NEW IN PAPERBACK and EBOOK! I'm delighted to let you know that the latest editions of Siren, La Créole and Rebel are now available on Amazon, published by Endeavour Press. This will be welcome news to T. Hilton, who loved Rebel and had this to say about the price she paid for an earlier edition: 'What can I say except that I give this book five stars. Definitely worth reading. I paid $36.00 to purchase from New Zealand. And would love to have found it elsewhere cheaper but could not. So I spent the money. Have read it twice and it is definitely a keeper. I also have The Chase which I love and have read many times...'

Witnessing from afar the devastating hurricanes that have lashed the seaboard of the southern states of America this year reminded me of my visit to the world of Siren in 2005, just two weeks before Katrina slammed across the Gulf of Mexico. Jean Lafitte, the real-life hero of Siren, weathered many storms in his career (he once had to rescue his lover and children from his fortress in Galveston when it was destroyed by a hurricane)--but the greatest threat in Christmas/New Year's of 1814-15 was the English, who aimed their massive gun batteries straight at the thin line of defence below New Orleans.