Category: Reading Challenges

#BookReview #Ad In the Shadows of Castles by G. K. Holloway

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In the Shadows of Castles CoverAbout the Book

It’s the 1060s, and William of Normandy is establishing a new and brutal regime in England, but there are those who would defy him. As Norman soldiers spread like a plague across the land, resistance builds, but will it be enough to topple William and restore the rightful king to his throne? The English have the courage to fight, but the Normans, already victorious at Hastings, now build castles seeking to secure their tenuous foothold in these lands.

And what of the people caught up in these catastrophic events? Dispossessed but not defeated, their lives ripped apart, the English struggle for freedom from tyranny; amongst them, caught up in the turmoil, are a soldier, a thane and two sisters. As events unfold, their destinies become intertwined, bringing drastic changes that alter their lives forever.

Format: ebook (434 pages)                          Publisher: Silverwood Books
Publication date: 30th September 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

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Hive | Amazon UK
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My Review

In the Shadows of Castles is the follow-up to 1066: What Fates Impose which I read back in 2018.  We probably all know that King Harold was defeated by Duke William of Normandy (aka William the Conqueror) at the Battle of Hastings, but what happened after that? You might assume that having won that battle and claimed the crown of England (his coronation having taken place in Westminster Abbey where King Charles III will be crowned on 6th May 2023)  William was in full control of the country. Think again, because England was far from subdued, as the book demonstrates.  Many English nobles were unwilling to accept William as their king and were engaged in trying to form alliances that would enable them to defeat the conquerors or, at the very least, confine them to small areas of the realm. They were also outraged by the Normans’ savagery towards the population: the seizure by force of land, the destruction of property, summary executions, rape and murder.

Alongside detailed accounts of events in the turbulent years following the Battle of Hastings and the actions of key historical figures, the author cleverly introduces a group of fictional characters to personalise what might otherwise have become a litany of military skirmishes and political intrigue. (To help keep track of everyone, the book has a dramatis personae – helpfully divided into English and Norman characters – and a useful map.)  Much my favourite part of the book was following the fortunes of four fictional characters: Bondi, a housecarl to King Harold; Whitgar, a thane (minor noble); and sisters, Morwenna and Elfwyn.  I liked seeing how their individual stories converged and how, together, they overcome adversity in its many different guises. I must admit to a particular fondness for Bondi (who features in the book’s opening chapter) and for the feisty Morwenna. In fact, there are a surprising number of women in positions of power, such as William’s wife, Matilda who acted as regent of the duchy of Normandy for a time – between bearing him ten children.

The author’s enthusiasm for this period of history is evident and if you like your historical fiction packed with detail you won’t be disappointed. But there are also some exciting scenes, including a perilous journey through the snow and a dramatic escape by ship. And the closing chapter of the book suggests we may not yet have reached the end of the story.

William I left a physical legacy in the form of the many castles he built up and down the country, such as in Durham and York. And of course, we also have the Bayeux Tapestry which depicts the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings.  A late 19th century replica of the tapestry is on display in Reading Museum (my home town).

My thanks to the author for my digital review copy. You can read an extract from In the Shadows of Castles as well as a Q&A with Glynn here.

In three words: Detailed, well-researched, dramatic

Try something similar: William the Conqueror by John Wingate (or for a more romatic take, The Conqueror by Georgette Heyer)

Glynn HollowayAbout the Author

G. K. Holloway did several jobs after leaving school before taking A Levels at his local college and later a degree in History and Politics at Coventry University. Once he had graduated, he spent the next twenty years working in education in and around Bristol.

After reading a biography about Harold Godwinson, he studied the late Anglo-Saxon era in detail and discovered a time of papal plots, court intrigues, family feuds, loyalties, betrayals, assassinations and a few battles. When he had enough material to weave together fact and fiction, he produced his award-winning novel, 1066: What Fates Impose, the first in a series about the Norman Conquest.

