sides by bandits, partisans, deserters, French cavalry and the squalor of a military campaign gone wrong. Living by her wits and managing to get by with broken Spanish. she tries to make her escape to a safe haven and hopefully a ship back to Blighty. But does she make it?

From the pen of Richard Marman, an exceptional Viking Coming of Age YA novel. A Viking Epic, with nothing but high adventure between the covers.While hunting close to his home of Hollowford, fifteen-year-old Henry discovers a pair of mysterious amulets on the bodies of two warriors who've been killed by a wolf pack. Accompanying his mentor, Archer, they travel throughout his homeland, investigating the amulets.During their adventures they discover the amulets belong to a band of marauders called Starkmen, who consider the amulets to be their wealth and currency. The Starkmen form an alliance with Hollowford's arch enemy Olag Blackaxe of Velma and his marauding horde.A battle ensues and the Hollowford militia defeat Velma's horde, but Ayla and Macayle, wife and daughter Hollowford's chief, Gareth, are kidnapped. Carried off to sea in a Starkmen's wolf-ship, Gareth immediately takes five warriors and gives chase overland. Meanwhile Henry forges a plan for a seaborne chase to track down and save Ayla.A hair-raising pursuit ensues. Gareth's veteran warriors meet enemies aplenty. Pitting their wits and strength against their foe, they overcome. Henry's party face an equally dangerous path in their quest. Great perils lurk, with each challenge seemingly more insurmountable than the last.Ultimately our heroes face a seemingly unconquerable foe at the gates of a hostile alien city. With no magic or special skills to hand, Henry must undergo a right-of-passage with only his wits, courage and determination as armour. He can only count on the friendship of his companions and pet wolf. Will Henry survive in this cruel realm which makes no concessions for youth? Vicious villains are everywhere and when all seems doomed, help arrives from a surprising source.

By his fifteenth birthday, Danny McAlister in on the run. He has escaped from a draconian boarding school after seriously injuring the principal. His flight takes him through Northern Queensland to the New Guinea Highlands where he searches for his father, lost while fighting the Japanese on the Kokoda Track.Thrown into an unforgiving adult world he grows up fast and becomes embroiled in union wars amongst cane cutters, joins the crew of prawn trawler in the Gulf of Carpentaria, gets mixed up with smugglers and New Guinea's burgeoning aviation industry.He teams up with Mad Monty, an eccentric Afro-American pilot and Angela, the stunning teenage daughter of an English missionary.They must endure a series of harrowing adventures as they journey through New Guinea's Central Highlands and the islands in the Bismarck Sea where they face their final challenge against vicious Filipino pirates and discover the final secret of Danny's missing father.

For lovers of the Action and Adventure genre but equally for young adults (YA) - the 5th book in the McAlister Line takes us back in time and explores the American branch of the McAlister line.Set against the panoramic backdrop of New Mexico, Sonora, Arizona and California in 1867, Jubal Quinn is desperate. He is a black trooper in the newly formed 10th Cavalry accused of murdering a white man. Behind bars and doomed to hang, his only chance is to escape from the stockade with the help of Billy Songbird, a wayward, half-breed, Kiowa teenager. Hot on their heels is Lieutenant Sam McAlister, a man whose devotion to duty has turned to obsession. Blasting a trail of blood headlong through the Southwest, not even the love of a beautiful Mexican girl can deter Sam. The chase can only end when either he or Jubal Quinn is dead.

In an instant the developed world is destroyed and plunged into anarchy. Can Zach McAlister, Karen Davenport and Mike Farrow survive as they're thrust into a feral and deadly new order?Not only must they come to terms with their Stone Age environment and the use of only Medieval technology, but also face the terror of marauding tribal gangs, whose only method of survival is violence and conquest.Will they be able to forge a future themselves and their descendants? The question can only be answered through their courage, determination and friendship. But, is that enough?---------------------Set in Australia, this is the second in the McAlister series and has On the Beach meeting Mad Max. A thrilling and entertaining read for teenagers and young adults. Action and adventure abounds which keeps you turning the pages.

