In this final volume of Patricia Veryan's Tales of the Jewelled Men, the eight young gentlemen who make up Rossiter's Preservers are reunited for a final battle against the evil Squire and his League of Jewelled Men. Through five volumes, these heirs of London's families of Quality have just barely fought off the League's attempts to have each of them killed, arrested or disinherited. They stand in the way of the League's nefarious master plan: to oust King George II and install themselves as leaders of a new republic. It is a plot so dangerous that the League members have succeeded in keeping their identities secret even from each other, and so daring that Rossiter and his followers have thus far been unable to prove its existence to the authorities. In the midst of marshalling their forces against the League, leaders Jamie Morris and August Falcon have another score to settle: Jamie has long adored August's delicate, beautiful sister Katrina. For just as long, August - with threats of a duel to support him - has denied Jamie the right to court her. Can August continue to oppose the match or, with the help of Gwendolyn Rossiter, will he learn the strength of true love?

In Georgian England, Lieutenant AugustusFalcon breaks up the League of the Jewelled Men whosegoal is the overthrow of the monarchy. After which hecan devote himself full time to Gwendolyn, the love ofhis life.

The author of the highly acclaimed Golden Chronicles embarks upon an exhilarating new series filled with suspense, deception, and romantic adventure in Georgian England. In this first compelling tale from Patricia Veryan Time's Fool, Captain Gideon Rossiter returns to England after a six-year absence with one goal in mind: to marry and settle down with his betrothed, the enchanting Lady Naomi Lutonville, the thought of whom has sustained him through many a trial of war. It is not, however, a happy homecoming that waits the captain. Rossiter is shocked to find his fortune lost, his father accused of fraud, and his family name disgraced entirely. Worst of all misfortunes, Lady Naomi's family has dissolved the engagement, and the lady herself is of no mind to ask that it be reinstated...

Chapters on Asia features selected papers written by scholars who have been awarded the National Library’s Lee Kong Chian Research Fellowship. These works examine the history and heritage of Singapore and the region, and contain fresh research based on materials and resources from the collections of the National Library and National Archives of Singapore.

Ruth Allington, having lost her husband, father, and brother, must take a job restoring an ancient mural at the estate of Sir Gordon Chandler, who has problems of his own.

In Mandarins and Heretics, Wu Junqing explores the denunciation and persecution of lay religious groups in late imperial (14th to 20th century) China. These groups varied greatly in their organisation and teaching, yet in official state records they are routinely portrayed as belonging to the same esoteric tradition, stigmatised under generic labels such as “White Lotus” and “evil teaching”, and accused of black magic, sedition and messianic agitation. Wu Junqing convincingly demonstrates that this “heresy construct” was not a reflection of historical reality but a product of the Chinese historiographical tradition, with its uncritical reliance on official sources. The imperial heresy construct remains influential in modern China, where it contributes to shaping policy towards unlicensed religious groups.

In Re-enchanting Modernity Mayfair Yang examines the resurgence of religious and ritual life after decades of enforced secularization in the coastal area of Wenzhou, China. Drawing on twenty-five years of ethnographic fieldwork, Yang shows how the local practices of popular religion, Daoism, and Buddhism are based in community-oriented grassroots organizations that create spaces for relative local autonomy and self-governance. Central to Wenzhou's religious civil society is what Yang calls a "ritual economy," in which an ethos of generosity is expressed through donations to temples, clerics, ritual events, and charities in exchange for spiritual gain. With these investments in transcendent realms, Yang adopts Georges Bataille's notion of "ritual expenditures" to challenge the idea that rural Wenzhou's economic development can be described in terms of Max Weber's notion of a "Protestant Ethic". Instead, Yang suggests that Wenzhou's ritual economy forges an alternate path to capitalist modernity.