A Boston Globe Best Book of the Year In this stunning historical fiction debut set in the world of wrestling in the 1920s, a husband and wife are set adrift in a place where everyone has something to hide and not even the fights can be taken at face value. Late summer, 1921: Disgraced former lightweight champion Pepper Van Dean has spent the past two years on the carnival circuit performing the dangerous “hangman’s drop” and taking on all comers in nightly challenge bouts. But when he and his cardsharp wife, Moira, are marooned in the wilds of Oregon, Pepper accepts an offer to return to the world of wrestling as a trainer for Garfield Taft, a down-and-out African American heavyweight contender in search of a comeback and a shot at the world title. At the training camp in rural Montana, Pepper and Moira soon realize that nothing is what it seems: not Taft, the upcoming match, or the training facility itself. With nowhere to go and no options left, Pepper and Moira must carefully navigate the world of gangsters, bootlegging, and fixed competitions, in the hope that they can carve out a viable future. A story of second chances and a sport at the cusp of major change, Champion of the World is a wonderful historical debut from a new talent in fiction.

This book wasa published in 2003. Although Richard Johnson's chivalric romance "The Seven Champions of Christendom" is little known today, it was widely read for over three centuries after its first appearance in print in the 1590s, influencing the work of English writers from John Bunyan to G.K. Chesterton and profoundly affecting the representation of St George, England's patron saint, in folklore and popular culture. In this volume, Jennifer Fellows offers a scholarly edition of the work.

First published in 1971. The class of whom these pages treat were those who held their lands ' by serjeanty, ' that is, by the performance of some specified service, either at all times or in time of war. We may now turn to those serjeanties which can be traced back to the time of the Domesday Survey. Several of them will be dealt with, in detail, in this volume.

'I AM KING!' 'MAJESTY I KNOW NOT WHO I FEAR THE MOST, THEM OR YOU.' Loveable tyrant and handsome rogue, Courtians King Rapheaus Nolitus is deemed the most powerful and wealthiest monarch in the medieval world of elite knights and chivalry. Feared and loathed by his enemies, he is a great strategist demanding loyalty and respect. Cast into a web of the deepest darkest deception by those who surround him and influence his decisions to safeguard their power, he then meets the seductive Lavanya, an undescribable beauty of no noble birth who reluctantly enters the kings domain. Desire lust and erotic passion ensue but her past soon catches up with her and she fears for her life. Will the king protect her or cast her aside? Thrown into a world of betrayal they both must fight to defend themselves but they must first decide if they can trust each other. Wars are fought on brutal battlefields filled with bloodshed and treachery. Knights defend what is morally right and honourable but their allegiance is soon bought into question. Who amongst them will stand by their convictions? Will the kings obsession and tyrannical rule win hearts or test obedience? Only one person can uncover the cruel twist of truth in the end but it is the king who must have the courage to decide their fate. Conspiracy, greed and treason leads to, 'NO MERCY!'

Reprint of the original, first published in 1861.