A deadly French ship stalks the waves. Hazzard must sink her at all costs... The eagerly anticipated fourth novel in the William John Hazzard series. Late 1799. Napoleon Bonaparte seizes power in a coup in Paris as an Ottoman army of 80,000 descends upon Egypt. Abandoned in the desert, French general Kléber wants to get his beleaguered soldiers home, their only hope a rescue fleet led by the mighty 74-gun Généreux. For William John Hazzard and the marines of 9 Company, the order is clear: find her and sink her. Beset by spies from Constantinople to Sicily, Hazzard races after the Généreux and the desperate French convoy with De la Vega and the Volpone – and breaks the heart of Lady Hamilton, as he brings Nelson out to give battle once again. From brutal combat at sea to the streets of Palermo and the flaming ruins of Heliopolis, this is the epic fourth chapter in the saga of Hazzard’s Egypt. Perfect for fans of Julian Stockwin, Bernard Cornwell and C.S. Forester.

Journey from drizzly, 18th century Britain to sun-baked Egypt with The William John Hazzard series. Includes all three books; Napoleon’s Run, Lords of the Nile, and the 2022 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize-longlisted Emperor of Dust. Napoleon's Run: London, 1798. Late one night, a junior naval officer at the Admiralty intercepts a coded despatch, marked with blood: Napoleon Bonaparte is about to launch the largest invasion fleet in history. England is vulnerable, bereft of allies, and the Sea Lords fear a direct assault on Britain. Admiralty Intelligence sounds the alarm and prepares to unleash Nelson and the Mediterranean squadron. But before they can, they need vital information. They need a special officer to uncover the destination of Napoleon’s armada – they need Marine Lt William John Hazzard. Betrayed by the Admiralty at the African Cape three years earlier, Hazzard has vowed never to trust them again. Will he agree to help them? Lords of the Nile: Malta, June 1798. Captured by the French after hurling himself into enemy ranks, Hazzard is now a prisoner of his arch-nemesis, spycatcher Citizen Derrien, but has uncovered the true purpose of Napoleon’s armada: the conquest of Egypt. If Hazzard can’t convince Admiralty Intelligence of a desperate plan, an ancient world will be lost for ever. But help comes from an unexpected quarter: a missing Admiralty agent... As French cannons roar in the desert sands and the Mamluk cavalry sweeps in to attack, can Hazzard prevent a lost cause turning into tragedy? Emperor of Dust: Egypt, September 1798. After tragedy at the Battle of the Nile, Hazzard is possessed by a dark vengeance: with the marines of 9 Company and their Bedouin allies he scours the Nile Delta for his nemesis, the French spy-catcher Citizen Derrien. However, among the sacred ibis and ever-shifting sands, Hazzard catches wind of the stirrings of revolt in Cairo. When riot explodes in the capital, Hazzard fears he is simply too late. Abandoned by the French Government, Napoleon and his army are now trapped in Egypt. When Bonaparte discovers that Al-Djezzar ‘the Butcher’ of Acre is gathering his forces to attack, he accepts the challenge. Riding with the Mamluk and the beautiful Shajar al-Durr, Hazzard engages French cavalry in the shadow of Ozymandias in ancient Thebes – and the Admiralty calls upon him once more as Napoleon launches his bloody crusade on Syria and the Holy Land to become the new Emperor in the East. These epic adventures with a new hero of Napoleonic fiction are perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Simon Scarrow and C. S. Forester. Praise for Jonathan Spencer ‘An outstanding novel... Better than Sharpe, gripping and intense, Napoleon’s Run deserves to be a runaway success.’ Ben Kane, Sunday Times bestselling author of Lionheart ‘Hornblower meets Mission: Impossible. A thrilling, page-turning debut packed with rousing, rip-roaring action.’ J. D. Davies, author of the Matthew Quinton Journals 'Outstanding... Packed to the gunwales with action, this fast-paced story introduces us to William Hazzard ... not only a convincing action hero, but also one who offers a timeless insight into loyalty, trust and honesty. A thumping read' Chris Lloyd, author of The Unwanted Dead ‘Eloquently crafted and dripping with richly detailed historical and fictional characters... a riveting tale of heartbreak, anguish, courage and love. Spencer is a master storyteller, captivating and entertaining.’ Quarterdeck on Emperor of Dust

