The Scarlet Thief
Battle of the Alma, 1854

Great first instalment to a historical fiction series that begins exploring the Crimean War of the 19th century, the conflict of Britain, France and a number of other powers against Russian forces. Paul Fraser Collard strikes a great balance of supplying detail to being the scene to life, whilst not......more

Redcoats. The world sends a strange thrill through you, doesn't it? Especially if you're English, I suppose. Makes you want to start singing 'Rule Britannia'. And the redcoat era of the British army covers some pretty momentous times. The Jacobite rebellion in the 1740s? The war of American Independe......more

Definitely one for fans of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. Jack Lark has a lot in common with the hero of Cornwell's Napoleonic war stories. A likeable rogue who, by unusual means, finds himself as an officer in the Redcoat army, this time in Raglan's Crimean War campaign. Like Sharpe, he struggle......more

I think about the only time I willingly put ’The Scarlet Thief’ down - was to go order the next one. It’s THAT good. The 19th Century is not a period of history I know a right lot about. Make that nothing. However, now I’ve found Paul Fraser Collard and Jack Lark, I think all that’s about to change.......more

Review Paul Collard in the form of Jack Lark provide the reader with a new man, not a hero, but a man flawed and heroic, a product of his environment, but with a desire to pull himself away from the squalor that is the lot of the poor man in the 1850’s. His story has flashes of the writing that gave B......more