J J Parker

Alexander "the Great" -- son of the Macedonian king who created and trained the mighty army that Alexander inherited -- did what few, if any, mortals ever have: he subdued much of the then-known world. His "progress" was stopped only by his force's mutiny east of India's Indus River. He died in his early 30s in Babylon, but had he lived on, he probably would have trekked west to try to bag Arabia, North Africa, and Western Europe. (He controlled Greece and nearly everything east of it.) But what caused Alexander's macho posturing, and his mass subjugation? Read on....

England will soon be invaded from two directions. What will its king do? Thus confronted is Harold Godwinson, the realms monarch in 1066. He had been chosen king by his dying predecessor although that monarch, Edward, had earlier promised the kingship to William, the ruthless (and bastard) duke of Normandy. But while William builds a fleet and gathers an army of invasion, Harald Hardrada, fierce ruler of Norway, raids North East England. Its Saxon king, Harold, ponders whether to march his army north to confront the Vikings or to defend the southern coast against the Normans. What will he decide? The fate of Saxon England dangles between two swords stretching from Europe and Scandinavia and bracketing its one army. King Harolds military campaign decision could lead to the subjugation of England by one or both invaders or its prevention. Read on . . .