I have always loved fairytales, especially by Hans Christian Anderson. I love stories about underdogs and unlikely heroes triumphing over evil. Stories that tear at your heart in the best possible way. They communicate eternal truths about right and wrong, good and evil, through good story-telling because it sucks you in on an emotional level and brings your defenses down.
I wrote
The Victor: A Tale of Betrayal, Love and Sacrifice
LOTR is the “gold standard” for high fantasy. Not only is the story epic but the world created by Tolkien is both rich and multilayered. I read the entire trilogy as well as The Hobbit when I was 14 in a single weekend. I have read it almost every year since then. I laughed, wept, and rejoiced with the characters as they follow the quest. I never wanted the book to end.
It taught me the value of friendship and loyalty, especially when times are hard and that even the smallest “nobody” can have an eternal impact on the course of history if they remain true.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins.
These books remind me of a lot of J.R.R. Tolkien’s LOTR. They are majestic in their telling, and the story is again of an ordinary person becoming a hero in a magical realm. I could hardly put them down. I totally got caught up in the story and characters and never wanted it to end. I have read them at least five times.
Wolves in Oxford; extinct beasts in Scotland: the barriers between our world and the Celtic Otherworld are breaking down. Two men are drawn into Albion, and changed for ever.
A time-travel romance featuring a present-day heroine and a dashing hero from the sixteenth century! This is one of the most romantic novels I’ve ever read. It has humor and, of course, toe-curling passion, and at the end of the book I was just in emotional agony because of the bittersweet ending. The story is the epitome of every woman’s fantasy.
A time-travel romance featuring a present-day heroine and a dashing hero from the sixteenth century!
Abandoned by a cruel fate, lovely Dougless Montgomery lies weeping upon a cold tombstone in an English church. Suddenly, the most extraordinary man appears. It is Nicholas Stafford, Earl of Thornwyck...and according to his tombstone he died in 1564.
Drawn to his side by a bond so sudden and compelling it overshadows reason, Dougless knows that Nicholas is nothing less than a miracle: a man who does not seek to change her, who finds her perfect, fascinating, just as she is. What Dougless never imagined…
The book transported me to a completely foreign world where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as an illusion and leaves you hanging until the last chapter to find out if the main character will ever realize her aspirations for love from the one man she has ever loved. It reminded me a lot of Cinderella. An ordinary girl who is mistreated and comes from nothing to become the most sought-after woman in all of Japan. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction—at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful—and completely unforgettable. I read it at least once a year.
'An epic tale and a brutal evocation of a disappearing world' The Times
A young peasant girl is sold as servant and apprentice to a renowned geisha house. Many years later she tells her story from a hotel in New York, opening a window into an extraordinary half-hidden world of eroticism and enchantment, exploitation and degradation and summoning up a quarter of a century of Japan's dramatic history.
'Intimate and brutal, written in cool, lucid prose it is a novel whose psychological empathy and historical truths are outstanding' Mail on Sunday
I found this book to be the most unusual fairytale I’ve ever read. It was romantic, funny, and easily one of the most quotable books (and movies) ever. “I am Inigo Montoya, you killed my father! Prepare to die!” It didn’t take itself too seriously and was a fun read from beginning to end. It is also my daughter’s favorite book. No wonder it’s become a cult classic!
William Goldman’s beloved story of Buttercup, Westley, and their fellow adventurers.
This tale of true love, high adventure, pirates, princesses, giants, miracles, fencing, and a frightening assortment of wild beasts was unforgettably depicted in the 1987 film directed by Rob Reiner and starring Fred Savage, Robin Wright, and others. But, rich in character and satire, the novel boasts even more layers of ingenious storytelling. Set in 1941 and framed cleverly as an “abridged” retelling of a centuries-old tale set in the fabled country of Florin, home to “Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest…
A benevolent king, his sword of power.
A ruthless traitor bent on revenge and the faithful son who stands in his way with the woman destined to share his throne.
Who shall emerge the victor in this epic battle between good and evil to rule the lives of hapless men?
I have been to, and loved, North, Central, and especially East Africa for over fifty years. Only six times have I been to Africa on holiday; more often, perhaps twenty or more times, as a television producer. Working in Africa gains a perspective of reality that the glories of vacation do not. Each has its place, each its pitfalls like stalled plane rides with emergency landings in the bush or attacks by wildlife. But, in the end, the magic of the “otherness,” what an old friend called “primitava” captures one’s soul and changes your life.
Keen to rekindle their love of East African wildlife adventures after years of filming, extreme dangers, and rescues, producer Pero Baltazar, safari guide Mbuno Waliangulu, and Nancy Breiton, camerawoman, undertake a filming walking adventure north of Lake Rudolf, crossing from Kenya into Ethiopia along the Omo River, following a herd of elephant making their annual migration.
Stumbling onto an elephant poaching, the team become embroiled in true financing of terrorism for al Shabaab –ivory sales–and are determined to stop the slaughter at any cost. Ivory trade financing terrorism involves UN refugee camps with two hundred thousand displaced Somali persons, powerful…
A documentary team hiking through East Africa collides with a gang of deadly poachers, in this gripping adventure by the author of Kidnapped on Safari.
Years of filming, extreme dangers, and daring rescues have taken their toll on documentary producer Pero Baltazar and his team. To relax and reconnect with the East African wildlife they love, Pero organizes a walking safari for him, his camerawoman Nancy Breiton, and their elite guide Mbuno Waliangulu. Still, Pero has trouble truly disconnecting from work. When the team comes across a herd of elephants making their annual migration north of Lake Rudolf, Pero decides…
