1. Tom Swan and the Head of St George Part One
In 1450s France, young Englishman Tom Swan kneels before captors who intend to execute him. He is neither a professional soldier nor a conventional gentleman, but a merchant, opportunist and aspiring scholar whose interest in the remains of Greece and Rome has placed him in the…
2. Tom Swan and the Head of St George Part Two
Travelling to Italy in a cardinal’s household, Tom Swan reaches Venice and discovers a society shaped by banking, luxury, art and sudden violence. His languages and appetite for classical objects make him useful, while his uncertain status allows powerful employers to send him into places from…
3. Tom Swan and the Head of St George Part Three
Tom Swan is captured in Constantinople and faces enslavement in a city transformed by Ottoman conquest. His immediate fate appears to rest with a woman whose position and motives are as difficult to read as the competing interests surrounding the court of Mehmed II. Escape requires…
4. Tom Swan and the Head of St George Part Four
After a desperate sea fight, Tom Swan wakes badly wounded in one of the remaining Christian strongholds in Greece. Competing patrons soon identify his value and offer employment connected to a fabulous jewel said to have belonged to Alexander the Great. The commission carries Swan back…
5. Tom Swan and the Head of St George Part Five
Ordered by his cardinal to identify a traitor, Tom Swan also accepts a merchant’s offer to steal an object associated with Alexander the Great. The two assignments converge at Rhodes, where he enters the service of the Knights of St John as a donat while Ottoman…
6. Tom Swan and the Head of St George Part Six
Tom Swan reaches Chios as Ottoman forces threaten one of the richest possessions in the Genoese trading world. He dislikes the Genoese authorities he is expected to assist, but the unresolved search for a spy and the stolen object leaves him no safe way to remain…