As the son of 'the Colonial', legendary Queen's Captain Ian Steele, Josiah Steele has big shoes to fill. Although his home in New South Wales is a world away, he dreams of one day travelling to England to study to be a commissioned officer in the Scottish Regiment. After cutting his teeth in business on the rough and ready goldfields of Far North Queensland's Palmer River, he finally realises his dream and travels to England, where he is accepted into the Sandhurst military academy. While in London he makes surprising new acquaintances - and runs into a few old ones he'd rather have left behind. From the Australian bush to the glittering palaces of London, from the arid lands of Afghanistan and the horrors of war to the newly established Germany dominated by Prussian ideas of militarism, Josiah Steele must now forge his own path.

'One of Australia's best historical fiction authors' Canberra Weekly Peter Watt brings to the fore all the passion, adventure and white-knuckle battle scenes that made his beloved Duffy and Macintosh novels so popular. It is 1857. Colonial India is a simmering volcano of nationalism about to erupt. Army surgeon Peter Campbell and his wife Alice, in India on their honeymoon, have no idea that they are about to be swept up in the chaos. Ian Steele, known to all as Captain Samuel Forbes, is fighting for Queen and country in Persia. A world away, the real Samuel Forbes is planning to return to London - with potentially disastrous consequences for Samuel and Ian both. Then Ian is posted to India, but not before a brief return to England and a reunion with the woman he loves. In India he renews his friendship with Peter Campbell, and discovers that Alice has taken on a most unlikely role. Together they face the enemy and the terrible deprivations and savagery of war - and then Ian receives news from London that crushes all his hopes... PRAISE FOR THE QUEEN'S TIGER 'Watt has a true knack for producing captivating historical adventures filled with action, intrigue and family drama' Canberra Weekly

Danger, passion and bravery in nineteenth-century Australia, Europe and onto the battlefi eld of Kandahar. As the son of 'the Colonial', legendary Queen's Captain Ian Steele, Josiah Steele has big shoes to fill. Although his home in the colony of New South Wales is a world away, he dreams of one day travelling to England so he can study to be a commissioned officer in the Scottish Regiment. After cutting his teeth in business on the rough and ready goldfields of Far North Queensland's Palmer River, he finally realises his dream and travels to England, where he is accepted into the Sandhurst military academy. While in London he makes surprising new acquaintances - and runs into a few old ones he'd rather have left behind. From the Australian bush to the glittering palaces of London, from the arid lands of Afghanistan to the newly established Germany dominated by Prussian ideas of militarism, Josiah Steele must now forge his own path. Praise for Peter Watt: 'Australia's master of the historical fiction novel' - Canberra Weekly

Sometimes the fate for which you are destined is not your own...1845, a village outside Sydney Town. Humble blacksmith Ian Steele struggles to support his widowed mother. All the while he dreams of a life in uniform, serving in Queen Victoria's army. 1845, Puketutu, New Zealand. Second Lieutenant Samuel Forbes, a young poet from an aristocratic English family, wants nothing more than to discard the officer's uniform he never sought. When the two men cross paths in the colony of New South Wales, they are struck by their brotherly resemblance and quickly hatch a plan for Ian to take Samuel's place in the British army. Ian must travel to England, fool the treacherous Forbes family and accept a commission into their regiment as a company commander in the bloody Crimean war...but he will soon learn that there are even deadlier enemies close to home.

Colonial Son describes the failure of the historical system of British colonial rule, which has adversely affected the lives of so many souls around the world. The book is an indictment of a defunct global political system and philosophy of life that has shamefully enriched and pampered one section of mankind on the backs of unfortunates, and in the process causing enslavement. Colonialism’s curse on man’s greed and its uncaring attitude for one’s fellow man is not isolated, nor does it reflect brief behavior, as it has existed worldwide for centuries. This dismal political and historic failure has not been given the attention it deserves. The inept and wicked colonial administration policy of the British Empire has been waged against its black colonial subjects over centuries, inflicting vile rule and neglect. While it lasted, that policy never arrived at that part of the “long haul” of wicked domination, where opportunity was freely given for the rightful human development of a major portion of the human species. A sin, for which to date, there has been no solemn apology offered, no fitting reparation made.

In October 1863, Ian Steele, having taken on the identity of Captain Samuel Forbes, is fighting the Pashtun on the north-west frontier in India. Half a world away, the real Samuel Forbes is a lieutenant in the 3rd New York Volunteers and is facing the Confederates at the Battle of Mission Ridge in Tennessee. Neither is aware their lives will change beyond recognition in the year to come. In London, Ella, the love of Ian's life, is unhappily married to Count Nikolai Kasatkin. As their relationship sours further, she tries to reclaim the son she and Ian share, but Nikolai makes a move that sees the boy sent far from Ella's reach. As 1864 dawns, Ian is posted to the battlefields of the Waikato in New Zealand, where he comes face to face with an old nemesis. As the ten-year agreement between Steele and Forbes nears its end, their foe is desperate to catch them out and cruel all their hopes for the future...

From the author of "American Mafioso" comes the story of the Brown brothers, leading slave merchants of Providence, Rhode Island, during the time of the American Revolution.

"A stunning piece of scholarship, rich in both theory and evidence, that takes the reader to a new plateau of understanding" (Charles Joyner, University of South Carolina) of the African-American folklife.