A Most Dangerous Innocence
by Fiorella de Maria
It is 1940, the time of the Phoney War. Britain stands alone with German invaders waiting across the Channel and an anxious population preparing for the bloody battle ahead. In an isolated girls' boarding school, sixteen-year-old Judy Randall watches the coming of war with a mixture of fascination and fear. She is a misfit in an institution that prizes conformity; a Catholic with Jewish heritage at a time when anti-Semitism is still commonplace. Most inconveniently of all, she is autistic, and her behavior is misunderstood as merely eccentric and insolent.
Bored and frustrated by her inability to help the war effort, Judy becomes obsessed with the idea that her hated headmistress is a Nazi, and she goes to increasingly reckless lengths to prove her theory. In the meantime, the adults of the school busy themselves with planning how best to protect the children in their care if occupying forces overrun the country. For teacher John Peterson, who has seen armed conflict before, his own agonizing history forces him to consider what sacrifices he might have to make if the horrors of the war overtake them all.
A Most Dangerous Innocence offers a glimpse into the early days of the Second World War, seen from a sleepy corner of Britain. It is also a meditation on childhood guilt, innocence, loyalty, and the courage to stand alone.
Paperback, size 8" x 5.25", 214 pages
Bound by the Seal
Based on the True Story of a Priest who Sacrifices all to Maintain the Seal of Confession
by Fr Joseph Spillmann, S.J.
It is the year 1888 in the idyllic southern French village of Sainte Victoire. Its pastor, Father Francis Montmoulin, is loved by his faithful parishioners and even grudgingly respected by the local anti-clericals.
Tragedy suddenly strikes, however, when a charitable old parishioner is brutally murdered under the priest’s own roof, and a large sum of money destined to build a hospital for the poor is stolen from her.
All the circumstantial evidence points to the innocent priest as the murderer and he becomes the prime suspect. However, Father Montmoulin knows through the confessional who the real culprit is. He is faced with a decision: either break the seal of confession or face shame, scandal and certain death at the guillotine.
This is an entirely revised and re-typeset version of “A Victim to the Seal of Confession”. The language has been updated to suit a modern readership.
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 296 pages
Fabiola
or the Church of the Catacombs
by Cardinal Nicholas Patrick Wiseman
This classic novel plunges us into Rome of the fourth century AD. and depicts the clash between the existing pagan civilization and growing Christianity.
Fabiola is a cultured young patrician woman who admires the ideals of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. One day she discovers that her friend Sebastian of Rome, an officer in the Praetorian Guard, is a Christian. So is one of her slaves, and worse still, her beloved cousin Agnes.
As Maximian reignites the persecution of Christians in Rome, all around Fabiola heroes and traitors clash. “Whoever is not with Me is against Me”, “whoever does not gather with Me scatters”, says Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what is at stake in this drama where the actors show us the best and the worst of what each one can become.
Paperback, size 8.5" x 5.5", 562 pages
Hilaire Belloc called “Lepanto” Chesterton’s greatest poem and the greatest poem of his generation. But not only have English classes neglected this masterpiece of rhyme and meter, History classes have neglected the story of the pivotal battle upon which the poem is based.
This book brings together the poem, the historical background of the famous battle, a riveting account of the battle itself, and a discussion of its historical consequences. The poem is fully annotated, and is supplemented with two interesting essays by Chesterton himself. Well-known Chesterton expert, Dale Ahlquist, has gathered together all the insightful commentaries and explanatory notes. Here is the story behind the modern conflict between Christianity and Islam, between Protestant and Catholic Europe, and the origin of the Feast of the Holy Rosary. A fascinating blend of literature, history, religion and romance!
Paperback, size 8" x 5.2", 124 pages
