When Cylin Busby was nine years old, she was obsessed with Izod clothing, the Muppets, and a box turtle she kept in a shoebox. Then everything changed overnight. Her police officer father, John, was driving to his shift when someone leveled a shotgun at his window. The blasts that followed left John's jaw on the passenger seat of his car-literally. While clinging to life, he managed to write down the name of the only person he thought could have pulled the trigger. The suspect? A local ex-...

A peaceful summer night is shattered by gunfire as an unseen assailant tries to murder police officer John Busby. Though horribly wounded, Busby survives. But the perpetrator remains at learge, meaning Busby and his family remain in danger.In alternating chapters, John Busby and his daughter, Cylin, tell the harrowing true story of the year that followed - John from his perspective as parent, Cylin from the point of view of the nine-year-old child that she was. Together father and daughter...

This thought-provoking text offers many insights not generally perceived by ornithologist or botanist and is illustrated in masterly fashion by John Busby's lively drawings.The book's subtitle - A study of an ecological interaction - properly reflects the author's theme but may tend to hide the fact that the relationships between birds and berries can be much more than the simple, mutually advantageous systems ('eat my fruits, spread my seeds' ) they may s...

The shock of Donald Trump’s election caused many observers to ask whether the liberal international order—the system of institutions and norms established after World War II—was coming to an end. The victory of Joe Biden, a committed institutionalist, suggested that the liberal order would endure. Even so, important questions remained: Was Trump an aberration? Is Biden struggling in vain against irreparable changes in international politics? What does the future hold for the international ...

Simon Fonthill, a fit 59-year-old, is visiting his farm in Northern Rhodesia when the Great War breaks out. With him, as always, is his wife Alice, but also his old comrade and former batman, 352 Jenkins, holidaying with them after the marriage of his two step-daughters in South Africa. Fonthill immediately cables his old boss Kitchener, the newly appointed Minister for War in the British Cabinet, offering his services in the fight against the Kaiser's Germany. However, ...

The shock of Donald Trump’s election caused many observers to ask whether the liberal international order—the system of institutions and norms established after World War II—was coming to an end. The victory of Joe Biden, a committed institutionalist, suggested that the liberal order would endure. Even so, important questions remained: Was Trump an aberration? Is Biden struggling in vain against irreparable changes in international politics? What does the future hold for the international ...

North West India, 1897. Simon and Alice Fonthill are travelling with their old friend Jenkins to Marden, India for an anniversary party with the Guides Corps. But when they are ambushed on their journey, they realise that the land may not be as peaceful as they first believed. Their suspicions are confirmed when they are told of fresh trouble from the Pathans and Simon is tasked by Viceroy Elgin to deliver a very important letter to the Amir in Kabul. With Simon in Kabul, the Pathans attac...

Pressed into King George's Navy for the second time in a month, John Pearce and his comrades, the so-called Pelicans, find themselves working aboard HMS Griffin, a slow and over-crowded ship, sailing the Channel in search of the numerous French privateers that prey on English merchant shipping: her task to stop them and, if possible, to capture or destroy them.But Pearce has greater things on his mind: he must rescue his ailing father from the dangers of revolutionary Paris, and to...

Revolution. Bloodshed. Glory. 1793. Returning triumphant from Corsica, Lieutenant John Pearce receives a mixed welcome. But with the siege of Toulon escalating in violence and the French Revolutionary Army preparing to attack, all thoughts of revenge must be put on hold as Pearce is entrusted with a dangerous mission. When their assignment goes awry, it is up to Pearce and his comrades to prevent the inevitable bloodshed, but challenging the Revolutionaries as well as their navy could be a...

After a number of months, a whirlwind of the press gang, service at sea, wild storms, bitter battles with the enemy and a promotion, John Pearce finally finds himself free to follow his own wishes, rather than being forced to serve any longer in King George's Navy. The same does not apply for the trio of Pearce's closest friends who, with him as their leader, call themselves the Pelicans. Unaware of this, and arriving in Portsmouth, Pearce feels certain he can free his comrades.How...

Faced with a ship in need of repair, enemy attacks and the threat of wily Admiral Hotham, John Pearce is sailing into danger.Meanwhile Ralph Barclay is on his way to the Mediterranean. Thinking his wife still with Pearce and that he can repair his marriage by rescuing her, he sails in pursuit, Hotham half-hoping he suffers the same fate as the admiral has in store for Pearce.Can John Pearce fight to first save himself and his charges from captivity and then to be free from th...

This book examines many examples of the nocturnal behaviour of birds.For many people, watching and studying birds is exclusively a day time activity. However, for many birds twilight and night time are not a barrier to useful activity. It is true that very few birds are exclusively nocturnal, but many birds which are active by day also conduct limited, and often crucial, activities after dusk.Examples range from the occasional night feeding of wildfowl and ...