Discover a story that defies belief: National Velvet meets Downton Abbey with a splash of The Leopard. * LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR * Czechoslovakia, October 1937. Vast crowds have gathered to watch the Grand Pardubice steeplechase, Europe's most blood-curdling sporting test of manhood. With war looming, the race has a brutal political significance. The Nazis have sent the SS's all-conquering paramilitary horsemen to crush – yet again – the ‘subhuman Slavs’. But Lata Brandisova, a silver-haired countess on a little golden mare, has other ideas... 'Heart-stopping reading' Clover Stroud, Daily Telegraph