British spy Elliot Kane is forced out of semi-retirement to investigate a colleague's suspicious death on Ascension Island, a remote and rocky outpost of the British military in the middle of the Atlantic. Despite uncovering a deep plot to incite a new world war, Elliot Kane has been on probation with the service since his misadventures in Kazakhstan. Having taken up a job teaching college literature and linguistics, he surprisingly enjoys living a conventional life and wonders if he would even go back to spycraft. Then a colleague from an ages-ago mission reaches out with a request. One of her tech specialists was on a long-term mission, in deep cover, but has suddenly killed himself. The agency is afraid to finish this vital mission without knowing what prompted this seemingly healthy man to take his own life. The carrot in this offer is helping his old friend; the stick is a worse punishment from the Agency if he doesn't comply. So Elliott poses as an academic researcher and heads to one of the most remote places on the planet, Ascension Island. Arriving on a rocky, barely livable island located in the Atlantic Ocean, halfway between Brazil and Angola, Kane is unsure whom to trust and why this lonely outpost is so important to the British military . . . until he uncovers dangerous secrets that lead straight back to London's highest offices.

On 5 May 1725 a Dutch ship's officer, Leendert Hasenbosch, was set ashore on the desert island of Ascension in the South Atlantic Ocean, as a punishment for sodomy. He tried to survive on turtles and birds but found very little water on the barren island. He wrote a diary. He probably died after about half a year. In January 1726 British mariners found his tent, diary and other things and brought the diary to England. In 1726 a first English version of the diary of the Dutch castaway was published. Other versions followed in 1728, 1730 and 1976. Who was the castaway? The truth was disclosed by the Dutch historian Michiel Koolbergen (1953-2002), in a posthumously published book in Dutch. With the support of Michiel Koolbergen's family and publisher, this new book discloses the truth in English. This book is the second edition, with some improvements compared to the original edition of 2006. This book is illustrated with line drawings, both historic ones and by the Dutch artist Anneke de Vries.

A mother battles to save her child's life by recounting an extraordinary true story of a sailor's fight for survival at sea during the Second World War ... a beautiful, poignant debut celebrating the power of words, and what it really means to be brave. ***Longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize*** 'It's a gentle book, full of emotion and it's similar in tone to The Book Thief, a book that Rose reads with a torch under the bedclothes' Irish Times 'Louise Beech masterfully envelops us in two worlds separated by time yet linked by fierce family devotion, bravery and the triumph of human spirit. Wonderful' Amanda Jennings ______________ All the stories died that morning ... until we found the one we'd always known. When nine-year-old Rose is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, Natalie must use her imagination to keep her daughter alive. They begin dreaming about and seeing a man in a brown suit who feels hauntingly familiar, a man who has something for them. Through the magic of storytelling, Natalie and Rose are transported to the Atlantic Ocean in 1943, to a lifeboat, where an ancestor survived for fifty days before being rescued. Poignant, beautifully written and tenderly told, How To Be Brave weaves together the contemporary story of a mother battling to save her child's life with an extraordinary true account of bravery and a fight for survival in the Second World War. A simply unforgettable debut that celebrates the power of words, the redemptive energy of a mother's love ... and what it really means to be brave. ______________ 'An amazing story of hope and survival ... a love letter to the power of books and stories' Nick Quantrill 'Two family stories of loss and redemption intertwine in a painfully beautiful narrative. This book grabbed me right around my heart and didn't let go' Cassandra Parkin 'Louise Beech is a natural born storyteller and this is a wonderful story' Russ Litten 'Beautifully written, intelligent and moving, this book will stay with you long after you reach the end' Ruth Dugdall

Previously untold story of how Ascension Island was crucial to the success of British operations during the conflict

Post-Colonial Literatures in English, together with English Literature and American Literature, form one of the three major groupings of literature in English, and, as such, are widely studied around the world. Their significance derives from the richness and variety of experience which they reflect. In three volumes, this Encyclopedia documents the history and development of this body of work and includes original research relating to the literatures of some 50 countries and territories. In more than 1,600 entries written by more than 600 internationally recognized scholars, it explores the effect of the colonial and post-colonial experience on literatures in English worldwide.

The story of the Tristan islanders, told by a direct descendant of the first settler there 200 years ago.