Intelligent life is discovered through a radio wave from a planet 400 light years away. Now Earth is in a race to beat their own radio waves to this planet before they discover that we exist. Through faster than light travel, a series of gateways are built and positioned between our sun and theirs, while the largest most highly advanced warship, the Victoria, is built and made ready for its maiden voyage and possible first contact mission. Captain Kristopher Freeman, takes his first command as the ships captain and as the youngest captain in Earth's history to ever be given such a high responsibility. The shakedown cruise turns into a real mission when one of Earth destroyers is unexpectedly destroyed in that far off system by another race Earth didn't know existed and wants to take this own world for their own. Can Captain Freeman and Victoria protect his world? Read it to find out!

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Blessed Child; perfect for fans of Dilly Court, Katie Flynn and Catherine Cookson. 'Goodwin is a master of her craft. The perfect book for a cold winter's evening' Lancashire Evening Post 'Goodwin is a fabulous writer' Worcester Evening News 'A vibrant page-turner with entrancing characters' Margaret Dickinson 'Rosie writes such heartwarming sagas' Lyn Andrews Thursday's child has far to go . . . 1912, London. Eighteen-year-old Flora Butler is going up in the world. She has the prized position of lady's maid to young Constance Ogilvie, and is able to provide for her beloved parents and four younger siblings. She has even fallen in love, and though she does not feel quite ready to marry the charming Jamie Branning, her future seems clear. But Flora's life is turned upside down when her mistress's father dies in a tragic accident. Connie is forced to move to New York to live with her aunt until she comes of age, and begs Flora to go with her. Flora has never left the country before, and now faces a difficult decision - give up her position, or leave her family behind. But when her beau lets her down, her mind is made up. Soon Connie and Flora head for Southampton to board the RMS Titanic ... A Maiden's Voyage is the fifth book in Rosie Goodwin's Days of the Week Collection. Why not try the rest, Mothering Sunday, The Little Angel, A Mother's Grace, The Blessed Child, A Precious Gift and Time to Say Goodbye?

"During the century 1850-1950 Vancouver Island attracted Imperial officers and other Imperials from India, the British Isles, and elsewhere in the Empire. Victoria was the main British port on the north-west Pacific Coast for forty years before the city of Vancouver was founded in 1886 to be the coastal terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway. These two coastal cities were historically and geographically different. The Island joined Canada in 1871 and thirty-five years later the Royal Navy withdrew from Esquimalt, but Island communities did not lose their Imperial character until the 1950s."--P. [4] of cover.

“This magnificent book reinforces Norman Friedman's unparalleled reputation as a peerless author of maritime topics.”—Australian Naval Institute Gradually evolving from the masted steam frigates of the mid-nineteenth century, the first modern cruiser is not easy to define—but for the sake of this book, historian Norman Friedman takes as a starting point Iris and Mercury of 1875. They were the Royal Navy’s first steel-built warships; were designed primarily to be steamed rather than sailed; and formed the basis of a line of succeeding cruiser classes. The story progresses with the last armored cruisers, which were succeeded by the first battlecruisers (originally called armored cruisers), and with the last Third Class Cruisers (Topaze class), all conceived before 1906. While dovetailing precisely with the author's previous book on British cruisers, this one also includes the wartime experience of the earlier ships. The two central themes are cruisers for the fleet and cruisers for overseas operations, including (but not limited to) trade protection. The distant-waters aspect covers the belted cruisers, which were nearly capital ships, intended to deal with foreign second-class battleships in the Far East. The main enemies contemplated during this period were France and Russia, and the book includes British assessments of their strength and intentions, with judgments as to how accurate those assessments were. Deeply researched, original in its analysis, and full of striking insights, this is another major contribution by Norman Friedman to the history of British warships.

