The Birth of Jack Absolute - Concerning the circumstances of his birth, including his mother's resistance to lechery, his father's solo cavalry charge on the battlefield of Dettingen, and sundry other matters -

In 1777 Jack Absolute, the charming lover in Sheridan's comedy The Rivals, is famous throughout London. However, this notoriety comes as something of a shock to the real Jack Absolute when he arrives in England after four months at sea. But there's barely time for outrage before he finds himself dueling for his life. Even worse, as soon as he's won the duel he's forced to flee London by the quickest means possible, becoming a spy in America's war of Independence. Thus we meet Jack Absolute - rogue, duelist, charmer and Captain in the Light Dragoons. From the field of honor in London through the pivotal battle of Saratoga to a hunt for a double agent in wintry Philadelphia, this novel marks the impressive debut of this new series.

London 1759 and Jack's life is easy. A scholar at Westminster School, a master with cricket bat or billiard cue, the leader of a gang of bucks about the Town, he has both a girl he worships ...and a courtesan teaching him the more basic arts of love. Yet he plans to give up all carousing, sit the examinations for Cambridge, find a career in any field he chooses. If he can just stay out of trouble for one night... From the billiard halls and brothels of London to a clash of Empires on the Plains of Abraham, Jack life is forever altered by the tragedies of that night. Through duels, battles, frantic escapes and a brutal winter spent in a cave in Canada, Jack learns the truth of his father's words... as well as a dozen things to do with a dead bear. A year on, the schoolboy will vanish, a man appear. But first he must learn to kill. To come of age, Jack Absolute must be blooded.

The powerful sequel to THE BLOODING OF JACK ABSOLUTE ... On his return voyage to England, Jack helps in the defeat of a privateer, gains a friend in a charismatic Irishman, Red-Hugh MaCluahan, along with a large share of the prize money and a nasty dose of cholera. Saved by Red-Hugh, Jack convalesces in Bath where he falls in love with the man's beautiful cousin, Laetitia. But this romance soon turns to tragedy. For there is more than love disguised in Bath. The Irishman is using the affair to lure Jack from his rooms that overlook the Circus and use them for political intrigue: on the day set for the elopement, the King is coming to Bath and Red-Hugh plans to assassinate him - for the exiled King James III and all Jacobites. Jack foils the plot but, because he owes him his life, allows the Irishman to escape the noose. Red-Hugh flees to Rome, taking Laetitia with him. Jack pursues to infiltrate the enemy. But recognised and betrayed by Red-Hugh, he spends the winter in jail. He escapes to discover that Laetitia has married an aged Roman count to gain money and power for the cause and that Red-Hugh has gone to Portugal, to join an Irish regiment raised to fight the Spanish. Jack's own regiment, the 16th Dragoons is also there and Jack rejoins them to fight the war, charge with the cavalry at Valencia de Alcantara and defeat the schemes of the Irish traitor.