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The Eighteenth Century -- General
Books for older children come at the beginning and books for younger children later.
Nicola Morgan got her inspiration for this book from Alfred Noyes’ poem The Highwayman. She has given the highwayman a daughter, Beth. After the deaths of her parents Beth lived in a cottage with an old woman. When the old woman died she earned her living in the same way as her father. She also had a more legitimate trade as a ballad writer and seller. In the book she writes a ballad about the death of Henry Parish. This ballad mirrors, to a certain extent, Alfred Noyes’ poem.
The story begins with Beth hiding, wounded, in a cottage on the moors where she is found by young William de Lacy who tells the story.
Young de Lacy, or Will as he decides to call himself, is also a fugitive. He has run away from home, from his stern father and bullying brother, because his father is about to force him to join the militia. He nurses Beth and when she has got her strength back he accompanies her back to her own cottage where they find a young boy, Henry Parish. Henry has stolen a paltry amount of flour from the Army and deserted because he wants to help his impoverished mother and sisters.
There is plenty of action in this book. Beth and Will are in danger from the soldiers who come looking for the deserter and search the cottage. If found harbouring Henry they could both have been put to death. But it is not just the forces of the law they have to fear. When they visit Scarborough they are set upon by a band of ruffians. There is an interesting climax when they hold up the coach with Will’s father and brother.
But this is far more than just an adventure story. It highlights many of the facets of the social conditions of the times. It shows the power wielded by noblemen like Will’s father. It shows the harsh penal code where petty theft could be punished by death. It even gives a picture of the bustling town of Scarborough.
Will and Beth have both had hard lives but it is difficult to empathise with either of them. Beth’s hatred of the redcoats is perfectly understandable but it is still impossible to sympathise with her when she guns down in cold blood a soldier who posed absolutely no threat to her. For his part Will is constantly engaged in deep soul searching about his own crimes. He has stolen money. Is theft ever permissible? Also some dissertations on the Robin Hood theme of stealing from the rich to give to the poor.
Comes with a historical note about the death of Henry Parish in 1795. The whole text of the poem The Highwayman is also given.
Teenage
This is the first book in a time travelling trilogy.
When his father has to cancel his birthday treat because of a business meeting twelve-year-old Peter Smock is taken to stay with friends in Derbyshire. Dr Dyer is a scientist working on anti-gravity. He takes Peter and his eldest daughter Kate to his laboratory. Something goes wrong and Peter, Kate and the anti-gravity machine are all whisked back to the eighteenth century. Even worse, the terrifying Tar Man sees them landing, loads the machine onto a cart and drives off with it. Without the machine how will Kate and Peter ever get back to their own time? But Gideon has seen all this happening from behind a bush. He knows where to find the Tar Man and, once he has learnt Kate and Peter's story, he helps them to merge into the eighteenth century.
Then begins an exciting adventure. The children stay for a time in a large country house and then begin the long journey to London surviving attacks by highwaymen on the way. In London they meet up with the Tar Man and his employer Lord Luxon, a confirmed gambler. Lord Luxon agrees that Gideon and the Tar Man should ride in a special horse race and the prize should be the machine. But the Tar Man has no qualms about cheating.
Interspersed with the historical story is an account of events back in the twenty-first century where the police are trying to find out what happened. Kate and Peter have discovered how to blur. They can return to their own time but only for a short time before they are sucked back to 1763. So the police keep getting reports of their ghosts being seen.
This book covers a wide sweep of eighteenth century England. First there is the large country house and then the hazardous journey to London by coach with the descriptions of the inns the company stay in on the way and Peter’s dislike of the food complete with weevils. Then once in London the action moves between the poverty of Covent Garden, Buckingham Palace and the notorious Newgate Gaol. There is a thrilling and unique climax of a hanging day at Tyburn. As for the personalities of the era, Kate and Peter even meet Dr Johnson.
