They’ll never read that by Tony Collins Tony comes over as both entertaining and inspiring in this very personal book, in which he neither brags nor seeks to hide his failures. It reads more as an autobiography than – as the subtitle implies – a how-to-fail book about the challenges of book publishing.

Two exciting stories in one book. Conan Doyle has diligently researched events and conditions both in Versailles and in French-Canadian North America, and developed two superbly written tales linked by the person of Amory De Catinat, a half-hearted young Huguenot serving as a personal guard of King Louis XIV.

Cuckoo in the Nest, by Fran Hill Fourteen-year-old Jacky barely survives under the ‘care’ of her dissolute alcoholic father. So Social Services move her to a first-time foster family. Their daughter, Amanda, of similar age, resents her presence and does her level best to get rid of her.