The Scarlet Thief: Battle of the Alma, 1854
By (Author) Paul Fraser Collard
Headline Publishing Group
Headline Book Publishing
11th February 2014
21st November 2013
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
823.92
Paperback
352
Width 129mm, Height 197mm, Spine 23mm
244g
Jack Lark, a character to rival Richard Sharpe, bursts on to the historical adventure scene in this brilliant, action-packed debut of Redcoat battle and bloodshed.
1854: the banks of the Alma River, Crimean Peninsular. The Redcoats stagger to a bloody halt. The men of the King's Royal Fusiliers are in terrible trouble, ducking and twisting as the storm of shot, shell and bullet tear through their ranks. Officer Jack Lark has to act immediately and decisively. His life and the success of the campaign depend on it. But does he have the mettle, the officer qualities that are the life blood of the British Army From a poor background, Lark has risen through the ranks by stealth and guile and now he faces the ultimate test... THE SCARLET THIEF introduces a formidable and compelling hero - brutally courageous, roguish, ambitious - in a historical novel as robust as it is thrillingly authentic by an author who brings history and battle vividly alive.Paul's love of military history started at an early age. A childhood spent watching films like Waterloo and Zulu whilst reading Sharpe, Flashman and the occasional Commando comic, gave him a desire to know more of the men who fought in the great wars of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. At school, Paul was determined to become an officer in the British army and he succeeded in winning an Army Scholarship. However, Paul chose to give up his boyhood ambition and instead went into the finance industry. Paul stills works in the City, and lives with his wife and three children in Kent.