Frederick Forsyth’s collection of five stories, The Veteran is definitely worth reading. In The Veteran, An old man with a limp is mugged in Tottenham, foolishly puts up a fight, is knocked to the floor and kicked about the body and head with steel-capped boots, all witnessed by an Asian shopkeeper. In The Art of the Matter, a talented young state-educated art expert working for one of London’s leading auctioneers points out to his boss that a grimy old painting handed in by an actor down on his luck is, in fact, a rare Renaissance masterpiece. In The Miracle, an American tourist and his wife are visiting Siena in Italy. She trips and sprains her ankle and they take shelter in a nearby courtyard. Here they meet a tall leathery stranger who spins them an incredible story about how every year he comes back to this courtyard to celebrate the ‘miracle’ of the title. The Citizen is another fantastically detailed account of the processes and procedures of highly qualified professionals. In this case, pilots flying a British Airways plane from Bangkok to London, and the Customs official who is alerted by a phone call that drugs are being smuggled on the flight. And is Whispering Wind, Ben Craig is hired by the troop of General George Custer on his ill-fated march into the Yellowstone area to track down and expel Sioux and Cheyenne Indians. On the way, he’s with a small platoon which raids an isolated camp of Indians, butchering the woman, old people and children… You can listen online to free English audiobook “The Veteran” by Frederick Forsyth on our website.
