Robert Carter
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I was born in Staffordshire, near Etruria, the place made famous by Josiah Wedgwood, but was brought up in Sydney, Australia and later in Lancashire, England. I studied astrophysics at Newcastle University, where I started the student science fiction society. Writing novels has always played a part in my life, and I've tried to see the world enough to be able to write fiction with the help of personal experience.
After university, the US oil industry was booming so I went to Dallas, Texas, later on I worked on rigs in various parts of the Middle East and the war-torn heart of Africa. I was aboard the Ron Tappmeyer, a rig that blew out in the Persian Gulf, killing 19 men. It was dangerous work, but well-paid, and it took me to places that outsiders rarely see, like the Rub-al-Khali of Arabia and hard-to-reach parts of equatorial Africa. When I left the oilfields, I spent time on travel, first to East Berlin and Warsaw, then to Moscow and Leningrad. From there I took the Trans-Siberian railway to Japan. In Hong Kong, I worked on a road survey, took tea with the heir of the last king of Upper Burma near Mandalay, and on the path to Everest base camp just happened to run into Sir Edmund Hillary. After traveling around most of India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, I returned home and took up a job with the BBC. Four years later, I left BBC TV to write. I finally settled in London, but I still like to head off to interesting parts when time allows. As for my books, I like to write about dramatic and exciting events and I feel I owe it to my readers to have had some sort of first-hand experience. When I wrote Barbarians which is set in 19th century China, I had to go and take a look myself. Travelling in Manchuria in the depths of winter was no picnic. I find it’s essential to visit the places I write about to pick up on the local culture and how people behave, to make things authentic. Talwar is set in Moghul India and I have spent a great deal of time in India, researching locations and getting to know the culture and the people. These days anyone with the price of a plane ticket can visit anywhere on the planet, but none of us can go to, say, Hampton Court in 1580, or the Manchu Court at Peking in 1860. My books offer readers the chance to time travel to a vanished world. I stick pretty close to real history, but insert characters and sub-plots which are consistent with what really happened. This, of course, means that I have to do a huge amount of research for each book. Fortunately I enjoy research, which helps. The Internet, old books, museums, travel and talking with experts – all ingredients to ensure that what I write is convincing and correct. I tend to write about periods of violent upheaval because that is where the drama is found and when people can be at their best and worst. Courage and betrayal both emerge when emotions are at their highest, and I’m always looking to create a riveting read. |
Armada
Literary Fiction / Historical Fiction
Forget Captain Sparrow! Time travel to the real Caribbean of 400 years ago. See galleons filled with Mexican gold. Watch as Queen Elizabeth's ministers, Burleigh and Walsingham use Drake and Hawkins to humble the power of Phillip II of Spain. Feel the hopes and fears of Tudor England in this rich drama with all the historical detail of Patrick O'Brien and the storytelling of James Clavell. The Virgin Queen, Elizabeth of England, has reigned for ten heretical years but her country remains locked in bloody rivalry with the great superpower of Catholic Spain. Two brothers are torn apart by war. One fights his way from imprisonment to reclaim his Spanish lover. The other wins the daughter of the Queen’s first minister but John and Richard Tavistock are embroiled in England’s naval battles with Spain and one returns to England, intent on returning to rescue the other , a cannon maker, who is captured in Mexico. Richard, in London, tries to get a ship to return to Mexico, but hears rumours that his brother John has become a Catholic and is now making cannons for the Spanish ... All are caught up in the ruthless intrigues of the Court and Inquisition. All play their part in turning the destiny of nations. |
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Talwar
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Literary Fiction / Historical Fiction
