📖 Hist Fic Saturday~ Treason by Michael E. Wills

 

On Hist Fic Saturday

 Let's go back to ...1940

Nielson UK
30 April 2022
Cliff Top Farm #1

My thanks to the author for my copy of this book

A thrilling story of children in wartime

In the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of children were evacuated from British cities and sent to areas of the country where it was regarded that they would be safer from bombing.

This Government operation was named "Pied Piper". The first evacuations were in 1939 and the second wave in 1940, at the time of the Blitz.

Children went to stay with complete strangers, who had been deemed by the authorities to have spare space in their homes. The hosts were obliged to take the children. Many were unenthusiastic about having a young guest staying with them for an unspecified length of time and there were incidences of unkindness and even cruelty.

"Treason" is a story about two such city children. Judith is a twelve-year-old girl from London, an only child from a very privileged background. She finds herself billeted in a farm on the Isle of Wight. The farm is run by Mrs Orton, a widow, who lives with her twelve-year-old son, Jimmy, and her handicapped brother-in-law. They are joined by another evacuee guest, Alfie, an eleven-year-old boy from a working class family in Portsmouth.

The story tells how their lives change and how the guests adapt to a very different way of life. Like all children they enjoy adventure, but the one on which they embark gets them involved in a danger to their lives and leads them to TREASON!

📖My review..

Aimed primarily at the younger end of the young adult market this historical fiction story is especially interesting as it focuses on both the excitement, and emotion, of those children who were evacuated to the countryside during Operation Pied Piper, which, at the start of the Second World War, saw hundreds of thousands of children taken to places of safety.

 

Judith Neville is twelve years old and Alfie Field is eleven when they are taken from their families and relocated to the Isle of Wight. Judith's privileged background in a wealthy London suburb couldn't be more different from Alfie who has been brought up in a working class household in Portsmouth and yet neither of their upbringings have prepared the children for life on Cliff Top Farm where they are cared for by kind hearted Vera Orton and her eleven year old son, Jimmy. 

The story is really interesting and has more than enough adventure to satisfy the confident reader and yet it is also a story which could be read by an interested adult, I certainly enjoyed reading of Judith, Alfie and Jimmy's adventures. The story has a sympathetic edge which allows a glimpse into the emotional wrench of leaving behind their homes and the difficulties in learning to adapt to new and very different surroundings. The little snippets of historical fact which are highlighted at various points in the story help to put the whole thing into context.

The dramatic ending certainly lends itself to a continuation of this Cliff Top Farm series with the next adventure "Treachery" to follow...as they say, watch this space.

🍵 Best read with...a glass of warm milk and a slice of Vera's apple pie.

About the Author

Michael Wills was born in Newport on the Isle of Wight and attended the Priory Boys School and Carisbrooke Grammar. He trained as a teacher at St Peter’s College, Birmingham, before working at a secondary school in Kent.

Website

Twitter @MWillsofSarum

📖 Hist Fic Saturday ~ Traitor in the Ice by K J Maitland

 

On Hist fic Saturday

Let's go back to ....England, 1607

Headline
31 March

Daniel Pursglove #2

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

Winter, 1607. A man is struck down in the grounds of Battle Abbey, Sussex. Before dawn breaks, he is dead.

Home to the Montagues, Battle has caught the paranoid eye of King James. The Catholic household is rumoured to shelter those loyal to the Pope, disguising them as servants within the abbey walls. And the last man sent to expose them was silenced before his report could reach London.

Daniel Pursglove is summoned to infiltrate Battle and find proof of treachery. He soon discovers that nearly everyone at the abbey has something to hide - for deeds far more dangerous than religious dissent. But one lone figure he senses only in the shadows, carefully concealed from the world. Could the notorious traitor Spero Pettingar finally be close at hand?

As more bodies are unearthed, Daniel determines to catch the culprit. But how do you unmask a killer when nobody is who they seem?

📖 My Review.. 

Traitor in the Ice is the second book in this historical crime series which sees Daniel Pursglove, once again, on a dangerous mission. This time is he charged with the task of infiltrating Battle Abbey, home to the staunchly Catholic Viscountess Montague whose impressive home is a hotbed of recusant activity. The last pursuivant to undertake this task has been found dead, in suspicious circumstances, so it is with some trepidation that Purslove enters the fray only to find that there are more secrets at Battle Abbey than he could ever have imagined.

Spending time again with Daniel Pursglove is a real treat especially as his unorthodox methods of investigation invariably draw him right into the centre of recusant conspiracy with, it must be said, devastating consequences. Add into the mix the country's growing resentment towards King James I, the gossip and intrigue of the Jacobean court, the inherent danger of being a Catholic in a Protestant land, and you have all the right ingredients for a lively and engrossing mystery.

Intelligently written, with a real sense of time and place, we go back to a time which has been so faithfully recreated it feels like stepping off a time machine into the age of the great frost of 1607 when the country was halted by a cold which cut so deep that people froze where they lay, and the equally chilling atmosphere of Battle Abbey, with its secret passage ways and strange portents, is brought vividly to life. The dangerous world of Catholic intrigue is very much the focus of the novel, placing those would hear the forbidden Catholic mass right at the centre of the story. Battle Abbey with its hidden priest holes and dark and shadowy corners is the perfect eerie setting for an engrossing novel which plunges you deep into the dark secrets of the past.

🍷Best Read with.. a cup of small ale, heady with yeast, and a bowl of mutton pottage

About the Author

K J Maitland is an historical novelist, lecturer and teacher of Creative Writing, with over twenty books to her name. She grew up in Malta, which inspired her passion for history, and travelled and worked all over the world before settling in the United Kingdom. She has a doctorate in psycho linguistics, and now lives on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon.

Twitter #KJMaitland #TraitorInTheIce #DanielPursglove

@headlinepg