On his seventeenth birthday, New South Wales farm boy, Callan McAlister joins the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and is swept away to war.His first taste of blood comes from an unexpected enemy in the Sinai Desert, before being shipped to Gallipoli. Callan receives a shock while convalescing in peaceful, idyllic Ireland during the Easter of 1916. But the Western Front awaits all before his nineteenth birthday.Callan falls in love with a lovely English beauty, Ivy Brown, but their path to happiness is neither easy nor pre-ordained. A lowly Australian private soldier is viewed with doubt and disapproval by Ivys aristocratic family not to mention Callans chances of surviving the brutality of the Great War.An offer to join the fledgling Royal Flying Corps (RFC) may be Callans chance to escape the endless mud-filled trenches, infested with rats, lice, trench fever and foot-rot, and tormented by German machine-gunners and artillery bombardments.But, with minimal training, an RFC pilots life expectancy is tenuous at best. Ivy also experiences her baptism of fire as an ambulance driver for the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY).Callan and Ivys struggle reaches its startling climax in an air race to the far reaches of the British Empire where law and justice are the domain of the most powerful and those ruthless enough to go to any lengths to achieve their desires.If you read only one book set against WWI during its centenary anniversary, make it McAlister and the Great War. This novel, ranging across a truly global canvas, explores many fascinating and thrilling historical incidents that occurred during the tragic conflict.

The 4th book in the McAlister Line: After recovering from injuries suffered at Dien Bien Phu, Danny is straight back into action in Saigon via Taipei.The 17th Parallel has just been created with the communists to the North. But South Vietnam is awash spies and agents from the CIA, MI6 and other secret service types from the West, but especially Russian, Chinese and with North Vietnamese infiltrators, all vying to fill the, soon to be, power vacuum currently being created by the French who are starting to pull out of Indochina.Still flying for CAT airlines, commonly referred to as the most shot-at airline in the world, Monty and Angela join him as they plunge headlong into another non-stop, breathtaking odyssey which spreads across five continents, landing in one desperate scrape after another. Finally all three make heart-breaking decisions which ultimately define their true allegiance.

Danny McAlister and Mad Monty are on the run once more. They find themselves working for General Claire Chennaults China Air Transport only to be dragged into the last throes of the Chinese Civil War and then onto Korea where Danny learns first-hand the horrors of battle. But far worse is yet to come.After the Korean cease-fire, General Chennault assigns Danny to Vietnam where he rejoins his old flame, med-student, Angela Holyman. Unwittingly Danny and Angela are thrown into the desperate, bloody climax of the siege at Dien Bien Phu.10% of the publishers profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities.

Only months after escaping from Frenchy Duvals band of cut throat pirates (McAlisters Way), Danny McAlister and Angela Holyman are once again thrown into a thrilling, helter-skelter adventure in their tropical, South-Sea paradise.Following only the flimsiest clues they embark on a perilous treasure hunt in a desperate struggle against old enemies in order to save the lives of new friends.WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE MCALISTER SERIES:Waiting for the sequelMcAlisters Spark is a fast paced, action riddled, amazing read you will struggle to put downA great action read for teenagers and great graphicsa great literary effort.

The latest YA novel from the pen of Richard Marman.A mighty dragon called Brimstone is terrorizing the once quiet village of Oak Tree. Prince Roger and his sister, Princess Crystal, set out to hunt the fiery beast.They are ably assisted, or hindered, as the case may be, by an evil knight, a mysterious good-guy, the local sheriff, loyal men-at-arms, forest brigands, ogres, trolls, and Oak Trees villagers with a bunch of attitude.There are thrills, spills, romance and a heap of rollicking fun to be had by all.

Wave and Web are two teenage turtles living happily in the waters around Australias Great Barrier Reef. Their only real worry is dodging tiger sharks, which they seem to be managing pretty well until one day theyre confronted by an even bigger marine creature a juvenile humpback whale called Davo.He tells them of his adventures on the annual whale migration from Antarctica to warmer, tropical waters, explaining the dangers of large sharks, orcas and worse still human whalers. Finally Davo continues his journey northwards leavings the turtles to ponder the marvel of such an enormous gentle giant before they return to the safety of the reef that protects them from predators.As with the prequel, A Tale of Two Turtles, Richard Marmans illustrations are colourfully vibrant while his fast, entertaining narration challenges the need and justification for whaling in the 21st Century, ensuring enjoyable and thought-provoking reading for children and adults alike.10% of the Author's royalty from the sale of this book will be donated to GREENPEACE.

A GREAT READ FOR CHILDRENWelcome to the Great Barrier ReefSet in the South Pacific Ocean on Australias Great Barrier Reef; follow the thrilling story of Wave, a young female green turtle, from her birth on a warm tropical night through her perilous adventures with boyfriend, Web. Together they face many natural and man-made hazards including sharks, storms and pollution.Not only is the book educational, teaching about the full life cycle of turtles, but each page is beautifully illustrated with exquisite attention to detail and a text to delight and amuse children and adults alike.10% of the net profit from the sale of this book will be donated to GREENPEACE