Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Niccolo Rising by Dorothy Dunnett, read by John Banks.
The time is the 15th century, when intrepid merchants became the new knighthood of Europe. Among them, none is bolder or more cunning than Nicholas vander Poele of Bruges, the good-natured dyers apprentice who schemes and swashbucukes his way to the helm of a merchantile empire. NICCOLO RISING, Book One of the series, finds us in Bruges, 1460. Street smart, brilliant at figures, adept at the subtleties of diplomacy and the well-timed untruth, Dunnett's hero rises from wastrel to prodigy in a breathless adventure that wins him the love of the strongest woman in Bruges and the hatred of two powerful enemies. NICCOLO RISING combines history, adventure and high romance in the tradition stretching from Alexandre Dumas to Mary Renault.
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Unicorn Hunt by Dorothy Dunnett, read by John Banks.
The fifth title in the 'House of Niccolo' sequence, recreating the perilous world of trade, war and banking in Renaissance Europe. Niccolo has returned to Venice from Africa - richer, wiser yet ever unpredictable. He journeys to Scotland, closer at hand to the secrets of his birth.
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Race of Scorpions by Dorothy Dunnett, read by John Banks.
This is the third book in the 'House of Niccolo' series. Set in 15th-century Cyprus, this novel continues the saga of Nicholas van der Poel, international mercenary who started out as a dyer's apprentice, as he plays for the highest stakes with the greatest super-powers in Europe.
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Spring of the Ram by Dorothy Dunnett, read by John Banks.
In 1461, the mysterious enigmatic Nicholas is in Florence. Backed by none other than Cosimo de' Medici, he will sail the Black Sea to Trebizond, last outpost of Byzantium, and the last jewel missing from the crown of the Ottoman Empire. But trouble lies ahead. Nicholas's step-daughter - at the tender age of thirteen - has eloped with his rival in trade: a Machiavellian Genoese who races ahead of Nicholas, sowing disaster at every port. And time is of the essence: Trebizond may fall tot he Turks at any moment. Crackling with wit, breathtakingly paced, THE SPRING OF THE RAM is a pyro technic blend of scholarship and narrative shimmering with the scents, sounds, colors and combustible emotions of the 15th century.
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of To Lie with Lions by Dorothy Dunnett, read by John Banks.
Merchant-banker Nicholas de Fleury, having wrested his infant son from the boy's formidable mother, pauses en route to the land of golden light to set in train a deception that will ensnare nations in the triumphant ruin of his enemies. This is volume six in the 'House of Niccolo'.
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Scales of Gold by Dorothy Dunnett, read by John Banks.
The year 1464 finds our hero Nicholas in Venice. Plagued by enemies bent on dissolving his assets and smearing his character, he sets sail for Africa, legendary location of the Fountain of Youth and the source of gold in such abundance that men prefer to barter in shells. He will discover the charms of the beautiful Gelis - a woman whose passion for Nicholas is rivalled only by her desire to punish him for his role in her sister's death. Erotic and lush with detail, SCALES OF GOLD embraces the complexity of the Renaissance, where mercantile adventure couples with more personal quests behind the silkeb curtains of the Age of Discovery.
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Caprice and Rondo by Dorothy Dunnett, read by John Banks.
January 1474, in the deep cold of an ice-bound Danzig: a man is spending a frivolous winter not facing up to his responsibilities ... It is the merchant Niccolo, diviner, soldier, banker to Kings; shunned by all who know him after revelations of hismurderous mischief-making. But his talents are too great to be squandered, and a subtle political dance ensues as rivals in Poland, Venice, and Persia bid for his services in trade and war and diplomacy. Niccolo has lost his family; but he will discover a new purpose in life...
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Gemini by Dorothy Dunnett, read by John Banks.
GEMINI represents the final appearance of Nicholas de Fleury, who opened this series as a carefree, clumsy 18 year old apprentice in Flanders. Now he is in his thirties. The culmination of this amazing series sees Niccolo face his toughest battle yet, against an enemy who will tax every skill he has acquired over the course of the last few years...
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett, read by David Rintoul.
It is the eleventh century, and Europe is full of young kings - some dreaming of new civilisation, some content to live as their forefathers have done, and all ceaselessly fighting, befriending or betraying one other.
Such is the world of the real Macbeth, part Christian, part Viking, who has the imagination and determination to move himself and his people out of a barbarian past and into flowering nationhood. In this brilliant recreation of his life we see him as a man of extraordinary courage, wit and skill - utterly self-reliant yet profoundly in love with woman he marries - a pirate of the sea yet a prince with the foresight and passion to set him apart from other men.
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Queen's Play by Dorothy Dunnett, read by David Monteath.
It is 1548 and seven-year-old Mary Queen of Scots, betrothed to her cousin the Dauphin, heir to the French throne, has been dispatched to France. But far from home and vulnerable, surrounded by the double-dealing and debauchery of a dangerous and unpredictable court, she suffers a series of 'accidents'.
Her mother, Scotland's Queen Dowager, orders Francis Crawford of Lymond to protect Mary, believing that at the very heart of Henri II's glittering, decadent court is an assassin hired to kill the infant monarch.
Lymond must secretly hunt down this individual before he himself is exposed . . .
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett, read by David Monteath.
Summer, 1551, and Francis Crawford of Lymond is in Malta to assist the Knights of St John defend the island from an invading Turkish fleet. But under a weak leader there is dissension in the ranks of the Knights - and the chances of repelling invasion look slim.
Here Lymond meets Knight Grand Cross Graham Reid Malett - known as Gabriel - a fellow Scot famed for his virtues. It is soon clear that Gabriel's wiles in war and intrigue rival Lymond's own as he attempts to bring his new comrade in arms into the bosom of his scheming.
And if Gabriel should fail then his sister, Joleta, whose seductive charms no man can resist is waiting to prevail.
Caught between warring factions and nations, between the wiles of Gabriel and the lascivious charms of Joleta, will Lymond prove strong enough to remain his own man?
Penguin presents the audio edition of Checkmate by Dorothy Dunnett, read by David Monteath.
It is 1557 and legendary Scottish warrior Francis Crawford of Lymond is once more in France. There he is leading an army to rout the hated English from Calais.
Yet while Lymond seeks victory on the battlefield he is haunted by his troubled past - chiefly the truth about his origins and his marriage (in name only) to young Englishwoman Philippa Somerville.
As the French offer him a way out of his marriage and his wife appears in France on a mission of her own, the final moves are made in a great game that has been playing out over an extraordinary decade of war, love and struggle - bringing the Lymond Chronicles to a spellbinding close.
