HMS Marlborough Will Enter Harbour Read online

  Left to himself, he crossed back to the old man, and peered down at the pale face. Not a flicker there … But he must try, anyway: this was one of the people he was meant to look after. He took a good grip of the thin shoulders and heaved. The body gave a little, and then stuck. A fresh shower of plaster covered them both with a grey, choking cloud of dust.

  Through the tunnel came Horrocks’s voice: ‘What are you doing, Bill?’

  ‘Getting the old chap out, if I can.’

  ‘Thought he was dead.’

  ‘Maybe not. Worth a try, anyway.’

  ‘Don’t be a bloody fool,’ Horrocks’s voice, unnaturally loud and strained, communicated its fear. ‘Leave him and come on out.’

  Part of what he said was drowned by a rumble overhead.

  Horrocks called sharply: ‘Bill!’

  Godden, tugging again at the old man’s body, grunted: ‘Yes?’

  ‘For heaven’s sake come out before it’s too late. The whole house will be down in a minute.’

  ‘All right. I’ll just have one more–’

  He broke off suddenly. The roof was coming down: he felt the whole crazy structure start to sag. Up till now he had not been afraid: now a stab of panic shot right through his heart. With his arms still round the old man – the old man he already seemed to love so fiercely and tenderly – he gave a wild glance round the room. What a rotten place to die, what a little hell-hole of dirt and pain … He heaved again at the body, feeling it inexorably stuck against something within the rubble, feeling the roof dropping like a wave slowly breaking over them both. One of the lamps went out, caught by a sagging beam: the space left was suddenly halved by a crashing fall of brickwork.

  Horrocks’s voice called ‘Bill!’ on an extraordinary note of anguish.

  Godden thought: ‘Poor old George. He’ll be sorry.’

  The old man was torn out of his arms by a sudden cruel weight dividing them, and disappeared from sight, as if sponged out by a dirty cloth. With nothing left to save, Godden jerked backwards, making for the tunnel, but he did not reach it: as he stumbled across, the roof overhead split with a crack like thunder, unloosing a cascade of brick and woodwork, which thickened until it was a solid avalanche of rubble.

  Its crushing weight bore down upon his back, beat him to his knees in total darkness, forced his body down and clamped it to the floor. Blood came into his mouth. The house fell upon him with repeated blows, but he was not alive to more than two or three of them.

  Synopses of Nicholas Monsarrat Titles

  Published by House of Stratus

  A Fair Day's Work

  Liverpool Docks, on Merseyside - a senseless strike threatens to delay the departure of an ocean liner. As the last of the passengers come aboard, including the shipping line's chairman, the drama increases with the threatened walk-out of the stewards. Below deck, agitation and unrest mount as the tide water rises and the vital hour for sailing approaches.

  H.M.S. Marlborough Will Enter Harbour

  In H.M.S. Marlborough Will Enter Harbour, an old sloop, homeward bound, is torpedoed, leaving her guns out of action, more than three-quarters of her crew dead, and radio contact impossible. But her valiant captain steadfastly refuses to surrender his ship… In Leave Cancelled, an army officer and his young wife concentrate their passionate love into twenty-four hours, knowing that it might be their last chance… And in Heavy Rescue, an old soldier, having lived on the scrap heap for more than twenty years, finds that gallantry is once again in demand when he becomes leader of a Heavy Rescue Squad…

  Life Is A Four Letter Word

  Breaking In is the first part of the autobiography of one of the most successful writers of the twentieth century, Nicholas Monsarrat. Monsarrat describes his privileged childhood in Liverpool, where his father was the greatest surgeon of his time, recalling all the small details of a provincial upbringing. The account of his days at public school are acidly described, and in remarkable contrast to his golden days at Cambridge, where he enjoyed good friends, good wine and little work. At twenty-three, Monsarrat turned his back on his comfortable family home, fled from the desk of his uncle's solicitor's office, and settled in a single, mildewed room in London, with a typewriter and a half-finished manuscript. Here, he describes the years of learning to write, learning to live and learning to love – invaluable lessons for a future which comprised war, emigration, marital upheaval and the hazards of artistic achievement. The second part, Breaking Out, takes us up to the year in which Monsarrat produced the novel widely acclaimed as his finest, The Tribe That Lost Its Head; the year when he was living in Ottawa as Chief of the British Information Services; the year he calls 'The Year of the Stupid Ox'. As Monsarrat charts the first half of his life with astonishing frankness, we are given a stunning portrait of this complex character, this brilliant storyteller.

  The Master Mariner

  He will not die. He will wander the wild waters until all the seas run dry.

  A young Devon sailor, Matthew Lawe, is cursed after a spectacular act of cowardice to wander the wild waters till all the seas run dry. In this, Nicholas Monsarrat's final masterpiece, Lawe represents the spirit of maritime exploration and fortitude; his life is the thread stringing together a long history of nautical adventure. Written in two volumes, the first of which appeared in 1978, the story encompasses the full extent of maritime development, beginning with Sir Francis Drake abandoning a game of bowls to fight the great crescent of the Spanish fleet, to the opening in 1960 of the St Lawrence Seaway, the farthest penetration of land ever made by ocean-going sailors. Nicholas Monsarrat died before he had completed the second volume, but his notes and outlines are included here with an introduction written by Ann Monsarrat, his wife, to provide a satisfying end to Matthew Lawe's epic wanderings.

