Most Popular Books by Richard Howard

The first collection of poems to span the published work of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet includes fine examples of lyric poetry and fascinating monologues and fictive conversations between famous figures.

Napoleon’s mighty army face the inferno of the Egyptian desert in this thrilling historical adventure Seventeen thousand French troops leave Toulon harbour in May 1798 unaware of their ultimate destination. Barely three months after taking Rome, Napoleon Bonaparte has rewarded his finest regiments with a place among the Army of the Orient, bound for Egypt. Alain Lausard, along with his cavalry unit are on board the frigate L’Esperance. Their first battle is merely to survive the degradation that is life at sea. By the time they stagger, starved and exhausted, upon the shores of Egypt, Lausard’s dragoons have more than glory to fight for. As his beleaguered soldiers march into the desert, Bonaparte watches his tactical gamble collapse. Even when the Mameluke army is defeated beneath the pyramids, Nelson’s destruction of the French fleet and Bonaparte’s obsessive war-mongering convince Lausard that he will never see Paris again... The second blood-soaked instalment of the Alain Lausard Adventures is perfect for fans of Simon Scarrow, Julian Stockwin and Adrian Goldsworthy. ‘Lovers of historical fiction won’t be able to wait to get their teeth into this one’ Newcastle Upon Tyne Evening Chronicle ‘A realistic look at the brutality of Napoleonic warfare. An enjoyable read’ Historical Novel Review ‘Howard writes with authority about life in the French army under Napoleon’ Cork Examiner

Bonaparte’s troops are pushed to their limit in this thrilling historical adventure. 1806: Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grande Armeé is poised for war. But this is no ordinary mission. Having crushed the forces of Austria and Russia the year before, Bonaparte now seeks to avenge the French Army’s annihilation by Frederick the Great’s Prussian forces in 1757. When Prussia refuses to comply with Bonaparte’s demands that they surrender and form an alliance against England, war becomes inevitable. Sergeant Alain Lausard and his war-weary squadron of dragoons have been through many epic battles under Napoleon’s command and would do anything for their great leader. But as they prepare to enter into yet another bloody campaign that will feature battles at Jena and Auerstadt, their loyalties are stretched to the limit... The fifth instalment of The Alain Lausard Adventures is perfect for fans of C.S. Forester, Paul Fraser Collard and Bernard Cornwell. Praise for Richard Howard ‘Lovers of historical fiction won’t be able to wait to get their teeth into this one’ Newcastle Upon Tyne Evening Chronicle ‘A realistic look at the brutality of Napoleonic warfare. An enjoyable read’ Historical Novel Review ‘Howard writes with authority about life in the French army under Napoleon’ Cork Examiner

Lausaurd must prevent a plot against Napoleon himself. It is September 1803, and the uneasy peace between Bonaparte’s France and his great rivals looks ever more precarious. The English are suspicious that Napoleon’s motive for signing the treaty of Amiens was to buy time to mobilise his forces – and they were right. 200,000 soldiers are arriving on the French coast, readying for invasion. Amongst them is Alain Lausard and his fellow dragoons, veterans of Bonaparte’s greatest battles. But whilst Lausard lives for war, even he feels hesitant about the imminent attack. The French Army may be the greatest in Europe, but England dominates the high seas. And whilst Napoleon is confident of victory, he cannot but be distracted by intelligence reports of those plotting against him from within. Suddenly, the campaign is not what it seems... The fourth book in The Alain Lausard Adventures is perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden.

Most error-correcting coding systems now use special-purpose hardware machines. The alternate method, using a general-purpose computer to perform encoding and decoding, has several advantages over the use of special hardware. Hardware equipment designed specifically for a coding system can be expensive, especially if the decoding is difficult, and if only a few systems are to be built. Minicomputers, however, are easily available and can be used throughout communications systems. To compare various coding systems in software, programs to perform encoding and decoding were written in assembly language for a PDP-11/40 minicomputer. The results obtained for decoding ease clearly depend on the programming techniques used, which in turn depend on the computer available. The codes implemented are compared in terms of error-correcting ability, and effort involved in decoding. (Modified author abstract).