The cruelty and brutality of the age is clearly brought out. People are starving and can be forced into thieving just to survive. And hanging is the penalty for theft.
An exciting and highly original story which covers almost every facet of eighteenth century life.
12 plus
Historical mystery and adventure.
London in 1715 and a series of unusual murders. The victim is
usually found with an arrow in his chest and a card on his person
-- a card representing Death as a skeleton pointing an arrow.
One person found dead with such a card is Will Piggott, a young
pickpocket.
Will has a good friend. This is fifteen-year-old Tom Marlowe,
apprentice to his father a printer, who strongly disapproves of
his relationship with Will. Tom is also friendly with one of his
father's customers, a Doctor Harker who has travelled widely and
is 'stuffed full of learning.' Tom looks up to him and envies
him. Tom is determined to find out who killed his friend and to
avenge his murder. In this he has the help of the doctor and also
Ocean, one of Will's pickpocket friends. Together this ill-assorted
trio decide to solve the arrow murders -- a decision which leads
Tom into great danger.
The background of eighteenth century London is sketched in lightly.
There are the expected references to hangings and dissecting surgeons.
There are visits to Newgate, a chase through the new St Paul's
Cathedral and a frost fair. The New World is not neglected as
Tom and his associates discover that the murders have their roots
in a massacre in an Indian village in North America.
This is a highly readable book with a well-crafted plot which
moves at a fast pace. Although the characters are not drawn in
any great depth they are portrayed sympathetically and readers
will care about what happens to Tom.
The story is open-ended. Ocean becomes his father's new apprentice
while Tom becomes assistant to Doctor Harker, helping him to sort
out his collection of books and curiosities. This suggests that
this book may turn out to be the first of a series.
A thrilling and enjoyable read.
11+
This is the second book in the Tom Marlowe series of eighteenth century mysteries.
The end of the first book, Death and
the Arrow, found Tom settled and happy in his new job of helping
to catalogue Dr Harker's collection while his friend Ocean Carter
took over his apprenticeship with his printer father.
But at the beginning of The White Rider Tom begins to have
doubts. It is 1716 and just after the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745.
Dr Harker takes him to see the execution of Lord Derwentwater
on Tower Hill. Tom notices that his friend is very distressed.
Then the doctor has a mysterious visitor who speaks French in
front of Tom but English with a Scots accent when he thinks Tom
cannot hear. Even worse, Daniel Thornley, an acquaintance from
the doctor's past turns up. He has something to tell Dr Harker
-- something which Tom must not hear.
Tom is worried and upset by this. He begins to wonder if Dr Harker
is a Jacobite. If he is Tom doubts if he can continue to work
for him.
Tom resents the fact that he is being shut out of so much. It
is clear that the doctor does not trust him. But should Tom trust
the doctor?
As if all this is not enough Nathaniel Greaves arrives from America.
He tells Tom that the printer who brought him up is not really
his father but his uncle. Greaves is his real father. He is a
rich man now and he asks Tom to go back to America with him.
While Tom is still trying to come to terms with this shock Dr
Harker at last takes him into his confidence. Then Tom and the
doctor are robbed by the terrifying highwayman, the so called
White Rider who has a skull for a face and kills people just by
pointing a finger at them.
The doctor gets Ocean Carter to make enquiries among his friends
in the London underworld and Ocean finds out that the highwayman
has recently arrived from America. Could it be Greaves, the man
who claims to be Tom's real father?
This book captures the atmosphere of London in the eighteenth
century. Public executions, Newgate, the Thames watermen, a respectable
coffee house contrasted with an inn in the Wapping Mint, one of
the last sanctuaries for criminals. All set against a wider background
of Jacobinism, the transportation of criminals to America and
the slave trade.
The story moves at a fast pace and certainly held my interest.
But at the same time it must be said that, sadly, like all too
many books nowadays, the pace is a little too fast. It would have
been better if the pace had been more leisurely and there was
more detail to increase the atmosphere.
