Arms of War

The Arms of War saga follows the Martingell and Elligan families through the international weapons trade from southern Africa in 1893 to the Italian invasion of Albania in 1939. James Martingell begins as an explorer and gun-runner whose willingness to supply any buyer creates wealth, political enemies and obligations inherited by his daughter and successors.

Each volume moves the business into a new imperial crisis: the Transvaal, postwar Asia, Senussi resistance in Libya and fascist expansion in the Balkans. The series treats armaments as a commercial network linking distant wars, while family loyalty and romance repeatedly complicate the claim that a dealer can remain neutral about how the weapons are used.