A Chalice Argent

'Delightful ... William Neilson continues to exhibit basically all of the virtues. He's brave, stoical, generous, truthful, constant, protective towards the weak and honourable to a fault. Yet entirely likeable. The nearest series to this I can think of is Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin cycle' Francis Spufford

'One of our finest writers' John Burnside, The Times

New Year's Eve, 1746 and William Neilson is on the move...

William Neilson is a Scottish soldier and a reluctant Jacobite agent. His mission is to transport an exquisite and precious jewel to the exiled James Stuart, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, now residing in Italy. Before he leaves though, he has a more personal ambition - to see, for one last time, the woman he has loved for more than half his life.

As he travels from the wastes and marshes of the Sologne, to the disorderly houses and prisons of Venice and the desolate court-in-exile of the King in Rome, William Nielson meets adventure from sword fights to kidnappings, and love stories to music, while facing sinister threats to his life from those determined to thwart him at every turn.

Full of colour, and with rich and detailed research, the tales of William Nielson are hugely entertaining and a must for readers of swashbuckling fiction.

'An epic voyage well worth taking' Telegraph

'There is nothing quite like a James Buchan novel' Financial Times

What readers say about A STREET SHAKEN BY LIGHT, the first William Nielson novel:

'A tight and bright romp of a read' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'His rollicking romp ranges widely across the world, taking in the French Revolution, the Jacobite rebellion, love affairs, duels, general skullduggery and much else besides, in prose as elegant as it is witty' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'PRAISE FOR JAMES BUCHAN:

'I don't believe that this country has a better writer to offer than James Buchan' Michael Hofmann, London Review of Books.

'One of our finest writers' John Burnside, The Times.

'Each book he writes is a discovery' Steven Poole, Guardian.

'There is really no word for it but 'masterpiece'' Philip Hensher, Spectator, on A Good Place to Die.

'A daringly ambitious, phenomenally accomplished novel'' - John Dugdale, Sunday Times, on The Gate of Air, A Ghost Story

'Praise for A Street Shaken by Light, volume 1 of the series:

'An epic voyage well worth taking ... Exhilarating' Marianka Swain, Telegraph

'A hugely readable adventure-romance encompassing imperial France, the East India Company, Persia, the Jacobite rebellion, shipwreck, duels, derring-do and more. Buchan [...] really knows how to construct a ripping tale' Adam Roberts, Guardian

'There is nothing quite like a James Buchan novel: even another James Buchan novel ... By throwing everything he has into this transporting romp, Buchan does what a good fiction writer should: he makes us believe' John Self, Financial Times

'Writers who create a six-book historical series revolving around a fictionalised historical character can seldom be accused of lacking ambition. Judging by this thrilling first instalment in the William Neilson chronicles, Buchan is equal to such a commitment ... Buchan has not only created a thoroughly engaging protagonist, but has complete control over the milieu that he depicts' Alexandar Larman, Observer

'In the end, novels succeed not only by what they do, but, more importantly, by how they do it ... it is the how that makes the book exceptional. A lesser novelist would have stretched out Will's adventures over six or seven hundred pages. Buchan knows when to cut and dance away'' - Allan Massie, Scotsman

James Buchan is a novelist and a historian whose books have won many prizes and been translated into a dozen foreign languages. He has written widely on the modern history of Scotland, most recently in John Law: A Scottish Adventurer of the Eighteenth Century. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives on a farm in Norfolk.

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