Nevertheless The White Rider provides a good story with
an authentic background.
11+
This is the third in the Tom Marlowe eighteenth century mystery series.
Dr Harker receives an invitation from an old frind, an Abraham Gibbs, who now lives in Norfolk. Gibbs has been excavating an ancient burial mound and has found some artefacts which may interest the doctor. Tom agrees to accompany Dr Harker and they both set off.
When they arrive at the Low House, as Gibbs mansion is called, they find the members of the household just returning from the funeral of one of the servants killed in a tragic accident. But was it really an accident? Tom and Dr Harker later hear of the legends connected with Redwulf -- that his tomb is cursed and a ghoul known as the Sentinel stalks the marshes and keeps watch over his burial chamber. Could the death of the servant girl be due to dark, supernatural forces? Or could there be a more everyday explanation like murder? When the Italian artist Bamberini is also killed Tom and the doctor are determined to find out the truth.
There are various suspects like the sinister Lord Ickneld and the huge mute Matthew. Even Foley the butler. Tom and Dr Harker interview them all regardless. This results in a terrifying experience with some smugglers. But the two investigators persevere. It is Tom who, unknowingly, has the clue. It eludes him for some time but eventually all is resolved.
Redwulf's Curse is full of atmospheric descriptions. In the morning sunlight the view from the Low House over the salt marshes is beautiful with the sea birds flying over the sand dunes and the swell of the sea in the distance. This is contrasted witrh a sense of menace when the creeks are covered by the fret or sea mist or by the darkness of night. These evocative descriptions give an almost gothic feel-- something which is increased with the Hallowe'en service near the end of the book.
Despite the descriptions this book moves at a rapid pace and will keep the reader turning the pages with questions being constantly asked. In some ways it is vaguely reminiscent of The Hound of the Baskervilles. There is even a huge dog in the book. And -- for good measure -- a savage horse too.
All through the book the story comes first but there are many indications of the eighteenth century trickled in here and there -- as the day's delay caused when the coach loses a wheel and Tom checking his bed at the inn for lice.
This is an exciting story which holds the interst. And if the ending is a little too neat, well does it really matter?
10+
This is the fictional diary of a young
girl transported to Australia. She is sent out with the First
Fleet which arrived in January 1788. This first group of convicts
experienced great hardship. The land on the coast where they landed
was infertile and they had to rely for food on supplies brought
by the ships. This diary covers the two months just before the
arrival of the Second Fleet which brought the supplies without
which most of the early settlers would have died.
The diary starts with Elizabeth working for her master in his
hut on Rose Hill. This is some distance inland on the Paramatta
River where the land is more fertile than the land around Sydney
Cove and it is possible to grow vegetables. Even so the convicts
and their supervisors are never far from starvation and there
are harsh laws about stealing food.
Elizabeth has a younger brother back in England and she keeps
this diary for him. She hopes that one day she will be able to
send it to him. She buys the blank book for it by stealing two
onions - a crime for which she could have been punished by one
hundred lashes - a flogging from which she would probably have
died.
The day to day life of the settlement at Rose Hill is described
in detail and then Elizabeth is sent to Sydney to look after the
little daughter of a surgeon and she experiences the harsher conditions
there.
The reader learns of her earlier life in England and how she came
to be transported because the surgeon gets her to tell her story
in the evenings.
This book gives a good picture of the early days of the convict
settlements in Australia and the struggle just to keep alive.
In many ways the severity of the times is toned down for young
readers. For example there is no actual description of a brutal
flogging, just the statement that Elizabeth could have been flogged.
And then there is reference to the coarseness of the adult convicts
but again nothing explicit. They make rude remarks to Elizabeth
and that is all we are told. And Elizabeth is warned to avoid
groups of men.
Comes with historical notes, a timeline and contemporary illustrations.
Informative and readable. And young Elizabeth comes across as
a very sympathetic heroine.
10-14
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