G. K. Holloway lives in Bristol with his wife and two children. (Photo: Author Website)

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#BookReview #Ad Bone China by Laura Purcell

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Bone ChinaAbout the Book

Consumption has ravaged Louise Pinecroft’s family, leaving her and her father alone and heartbroken.

But Dr Pinecroft has plans for a revolutionary experiment: convinced that sea air will prove to be the cure his wife and children needed, he arranges to house a group of prisoners suffering from the same disease in the cliffs beneath his new Cornish home. While he devotes himself to his controversial medical trials, Louise finds herself increasingly discomfited by the strange tales her new maid tells of the fairies that hunt the land, searching for those they can steal away to their realm.

Forty years later, Hester Why arrives at Morvoren House to take up a position as nurse to the now partially paralysed and almost entirely mute Miss Pinecroft. Hester has fled to Cornwall to try and escape her past, but surrounded by superstitious staff enacting bizarre rituals, she soon discovers that her new home may be just as dangerous as her last.

Format: ebook (448 pages)                        Publisher: Raven Books
Publication date: 19th September 2019 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find Bone China on Goodreads

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Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

The book alternates between three different timelines, curiously in the reverse order to what you might expect based on the blurb, opening with the woman who now calls herself Hester arriving at Morvoren House.  The events forty years earlier involving Louise Pinecroft’s efforts to help her father in his experimental treatment of patients with tuberculosis don’t appear until later in the book. This part is fascinating as it illuminates the lack of knowledge about the causes of the disease at the time (probably late 18th Century) but it is also rather distressing to witness the “treatments” Dr. Pinecroft inflicts on his patients in an increasingly crazed desire to succeed in finding a cure.

I was particularly drawn to Hester’s story as we find out more about the reasons for her sudden departure from her previous employment as maid to Lady Rose. I thought the author did a great job of making us feel sympathy for her whilst at the same time introducing a sense of unease as we learn what has occurred in previous positions she’s occupied. Her desperation to be valued by Lady Rose and her disappointment when she realises the difference in their social position can never bring about the sort of relationship she desires is painful to witness. At the same time, she commits an act that has dire consequences and I liked that the author challenged the reader’s view of Hester in this respect.  The later parts of Hester’s story and, in particular, the final scene, I found less credible.

The ailing Miss Pinecroft that Hester encounters is very different to the Louise Pinecroft of forty years before and I wasn’t totally convinced by her transformation from down-to-earth capable young woman to a Miss Havisham type figure sat in a gloomy room full of china.

The book certainly has many of the ingredients you look for in a Gothic novel: a chilly brooding house in a remote location, unexplained noises and locked doors that don’t seem to keep things out. In fact, Hester’s first impression of Morvoren House is as something ‘not just bricks and pebbles but a living thing’. And Creeda, employed as nursemaid to Miss Pinecroft’s ward, with her strange ways, belief in fairies, changelings and the need for protective talismans, makes for an unsettlingly creepy character. (With her black gown and habit of suddenly appearing, she’s a bit Mrs Danvers from Rebecca, a bit Grace Poole from Jane Eyre.) But are the strange goings-on the result of malicious human agency, the product of a disturbed imagination or an actual supernatural presence? It’s up to the reader to decide. For me it all got a little bit bonkers towards the end but if you’re looking for a dramatic climax to a book then you won’t be disappointed.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of Raven Books via NetGalley

In three words: Atmospheric, chilling, unsettling

Try something similar: The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements

Laura PurcellAbout the Author

Laura Purcell is a former bookseller and lives in Colchester with her husband and pet guinea pigs. Her first novel for Bloomsbury, The Silent Companions, was a Radio 2 and Zoe Ball ITV Book Club pick and was the winner of the WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award, while Laura’s Gothic chiller, The Corset, was acclaimed as a ‘masterpiece’ by readers and reviewers alike.  (Photo: Twitter profile)

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