Faced with a straight choice between a boarding school in England or three years at a British Army School in Hong Kong, Mark Harland chose the latter.In 1966 Hong Kong was exhilarating, dynamic and evolving into the richest jewel in the British Empire. Across the border, Communist China, the most populous country on earth, was in turmoil with Mao Tse-Tung's Red Guards running amok and maintaining their version of law and order in the most brutal fashion. How did it affect the Crown...

Life for the Fishburns is never dull.Will the arrival in Scarborough of Peter’s former Belgian mistress, Stephanie van Gelder, change the family’s future?Will eldest daughter, Millie, fall for the charms of a visiting Australian cricketer?This final book in the “Scarbados Trilogy” reveals the destiny of every family member and their two labradoodles, Sebbie and AlfieBoy.

When the opportunity arose to up-size to the Clifftop Hotel, the Fishburn family seized it with alacrity.Changing its name to the Hotel Koala to give it a new identity, how would they cope with a much bigger and more demanding business?The revelation that Peter had a mistress, and a lovechild, in Belgium, would have destroyed most families – but not the Fishburns.It was the catalyst that would propel them to even greater success in the town they called“SCARBADOS...

I have visited our Belgian neighbours across the North Sea more than sixty times over the last twenty years. Each time I love this little country and its people just that little bit more. Taking the ferry from Hull on each occasion, I have explored the Province of Flanders by car, bus, train and tram.This little book provides anecdotes and memories of these trips both at sea on the ferries and in the hinterland of the Port of Zeebrugge. Flanders isn't just about the beautiful medie...

Saying goodbye to his double life in Bruges,Peter moves his family from Hull to Scarborough, during Covid, to run a hotel.Can he make it work?

This book is fiction, but how much of it is based on fact? You decide.

New EditionWhen established author Mark Harland decided to turn away from novels for his next work, he chose to write his memories of living as a young boy in Malta.When established author Mark Harland decided to turn away from novels for his next work, he chose to write his memories of living as a young boy in Malta. Born at the David Bruce Naval Hospital in M’tarfa, he went to England with his parents when he was two years old. When the Admiralty transferred his father, V...

In 1997 Britain's last major overseas territory, the colony of Hong Kong, was handed back to Communist China. Just as it reneged on the 1842 Treaty of Nanking, in 2020 - the 'Year of the Rat' - so it ratted on the Joint Declaration signed by both nations to guarantee the future stability of the new Special Administrative Region.It wasn't long before the Chinese politburo started to take control of more than just the downtown traffic. Freedom of speech was curtailed, laws were chang...

Everyone has read books about Australia: its history, geography, the Great Barrier Reef or the fact that it is host to the world's ten deadliest animals. But how many have read, or even written, about the Australian character?Indeed, what is the Australian character? In fact, what is it about the 'Australian' that is so unique?It is fifty years since John O'Grady wrote 'They're a Weird Mob' and a while since Bill Bryson's hilarious escapades 'Down Under' had us all laughing...

SOON TO BE A BBC AND STARZ SERIES • AN INSTANT #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA Good Housekeeping "Book We're Most Looking Forward To" • A GQ Magazine (UK) "Best Book of the Year" • A Harper’s Bazaar (UK) "Best Novels to Read""Captivating [and] flawless. . . . An affectingly hard-won romance.. . . . Both protagonists are prickly, smart and desperately yearning, but utt...

WINNER OF THE FORTNUM & MASON DEBUT FOOD BOOK AWARD 2021WINNER OF 2021 LAKELAND BOOK OF THE YEAR‘Extraordinary. Vivid, irreverent, heartbreaking.’ NIGEL SLATER‘So funny and so delicious. I could eat it.’ DAWN O’PORTER‘Delicious.’ THE OBSERVERFrom an early age, Grace Dent was hungry. As a little girl growing up in Currock, Carlisle, she yearned to be somethin...

“Not every soldier gets to be a hero.”James Marc Ivimey served for 10 years in the British Army, like thousands of others before and since. He enjoyed his time immensely, but there were tears of joy and pain, and of course tedious boredom. Dog Stags & NAAFI Growlers recalls real and vivid stories; the highs and the lows of the day-to-day teeth and bones of barrack-room life.Ivimey provides a unique insight into what it was like to be a rank-and-file soldie...