Shortlisted for
Book of the Month
Family Drama
1666
London
The plague that has been ravaging London
in 1666 is at last abating, the English war against the Dutch is still being
fought at sea, and old feelings left over from the English Civil Wars are still
affecting families who were divided by personal belief and loyalties. In one
such family, Cromwell supporter Lord Pilcher despises his grandson, Geoffrey,
who went with Charles II into exile. Such feuds ran deep, and Lord Pilcher
refuses to have anything to do with with Geoffrey when he returns to England, which includes
denying him his rightful inheritance. This causes a problem for our
hero, so he becoming a highwayman, calling himself Gentleman Jack.
Meanwhile, young Londoners, Erasmus and Desiderius
are destitute after the death of their parents. They meet up with Gentleman Jack
and assist with hiding his ill-gotten gains. But another rogue is
impersonating Gentleman Jack and staying out of the clutches of the constables,
thief-takers and the sheriff is not easy. And then a fire starts in London’s
Pudding Lane…
All of which makes for a darn good
entertaining, exciting and absorbing adventure story. Ms Pym brings the London
streets, decimated by plague and then turned into an inferno of fire quite
brilliantly to life, with the sights, sounds and smells, the confusion and
fear. The characters are skilfully drawn, with their occasional bawdy language
of the period and nice touches of amusing humour balancing the chases, near-misses of danger and potential disaster and the sheer drudgery of
having to survive from one day to the next.
I thoroughly enjoyed the read, and was
delighted to discover that this tale links with others by Ms Pym. I’ll be
looking out for them. I think I can be so bold as to say that The Highwayman
might be one of the best stories I’ve read about the year 1666 and the Great
Fire of London
© Ellen Hill
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Thanks so much for your lovely review, which is far more wonderful than I ever imagined. I am pumped.
ReplyDeleteour pleasure!
DeleteI've just purchased this and I am enjoying the read! Thank you Helen and all for the information on this enjoyable book!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy!
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