Imagine a corporation so powerful that it rules trade across the globe, fuels the first world war, creates governments and gives birth to new countries. It is 1746, the corporation is the East India Company and French and British trade interests are fighting for control of the decaying Moghul empire. A magnificent blend of historical adventure and romance "in the great tradition of James Clavell. Young American-born Englishman, Hayden Flint battles with his piratical father as they and the East India Company fight against the French to control the convoluted politics of the Moslem controlled Hindu states of India. Hayden Flint, betrothed to a rich merchant’s daughter, during his adventure into the Indian courts, falls in love with Yasmin, wife of Mohammad Ali Khan, a very powerful Prince. Robert Clive, unlucky in love and would-be suicide and a clerk working for the East India Company distinguishes himself as the most successful soldier of his time. A complex thriller of intrigue, adventure and romance. |
Barbarians
Literary Fiction / Historical Fiction
Imagine a civil war that left 150 million people dead. A war waged ruthlessly by the Emperor against his own helpless people. A war continued against all odds by a rebel leader who thought himself the brother of Jesus Christ. The Americans, British and French were caught up in the catastrophe that ensued. Frederick T Ward leads a band of mercenaries against the Taiping rebels. He may find Chinese customs primitive, but that's no reason not to make money out of them. Harry Lindley is searching for his missionary father. They are on a journey into the interior ... At the heart of the Celestial Realm, the Emperor is oblivious to these 'foreign devils'. Dazed by opulence and opium, nor does he notice the vicious internecine struggles around him - on one side his ministers, who see no obstacle but a little bloodshed between them and vast fortunes; on the other, swathed in silk and jewels, the implacable figure of the Emperor's first concubine. This was an extraordinary period in Chinese history, and “Barbarians” follows the exploits of two real-life figures, one an Englishman and the other an American, in Shanghai, while the politics of the Manchu court are centred upon the extraordinary girl, Yehonala, who rose from concubine to become the all-powerful “Queen Victoria of China.“ |
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Courage
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Literary Fiction / Historical Fiction
True love. The terror of war. Rejection. Separation. Reconciliation. COURAGE. France, 1790, and a nation is on the brink of destruction, a not so innocent flirtation at a glamorous ball, a Frenchwoman destined for the guillotine, and a British naval captain who has loved and lost her ¬– these are the ingredients of , Courage, Robert Carter’s epic tale of love and war. Add to these the machinations of a shadowy Brotherhood which is shaping the future of the world, and we have a story to rival the work of Patrick O’Brian. Full of intrigue, drama and adventure, larger-than-life passions and the clash or war, Courage is set against the bloody background of the French Revolution as Napoleon Bonaparte prepares to stride out onto the stage of history. Captain Sidney Smith, a naval captain, falls in love with a young French aristocrat, but when her family is overwhelmed by the Revolution he must make a choice. Courage tells the tale of a man and woman whose indelible memories of a forbidden romance sustains them through the terrors of war, and whose faith in one another finally overcomes all. Captain Sidney Smith and Berenice de Sainte Honorine du Fay, niece of the Duc d’Harcourt are besotted by one another in an instant that can only be called “love at first sight.” She throws all caution to the winds, but then is told that the charismatic young captain took her to bed on a wager. She is appalled. She has been taken for a fool. In truth, he has fallen for her and is intent on resolving the misunderstanding , but their two countries are heading into war and duty calls him away. Meanwhile, the revolution has begun, a mob is roaming through the countryside and Berenice, her sister and mother are trapped and must try to flee ... Lovers of romance, adventure and drama will enjoy this historically accurate and well-researched depiction of a family’s attempts to survive a time of raging violence. |
Death Valley Scotty
Literary Fiction / Historical Fiction
