None know better than Dr Peter Edwards and his wife Sarah, who worked through the London pandemic of 1866, how quickly cholera can strike. When Countess Beletsky, her daughters and servants, and John's workers succumb, Peter fights for their lives tirelessly until he too falls victim. The only doctor within a hundred miles is Nathan Kharber, a Jew distrusted by the Russians. Nathan knows if he fails to save his Christian patients, the Cossacks will hang him as they have other doctors of his faith for centuries. While the immigrants wait to discover if Nathan can save Peter, Glyn, Richard, the Countess, and her daughters, John Hughes and Sarah Edwards both find themselves fighting an ignorance born in thousands of years of superstition on the Russian Steppes.

The first instalment of Catrin Collier's The Tsar's Dragons tells the epic historical saga based on the true story of how John Hughes, a lowborn, illiterate Welshman, founded Russia's iron industry on the steppes of the Ukraine. In 1869 John Hughes travelled to Russia at the invitation of Tsar Alexander II to build an ironworks and instigate the industrialization of Russia.Not everyone welcomes John and the Tsar's plans. Necessity forces Count Nicholas Beletsky to sell John land, although he abhors 'dirty' industry and is furious when son Alexei reveals his ambition to become an engineer. The Jews, who live apart in their shtetl, refuse to believe that John's plans will halt the persecution of their race. The Cossacks in the village of Alexandrovka, soon to be swallowed by John's new town, queue to sell John their land and coal mines that have been worked in the same primitive fashion or centuries.Undeterred, John signs up workers in Wales, but not all...

In contrast to those who joined wagon trains to seek their fortune in the American West, John Hughes and his workers trek east. Shipping the machinery needed for his ironworks across the steppe by bullock train, Hughes heads for the land he's bought from Count Beletsky, who has no time for either foreigners or industry. Beletsky is at odds with his wilful, forward-thinking son, Alexei, who is protected by his quick-witted grandmother, the Dowager Catherine Ignatova. Nearby is the Cossack village of Alexandrovka, where men hew coal out of shallow pits, and a Jewish shtetl, home to Nathan Kharber, a doctor forced to return to his village by the death of his parents. To Nathan's horror, he discovers his sister Ruth has fallen in love with Alexei. He knows, as they do, that if their love is discovered both risk being ostracized, if not killed, by their communities. The trek from the port of Taganrog to the immigrants' new home is long, onerous, and beset by problems...

The Cossacks have always been cavalier with safety in their mines, believing it manly to take risks. But when a score of Cossack miners are trapped underground, it falls to the Welsh miners to save them – at a cost. The Tsar rewards the bravery of the rescuers with gold medals, but when John, Glyn, Richard, Alexei, and the women travel to St Petersburg, both Sarah and Glyn's Cossack mistress Praskovia remain in Hughesovka to help nurse the victims of an epidemic of typhoid that began in the pit houses. But Sarah has another reason for remaining. While the men are away, Sarah leaves Hughesovka forever, carrying a secret that has driven her from the first real home she has ever known and the only friends she has. Meanwhile, unbeknown to the immigrants, Richard's first love, Alice, and Glyn's estranged wife, Betty, are travelling the long miles to Hughesovka, along with Richard and Anna's younger brothers. But what will chapel-going Betty, who has a...

When Alexei Beletsky brings John Hughes news of an impending pogrom planned by Misha, a captain in the Cossack regiment, he conceals more than he tells him. Engaged to a Jewess, Ruth, Alexei is aware that Captain Misha Razin has been motivated by more than the age-old hatred of the Cossacks for the Jews. Misha is in love with Alexei's cousin Sonya, but Sonya has already given her heart to a Jew, who dare not declare his love for a Christian because he cannot bear the prospect of being shunned by his people and his religion. John, Glyn, Richard, and Alexei enlist the assistance of the local orthodox priest, Father Grigor, and the commandant of the Cossacks. They devise a plan – one which they hope will avoid a massacre. But can they dissuade Misha and save an entire community, or will blood run in the streets of the shtetl as it has done so many times before?

