“Proof that Durrell can master any genre . . . [a] quiet but suspenseful spy thriller . . . with some similarities to Ian Fleming’s James Bond” (Early Bird Books). After some especially taxing missions, seasoned secret agent Methuen wants nothing more than to take a long, relaxing fishing trip. But after a fellow British spy is killed in the remote mountains of Serbia, Methuen is called back into action. What follows is a suspenseful tale of espionage told with Lawrence Durrell’s characteristic panache. Methuen sets up camp in the Serbian countryside and baits his hooks, hoping to draw out the men responsible for the murder. It’s not long before Methuen realizes that he’s in a fight for his own life against an unknown opponent. Are his true enemies the Communists, the royalist rebel White Eagles . . . or someone more sinister?

Methuen, a seasoned survivor of countless spy missions thrust upon him by the Old Etonians running the Awkward Shop (as the British Secret Service was called), feels he needs a respite from it all. He is looking forward to some trout fishing in Scotland. But when his superior, Dombey, explains that something strange is afoot in the Balkans, Methuen's curiosity is immediately aroused. A fellow British spy has been murdered on a remote mountainside in Serbia by the White Eagles - underground Royalists - presumably because he fell afoul of their life-or-death struggle against Tito and the Communists. What the Royalists are up to is a mystery Dombey wants Methuen to solve. The Cold War - weary Methuen feels his blood stir. At the very least, he thinks, the trout fishing ought to be excellent. Setting up camp in a cave deep in the Serbian countryside, Methuen baits his hooks and waits for the contact who will lead him into the deeper water of the mystery. He finds out soon enough that his mission involves far more than sport fishing - his life is the one on the line. Hunted by both the Communists and the White Eagles, Methuen is played to his limit. He fights for his life, summoning every ounce of his strength as he gets pulled into a roaring cataract of events that eventually lands him on a dizzying mountain peak - and reels readers in for a tour-de-force climax that will leave them breathless.

Over the last ten years, many commentators have tried to explain the bloody conflicts that tore Yugoslavia apart. But in all these attempts to make sense of the wars and ethnic violence, one crucial factor has been overlooked—the fundamental roles played by exile groups and émigré communities in fanning the flames of nationalism and territorial ambition. Based in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and South America, some groups helped provide the ideologies, the leadership, the money, and in many cases, the military hardware that fueled the violent conflicts. Atypical were the dissenting voices who drew upon their experiences in western democracies to stem the tide of war. In spite of the diasporas' power and influence, their story has never before been told, partly because it is so difficult, even dangerous to unravel. Paul Hockenos, a Berlin-based American journalist and political analyst, has traveled through several continents and interviewed scores of key figures, many of whom had never previously talked about their activities. In Homeland Calling, Hockenos investigates the borderless international networks that diaspora organizations rely on to export political agendas back to their native homelands—agendas that at times blatantly undermined the foreign policy objectives of their adopted countries.Hockenos tells an extraordinary story, with elements of farce as well as tragedy, a story of single-minded obsession and double-dealing, of high aspirations and low cunning. The figures he profiles include individuals as disparate as a Canadian pizza baker and an Albanian urologist who played instrumental roles in the conflicts, as well as other men and women who rose boldly to the occasion when their homelands called out for help.

An action-packed story of love, duty and destiny, by global sensation Wilbur Smith. 'A master storyteller' - Sunday Times 'Wilbur Smith is one of those benchmarks against whom others are compared' - The Times 'No one does adventure quite like Smith' - Daily Mirror The higher you fly, the harder you fall . . . From a young age it's clear that David Morgan is a 'bird', a natural pilot, most at home in the air. His family want him to take over the family business, but David is determined to follow his destiny, and joins the South African Air Force, where he is commended for his skills. When he meets Debra, a beautiful young Israeli writer, David once again feels the pull of destiny. He joins the Israeli Defence Force and finds himself caught up in the country's struggles. But when the war separates him from Debra, David feels his two destinies pulling him apart. Can he become the man he always dreamed of being, without losing the woman he's fighting for?

This anthology is an amalgam of the authors output in the domains of interpretation, translation, and literary scholarship. It is a serious attempt to highlight the cardinal traits common to said fields. This research is a vested trek into the inner workings of the authors profession; interpretation and translation, as well as his standing engagement with literary genres throughout the ages. The books uniqueness resides in treating a diversity of matters interrelated in various ways, although on the surface it appears to make up a queer admixture of dissimilar elementshence the title, Convergences. Interpretation and translation are twin vocations, and between them, convergence is all encompassing. Both transform a message from a source to a target language. Complementary and mutually supportive as they are, yet there is a train of difference in the execution of these two inseparable professions: the method, nature and techniques involved in each. Interpretation is the instantaneous, the simultaneous, in a word the express mode of communication; and translation is the meditative, the slow or the local medium of correspondence. Concomitantly, literature is the crucible for teleologically permeable convergences and incredible divergences. It has a noble ontological message and brings out humanitys hidden treasures, experiences, thoughts, and choices. Literatures lofty missive is grounded in understanding the scenes, events, and characters it depicts excerpts of which feed into discourses to be interpreted and translated. Clients come up with multiple interpretations depending on circumstances and the context in which texts are couched.

A former member of Great Britain’s diplomatic corps, the celebrated author of the Alexandria Quartet offers eleven sketches of life in service of the crown. After decades spent representing Britain around the globe, Antrobus has earned a shirtful of medals and the right to pass afternoons in his London club, musing over old times. His memory is long, and every old embarrassment still rankles—no matter how ridiculous. The incident with the Yugoslav ghost train, for instance, still causes him to clench his fists in fear. When he speaks of Sir Claud Polk-Mowbray, he takes pains to lower his voice—lest an American hear. And his stomach has never recovered from the incident involving the fried flag. Based on Lawrence Durrell’s own experience in the diplomatic corps, Antrobus’s cutting observation is drawn from the strange and humorous truth. Few are those with a better sense of place than Durrell, and even fewer with wit to match.