Like 'Game of Thrones' with real history. The complete set of four award-winning books: Historical Fiction series The Troubadours Quartet Set in the period following the Second Crusade, Jean Gill's spellbinding romantic thrillers evoke medieval France with breathtaking accuracy. She captures the soul of the age and the characters who lived in it. The characters leap off the page and include amazing women like Eleanor of Aquitaine and Ermengarda of Narbonne, who shaped history in battles and in bedchambers. Four Discovered Diamonds Awards; Historical Novel Society Editor's Choice Three out of three: Readers Favourite 5* Awards; Winner of the Global Ebooks Award for Best Historical Fiction Book 1 Song at Dawn: 1150 in Provence On the run from abuse, Estela wakes in a ditch with only her lute, her amazing voice, and a dagger hidden in her underskirt. Her talent finds a patron in Eleanor of Aquitaine and more than a music tutor in the Queen's finest troubadour and Commander of the Guard, Dragonetz los Pros. Meanwhile, their enemies gather, ready to light the political and religious powder-keg of medieval Narbonne. Book 2 Bladesong: 1151 in The Holy Land Estela, the troubadour, is following the destiny of her beautiful voice. Dragonetz, her passionate knight, has a dangerous mission to fulfil. Divided by the times they love in, they fight to be together. Imprisoned in Damascus, Dragonetz suffers the mind games inflicted by his anonymous enemies, as he is forced to remember the traumatic events of the crusade, two years earlier. Instead of remaining safely at home, Estela is desperate to rescue Dragonetz at all costs. She sets out for the Holy Land, never realising that the person she thinks will be her knight's saviour might actually be his doom. Can Estela get him out alive, despite Nur-ad-Din, the Muslim Atabeg; Mélisende, the Queen of Jerusalem; and an avenger from the past? Will she still want to, when she knows what they've done to him? Book 3 Plaint for Provence: 1152 in Les-Baux-de-Provence The Troubadours, Estela and her lover, Dragonetz, are embroiled in two rival claims for power as their feuding liege lords gather in Provence. If the peace fails, Dragonetz' sword will decide the winner and friends will die. Dragonetz weaves a precarious path through the rival factions at court where an uneasy truce prevails behind the chivalry of hunt and tournament. Meanwhile, Estela faces her own demons. Confronted with her childhood abusers, threatened and attacked, she confides in her friends. Tragically, one of those friends is Dragonetz' worst enemy and Estela has no idea of what he is capable. In this third volume of the Troubadours Quartet, Jean Gill, the 'master of historical intrigue', continues to weave the gripping adventures of Dragonetz and Estela seamlessly into real historical events. Medieval France comes alive in all its facets, from healing with leeches to training a goshawk. Book 4 Song Hereafter: 1153 in Hispania and the Isles of Albion Dragonetz has failed Eleanor of Aquitaine once. Now that she plans to be Queen of England he could make amends. Although prepared to risk his own life on an impossible quest, a knight should protect his lady, or so say the troubadour songs. His lady, however, plays to a different tune and she wants partnership, not protection. Estela and Dragonetz fight their enemies, both on the battlefield and in the courts of Christendom, from the sophistication of Zaragossa to the wilds of Wales. Can they win through to song hereafter, together? Or have they broken one rule too many?

Transform Your Mind. Expand Your Universe. Reach for Mars. Imagine a better tomorrow with interstellar essays and art—drawing on the aspirational futurism that fuels Star Trek, The Martian, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, renowned contemporary artist Camomile Hixon reminds us that by reaching for the stars, we can chase our full potential beyond Earth, while also transforming ourselves and our understanding of the Pale Blue Dot we call home. We stand at the threshold of interplanetary travel: SpaceX rockets are now routinely leaving Earth and NASA’s new Perseverance rover is searching for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet. Not since the moon landing in 1969 has space—or the promise of a transformational future for humankind—felt so close. Do we dare to reach for it? Yearning to know the stars has long united humanity and ignited our imaginations. And while here on Earth we grapple with deep unrest—economic struggle, political upheaval, gender discrimination, pandemics, racial tensions, climate change—the potential of a colony on Mars has sparked a new, universal hope and a heightened sense of collective purpose as we discover our ultimate destiny beyond Earth’s orbit. Celebrating the limitless potential of space and the human spirit, Hixon’s indelible essays and fantastical works of art invite us to imagine a transcendent future where we reach together for absolute freedom, unconditional love, and wellness on our grand quest for world peace. Weaving science, history, art, and philosophy with meditations on higher consciousness inspired by seeing the Earth from Space, Space Nomads is a book of unbridled optimism for the future.

Writer, anthropologist, and self-professing nomad Beebe Bahrami knows that walking and exploring are paramount to her sense of connection to the earth. One of her explorations took her to a small fishing village in northwestern Spain and a much-anticipated chance to walk once again but on new tributaries the pilgrimage route of the Camino de Santiago. But it was a side trip to Sarlat in southwestern France, a place called "the Frenchman's paradise" by author Henry Miller, that unexpectedly gave Bahrami much to explore and enjoy as the region worked its way into the author's heart. A travel narrative and memoir, Café Oc will delight readers with its tantalizing descriptions of French foods and wines, walks through the countryside, visits to the prehistoric painted and engraved caves, and the warm and welcoming people in the Dordogne region of France. It will also take them along a path of serendipity and magic, and a meditation into how we are pulled by the desire for home. Accompanied by photographs taken by the author, Café Oc is also a pictorial record of places, people, and events. Over time and several lengthy visits, Bahrami found a surprising desire to settle down, to leave her "tent poles anchored in place to that precious earth."