Around the beginning of the 20th Century, Walter E. Scott -- Scotty to his friends -- was passing through Death Valley, California, when he happened upon a dead man. Beside the corpse was a dog dying of thirst, and in the man's pocket was a piece of rock glittering with pure gold ... So begins one of the most endearing tales to come out of the American West. Scotty seized he day. He buried the body, saved the dog and worked out a plan that would change not only his own life, but that of many others. One of the lives Scotty changed was that of Albert M. Johnson, a wealthy but disabled Chicagoan who yearned for adventure. Johnson wanted for nothing in material terms, but he had suffered a broken back in the train wreck that had killed his father. Despite inheriting the biggest insurance company in the Midwest, he was not a happy man, until Scotty appeared, that is. Scotty loved to have a good time and to be the centre of attention. He was a romantic soul, a natural-born showman with a talent for making things happen. He used whatever money that came his way to enjoy life and enhance his reputation as a gold miner, but he also enriched the lives of others in a way that was his and his alone. Scotty played the newspapers of William Randolph Hearst at their own game. He ran financial risks that would make the average person dizzy, but he remained the kind of man that folks always wanted to see win. Death Valley Scotty is a tightly crafted story that follows the life of a loveable rogue through more ups and downs than you'll find in the Sierra Nevada. See how his luck changes as his plans start to unravel. Follow him as he works himself out of yet another tight corner and stays one step ahead of the law. Who knows what will happen next? "Death Valley Scotty" is reminiscent of "True Grit." It has the uplift of "It’s a Wonderful Life." Set in a time when freedom seemed easier to find, this is a read that will surely make you smile. |
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Sheer Purgatory
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Fantasy / Comedy
An hilarious romp through the Afterlife in a Douglas Adams meets Terry Pratchett kind of way. If Monty Python had shot another movie, this would probably have been the one they shot dead. Dan arrives in Purgatory with Victor 3157, his well-meaning but incompetent guardian angel, where he finds he has to wash away his sins, outsmart angelic security and figure out how to get his life back. “Divine Comedy!” – The Wednesday Times. It’s 8 a.m. in London, England, and Dan Trench is having a very bad morning. He has a terrible hangover from the night before, his girlfriend has left a message that she wants to talk to him right now, and he has left something he should not have lost in one of the bars he visited last night. But things are about to get very much worse, as unknown to him, his hapless guardian angel, Victor 3157, is also on his case. Dan is about to discover a whole new world where souls are washing away their sins in a place where they do things differently ... Historical novelist, Robert Carter, takes us on a detour into humor with his latest book, Sheer Purgatory. The author offers a glimpse into an afterlife that awaits 95% of us, whether we believe in it or not. Carter says: “I happened to read in the Daily Telegraph that Pope Benedict XVI had abolished Limbo, and I thought, well, if he doesn’t want it, I’ll have it.” The annexation of Purgatory soon followed. Sheer Purgatory leads its readers through territory beloved of fantasy fans and Python geeks everywhere. Carter’s background in physics has helped him create a consistent world running on rules that turn human behavior on its head, a world made not of matter and energy, but of ectoplasm and ether. From the moment of his demise, the hero must learn to get along and accomplish his goal of setting right a great injustice, and in the process discovers a whole new understanding of how things work on Planet Earth. “With a bit of luck,” says Carter, “Dante will be turning in his grave.” Sure to become a contemporary fantasy classic, Sheer Purgatory is fun-poking comedy at its best. |
The Language of Stones, Part 1 of the Trilogy
Mythic history / Fantasy
The Language of Stones The first volume of an epic fantasy where the Wars of the Roses are raging, but this is not England as we know it. Young Will and Master Gwydion, a wizard, struggle to save the Realm from the stones of power. A kind of magic flows through the veins of the earth in the Realm and this is used by wizards and misused by sorcerers to change history. The Realm is poised for war. Its weak king - Hal, grandson of a usurper - is dominated by his beautiful wife and her lover. Against them stands Due Richard of Ebor and his allies. The two sides are set on a bloody collision course. Gwydion is watching over the realm. He has walked the land since before the time of the druids, since before the Slavers came to subdue the people. Gwydion was here when Arthur rode to war: then they called him 'Merlyn'. But for his young apprentice, Willand, a fearsome lesson in the ways of men and power lies ahead. The Realm is an England that is still magical. Legendary beasts still populate its by-ways. It is a land criss-crossed by lines of power upon which standing stones have been set as a secret protection against invasion. But the power of the array was broken by the Slaver who laid straight roads across the land, and built walled cities of shattered stone. A thousand years have passed since then, and those roads and walls have fallen into decay. The dangerous stones are awakening, and their unruly influence is calling men to battle. Unless Gwydion and Will can unearth them, the Realm will be plunged into a disastrous civil war. But there are many enemies ranged against them: men, monsters and a sorcerer as powerful as Gwydion himself. |
