A Signal Victory

First published in 1960, A Signal Victory was David Stacton''s eighth novel, and the first in what he envisaged as an ''American Triptych.'' In this opening panel Stacton paints a vivid picture of the impact of two great civilisations upon each other.

Guerrero was a Spanish soldier, shipwrecked on the shores of Yucatan. Years later the Spaniards came as conquerors - but by this time Guerrero was a prince, had married a king''s daughter, and would be a spearhead of resistance to the white-skinned invaders from the west. A Signal Victory is Guerrero''s story - that of a man who found where his true loyalties lay, and pursued them to their inevitable end.

''A strange, outlandish, fearsomely intelligent novel: it has absorbed into its texture some of the hieratic society which it depicts with such brilliance.'' Telegraph