  The Nylon Pirates

  Alcestis, a British luxury liner, moored in New York and bound on a cruise to the Caribbean, South America and Africa, awaits her exclusive passengers - businessmen with mid-life crises, large bank balances and unforgiving wives; legacy-laden women looking for love and adventure; and divorcees with settlements to squander. But another group of passengers threatens to upset their opulent trip. These are the twentieth-century pirates - suave, elegant, discreet and utterly unscrupulous, with a singular purpose in mind and a collection of ruthless strategies.

  The Pillow Fight

  Passion, conflict and infidelity are vividly depicted in this gripping tale of two people and their marriage. Set against the glittering background of glamorous high life in South Africa, New York and Barbados, an idealistic young writer tastes the corrupting fruits of success, while his beautiful, ambitious wife begins to doubt her former values. A complete reversal of their opposing beliefs forms the bedrock of unremitting conflict. Can their passion survive the coming storm…?

  Richer Than All His Tribe

  The sequel to The Tribe That Lost Its Head is a compelling story which charts the steady drift of a young African nation towards bankruptcy, chaos and barbarism. On the island of Pharamaul, a former British Protectorate, newly installed Prime Minister, Chief Dinamaula, celebrates Independence Day with his people, full of high hopes for the future. But the heady euphoria fades and Dinamaula's ambitions and ideals start to buckle as his new found wealth corrupts him, leaving his nation to spiral towards hellish upheaval and tribal warfare.

  Smith & Jones

  Within the precarious conditions of the Cold War, diplomats Smith and Jones are not to be trusted. But although their files demonstrate evidence of numerous indiscretions and drunkenness, they have friends in high places who ensure that this doesn't count against them, and they are sent across the Iron Curtain. However, when they defect, the threat of absolute treachery means that immediate and effective action has to be taken. At all costs and by whatever means, Smith and Jones must be silenced.

  Something To Hide

  An act of kindness has grave consequences in this heart-rending novel about a young girl, pregnant and aban
doned, and the man who helps her. When decent, compassionate Carter takes pity on this young girl, he is quickly drawn into an ordeal beyond his control. Succumbing first to her desperate cries for help, and then to her threats, he agrees to let her spend the night in his flat. Aided only by his own unskilled hands, she gives birth to a sickly baby. For Carter, the anguish has only just begun, as he witnesses a traumatic chain of events unfold.

  The Story Of Esther Costello

  In a small Irish village, young Esther Costello, victim of a tragic accident that has left her deaf, dumb and blind, is kept barely alive by hardhearted parents. Discovered by a well-meaning American tourist, who is appalled by Esther's shocking condition, she is whisked away to America for treatment. But all the advances of American medicine are unable to bring about a cure and with unceasing devotion, her patron decides to devote her life to Esther's care. But a nationwide campaign to raise public awareness eventually results in donations being diverted to the woman's personal account, and in a harrowing twist to the tale, Esther's faculties are restored, with shocking consequences.

  This Is The Schoolroom

  The turbulent Thirties, and all across Europe cry the discordant voices of hunger and death, most notably in Spain, where a civil war threatens to destroy the country. Aspiring writer, Marcus Hendrycks, has toyed with life for twenty-one years. His illusions, developed within a safe, cloistered existence in Cambridge, are shattered forever when he joins the fight against the fascists and is exposed to a harsh reality. As the war takes hold, he discovers that life itself is the real schoolroom.

  The Time Before This

  On the icy slopes of the great ice-mountain of Bylot Island, set against the metallic blue of the Canadian Arctic sky, Shepherd has a vision of the world as it used to be, before the human race was weakened by stupidity and greed. Peter Benton, the young journalist to whom Shepherd tells his story, is dramatically snapped out of his cozy cynicism and indolent denial of responsibility, to face a dreadful reality. He discovers that he can no longer take a back-seat in the rapid self-destruction of the world, and is forced to make a momentous decision.

  The Tribe That Lost Its Head

  Five hundred miles off the southwest coast of Africa lies the island of Pharamaul, a British Protectorate, governed from Whitehall through a handful of devoted British civilians. In the south of the island lies Port Victoria, dominated by the Governor's palatial mansion; in the north, a settlement of mud huts shelter a hundred thousand natives; and in dense jungle live the notorious Maula tribe, kept under surveillance by a solitary District Officer and his young wife. When Chief-designate, Dinamaula, returns from his studies in England with a spirited desire to speed the development of his people, political crisis erupts into a ferment of intrigue and violence.

  The White Rajah

  The breathtaking island of Makassang, in the Java Sea, is the setting for this tremendous historical novel. It is a place both splendid and savage, where piracy, plundering and barbarism are rife. The ageing Rajah, threatened by native rebellion, enlists the help of Richard Marriott - baronet's son-turned-buccaneer - promising him a fortune to save his throne. But when Richard falls in love with the Rajah's beautiful daughter, the island, and its people, he find himself drawn into a personal quest to restore peace and prosperity.

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