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The Giant's Dance, Part 2 of the Trilogy
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Mythic history / Fantasy
The Giants’ Dance The epic fantasy “The Language of Stones” trilogy continues. In the peaceful village of Nether Norton life goes on as it has for countless centuries in the Vale. The villagers celebrate the harvest and Will looks back fondly on the last two years, but a feeling of unease is stirring inside him, and seeing an unnatural storm on the horizon he feels that his past is coming back to haunt him. Four years ago Will cracked the mighty Doomstone in half and so brought the bloody battle of Verlamion to an end. It seemed then that the lust for war in men’s hearts had been calmed forever. But now the light in the sky heralds a new threat, and Will calls on Gwydion, a wizard of deep knowledge and power, once known as Merlyn, for advice. Gwydion suspects the hand of his old enemy, the sorcerer Maskull. The battlestones that are scattered thoughout the Realm are once again working to hasten a devasting war between King Hal and Duke Richard of Ebor – and Maskull intends to manipulate them both to his own sinister ends. Only, Will, whom Gwydion believes to be an incarnation of King Arthur, has the skill to break the power of the battlestones. When Will last left Nether Norton he was an unworldly youth of thirteen. Now he is a husband and father, he has a lot more to lose. But he has a whole Realm to save. |
Whitemantle, Part 3 of the Trilogy
Mythic history / Fantasy
Whitemantle In the final volume of the epic fantasy, the Language of Stones trilogy, civil war tears the Realm apart and the sorcerer Maskull’s plans to bring about a catastrophe that will rob the world of magic are coming to fruition. The wizard Gwydion knows that the only hope for the future lies with Willand, the young man he believes to be the reincarnation of King Arthur. But Will is beset with doubts. He is being stalked by the Dark Child, the twin from whom he was separated at birth and who now serves Maskull. And as the magic gradually begins to fade from the world, the powers of Gwydion, his mentor and friend seem to be fading too, leading Will to despair that the destruction of the war will ever be halted, or Maskull ever defeated. Will’s task seems impossible, but he is not ready to give up yet. With the help of his strong-minded wife, Willow, and friends as wise and generous as the loremasters Morann and Gort, Will journeys the Realm seeking his destiny. And soon it becomes clear that only by solving the riddle of his own destiny can he save the world he loves so deeply. |
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The Deadly Playground 1914
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Historical Fiction
The year is 1912. Two Oxford men are members of the same college, but they could not be more different. The first, Stanley Walker, son of a shopkeeper, is studying engineering. The second, Jimmy Barrington, son of Britain's wealthiest banker, owns a fast car. They become friends. Jimmy's birthday picnic at Port Meadow turns into a grand gathering, attended by the cream of London society, who sip champagne served by the family's butler and enjoy the late summer sunshine. Stanley is introduced to Theda, Jimmy's headstrong sister, and the other members of the Barrington clan. None of them knows — though some suspect — that their world is about to change forever. When war breaks out, Jimmy decides to join the Royal Flying Corps, and he persuades Stanley Walker to come with him. Soon they are embroiled in a new kind of war which starts with the German invasion of Belgium. Not all goes according to plan, however, and while Stanley sticks to his guns, Jimmy's fate takes a turn that leads him to an even stranger battlefield. The Deadly Playground is the first volume of a series that recounts the story of the prestigious Barrington family during the Great War. A tale of espionage, romance and a portrait of power and influence moving behind the scenes as the curtain rises on the first act of a Century of tumultuous conflict. Hallmarked by attention to historical detail, this novel comes with a guarantee — that the reader will find a story that will make him or her regard the Great War in a completely new light. It is unlike any other story that has been told. The Deadly Playground Sample |