The first biography of Shirley Hazzard, the author of The Transit of Venus and a writer of “shocking wisdom” and “intellectual thrill” (The New Yorker). Shirley Hazzard: A Writing Life tells the extraordinary story of a great modern novelist. Brigitta Olubas, Hazzard’s authorized biographer, has drawn, with great subtlety and understanding, on her fiction; on an extensive archive of letters, diaries, and notebooks; and on the memories of surviving friends and colleagues to create this resonant portrait of an exceptional woman. This biography explores the distinctive times of Hazzard’s life, from her youth and middle age to her widowhood and years of decline, and traces the complex and intricate processes of self-fashioning that lay beneath Hazzard’s formidable, beguiling presence. Olubas shows us the places of Hazzard’s life, of which she wrote with characteristic lyricism, accompanied by rare photographs from Hazzard’s collection and elsewhere. Hazzard was the last of a generation of self-taught writers, devotees of a great literary tradition, and her depth of perception and expressive gifts have earned her iconic status. Olubas has brought her brilliantly alive, enhancing and deepening our understanding of the singular woman who created some of the most enduring fiction of the past sixty years. As Dwight Garner wrote in The New York Times, “Hazzard’s stories feel timeless because she understands, as she writes in one of them: ‘We are human beings, not rational ones.’” Here, in Shirley Hazzard, is the story of a remarkable human being.

Author Jeffrey Cox conducts a thorough and compelling investigation of the Java Sea Campaign, the first major sea battle of the Pacific War, which inflicted huge costs on the Allies and set the stage for Japan's rout across the Pacific and Indian oceans. Few events have ever shaken a country in the way that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor affected the United States. The Japanese forces then continued to overwhelm the Allies, attacking Malaya with its fortress of Singapore, and taking resource-rich islands in the Pacific in their own blitzkrieg offensive. Allied losses in these early months after America's entry into the war were great, and among the most devastating were those suffered during the Java Sea Campaign, where a small group of Americans, British, Dutch, and Australians were isolated in the Far East – directly in the path of the Japanese onslaught. It would be the first major sea battle of World War II in the Pacific.

Intelligent technical systems, which combine mechanical, electrical and software engineering with control engineering and advanced mathematics, go far beyond the state of the art in mechatronics and open up fascinating perspectives. Among these systems are so-called self-optimizing systems, which are able to adapt their behavior autonomously and flexibly to changing operating conditions. Self-optimizing systems create high value for example in terms of energy and resource efficiency as well as reliability. The Collaborative Research Center 614 "Self-optimizing Concepts and Structures in Mechanical Engineering" pursued the long-term aim to open up the active paradigm of self-optimization for mechanical engineering and to enable others to develop self-optimizing systems. This book is directed to researchers and practitioners alike. It provides a design methodology for the development of self-optimizing systems consisting of a reference process, methods, and tools. The reference process is divided into two phases the domain-spanning conceptual design and the domain-specific design and development. For the conceptual design a holistic approach is provided. Domain-specific methods and tools developed especially for the design and development of self-optimizing systems are described and illustrated by application examples. This book will enable the reader to identify the potential for self-optimization and to develop self-optimizing systems independently.

An annual publication featuring the latest research on the history, development and service of the world's warships. Warship 2018 is devoted to the design, development and service history of the world's combat ships. Featuring a broad range of articles from a select panel of distinguished international contributors, this latest volume combines original research, new book reviews, warship notes, an image gallery and much more to maintain the impressive standards of scholarship and research from the field of warship history. This 40th edition features the usual range of diverse articles spanning the subject by an international array of expert authors.