The second volume in Catrin Collier's epic The Tsar's Dragons series, set in the late nineteenth-century Russian Empire. Welsh industrialist John Hughes has built an ironworks on the Russian Steppe - and a city bearing his name has grown up around it. For people like Hughes' right-hand man, Glyn Edwards, who has found love in a new country, and Anna Parry, a Welsh orphan who has found fulfilment working in Hughesovka's hospital, the city is a chance to build a new life – but fresh arrivals from their hometown have come to cause trouble and threaten the peace and stability of that new existence. Meanwhile, for ambitious Russians like Alexei Beletsky, the city offers a chance to change their homeland for the better – but Alexei still has to deal with the prejudices of the locals as he marries a Jewish girl, Ruth, and the new couple make enemies both Russian and Jewish.

Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";} December 1915. Following heavy casualties, General Townsend withdraws his exhausted troops to the town of Kut Al Amara, Iraq. His orders – to engage as many Turkish troops as possible in a siege situation. A relief force is hastily assembled, among them Charles Reid, Tom Mason, and Michael Downe, for each of whom the advance is personal. Charles returns to the country where he lost the love of his life. Tom's brother John, an army surgeon, awaits execution. Michael's brother Harry, an army intelligence officer, is missing, having never...

The shadow of the workhouse looms large over everyone in Pontypridd in the 1930's. A terrifying reminder of the fate of the sick and unemployed unable "pay their way" but Christmas is Christmas and while the workhouse staff, Drs Andrew John, Trevor Lewis and Nurses Bethan Powell, Laura Ronconi among them, try to bring cheer to the poor and dispossessed, a newly orphaned child waits for a Christmas miracle.

In 1939, Haydn Powell returns to his native Pontypridd as a star for the summer season. It is his dream come true, but is soon soured when he finds his family divided. Haydn seeks consolation with the theatre crowd, but is also drawn to Jane, a young waif lodging with his family. But Jane is haunted by poverty and burdened by bitter secrets. Then there is Haydn's childhood sweetheart, Jenny, who is determined to win him back. She tries to make him jealous by flirting with his brother, the hot-headed boxer Eddie. But it is Jenny's reckless pursuit of her own ends that creates a dangerous tension in a town already braced for war ...

In the Swansea of the fifties, there is only one thing for a boy to do when he gets a girl 'into trouble' and that is to marry her - and quickly. Blighted by an unhappy childhood, passionately in love for the first time in his life, Jack can't wait to do 'the right thing'. A happy family of his own is all he ever wanted but not even in his wildest dreams did he envisage a wife like Helen. Beautiful, intelligent and loving, Helen is headstrong enough to defy her family and convention for Jack and, when her father gives them his blessing, their future beckons assured and glittering - until tragedy strikes and tears them apart.

Orphaned at eight and raised by a brutal sadistic brother, nineteen-year-old parlour maid Rhian dreams of meeting a man who will love her and give her what she wants more than anything else in the world, a family of her own. When she is invited to join the Evans family on New Year's Eve 1913, her life is thrown into turmoil. The youngest Evans' brother, twenty-two year old Joey, confesses he loves her. Handsome, charming Joey has never met a woman who could refuse him anything. But Rhian is suspicious of his reputation as a ladies' man and it takes time, tenderness and persistence to win her trust. Just when she finally admits that she loves him as much as he loves her, Joey's past overshadows and finally shatters their happiness. Unable to separate truth from lies, wanting to hurt Joey as deeply as he has her, Rhian turns to her employer, Edward Larch, for solace. Unhappily married, Edward offers her the only position he can, that of his mistress. Her choice is simple and...

Judy Hamilton was born in the Cardiff docklands. Homeless after the death of her grandmother, she finds friendship, work and lodgings with Edyth Slater, above her bakery in Cardiff's colourful Tiger Bay. While attempting to make her way in a vibrant and complex society, Judy dreams of one day becoming a successful singer and actress. Restless and anxious to make his fortune, David Ellis leaves his brothers and sisters behind him on their isolated Breconshire farm. He is ready to embark on a new, more exciting life and is willing to do whatever it takes to find success. The enterprising natives of Tiger Bay manage to make a living from those rich enough to remain unscathed by the depression of the 1930s. Flouting the law, they open illegal casinos and nightclubs to cater for those who can still afford a good time. None are more ruthless than Aled James. With Aled's help, Judy finally breaks into the glittering paste and cardboard world of the city's nightclubs and theatres, but...