To look at one was to see the other. For family, even the girls' own father, it was a constant guessing game. For strangers, the surprise was overwhelming. And for the twins Olivia and Victoria Henderson, two remarkable young women coming of age at the turn of the century, their bond was mysterious, marvelous, and often playful--a secret realm only they inhabited. Olivia and Victoria were the beloved daughters of a man who never fully recovered from his wife's death bearing them in 1893. Shy, serious Olivia, born eleven minutes before her sister, had taken over the role of mother in their lush New York estate, managing not only a household but her rebellious twin's flights of fancy. Free-spirited Victoria wanted to change the world. She embraced the women's suffrage movement and dreamed of sailing to war-torn Europe. Then, in the girls' twenty-first year, as the first world war escalated overseas, a fateful choice changed their lives forever. It began when Victoria's life was about to become a public scandal. It led to a painful decision, and brought handsome lawyer Charles Dawson into the Henderson's life and family. Hand-picked by the twins' father to save his daughter's reputation, Charles was still mourning his wife's death aboard the Titanic, struggling to raise his nine year-old son alone, determined never to lose his heart again. Charles wanted to believe that, for the sake of his son, he could make an unwanted marriage work. But in an act of deception that only Olivia and Victoria could manage, the twins took an irrevocable step, which changed both their lives forever; and took one of the twins to the battlefields of France, the other into a marriage she longed for but could not have. From Manhattan society to the trenches of war-ravaged France, Mirror Image moves elegantly and dramatically through a rich and troubled era. With startling insight, Danielle Steel explores women's choices: between home and adventure, between the love for family and the passion for a cause, between sacrifice and desire. But at the heart of Mirror Image is a fascinating, realistic portrait of identical twins, two vastly different sisters who lead their lives and follow their destinies against a vivid backdrop of a world at war.

From the days of sail to the majestic ocean liners of the twentieth century, this is a history of British sea travel from a passenger's point of view. Each chapter narrates one traveller's voyage based on their first-hand description, and the day-to-day details of their experience. Their stories, some previously unpublished, illustrate the evolution of journeys by sea, exploring three and a half centuries of maritime travel. Simon Wills transports readers from Elizabethan times to the eve of the Second World War, on voyages to destinations all over the world. The passengers featured in this book came from all walks of life, and travelled for many different reasons. There were emigrants seeking a new life abroad, such as the pilgrims on the Mayflower, and others hoping to be reunited with their families like Phoebe Amory on the ill-fated Lusitania in 1915. The author Henry Fielding travelled to improve his health, whilst the wealthy George Moore crossed the Atlantic on Brunel's Great Western to do business. Yet, whether travelling in steerage or first class, every passenger could experience trials and tribulations at sea – from delayed sailing schedules and poor diet, to the greater hazards of disease, enemy action, and shipwreck. This engaging collection of stories illustrates the excitements, frustrations, and dangers of sea travel for our forebears. Family historians will perhaps identify with a voyage taken by an ancestor, while those with an interest in maritime or social history can explore how passenger pursuits, facilities, and experiences at sea have developed over time.

"An ocean of consolation" was what one young Irish emigrant in rural Australia called a letter from his father in County Clare in 1855. Similar strength of feeling is often found in the intriguing letters that David Fitzpatrick has unearthed for this extraordinary collection. Oceans of Consolation offers historians and family researchers novel and sophisticated ways of reading old letters. It opens to us the daily preoccupations of ordinary women and men with little education and fewer material possessions, as they try to overcome the separation from family and friends created by emigration. Fitzpatrick includes the personal correspondence of fourteen families of Irish emigrants in the Australian colonies, giving equal attention to letters to and from Australia. He reproduces in full more than one hundred letters dating from 1843 to 1906, and includes a generous selection of contemporary engravings and photographs. Fitzpatrick's detailed commentaries offer biographical narratives for all of these emigrants, tracing their Irish backgrounds and Australian careers. Parting company with editors of comparable collections, he pays special attention to the words and idiom by which letterwriters expressed their everyday concerns and sought or offered reassurance and advice. He believes that personal letters provide not only unique evidence of the hopes and fears of emigrants but also an important avenue for exploring popular Irish culture.