Rousing historical fiction and a real page-turner with an inspirational woman at its heart.
Following her two epic novels on the Black Death, Minette Walters returns with a rousing historical fiction novel and love story set against the backdrop of the English Civil War with an inspirational woman at its heart. Spanning 1942 to 1949 and predominantly set in Dorset, the novel opens in dramatic fashion with not yet twenty-seven-year-old Jayne Swift, the daughter of a local squire from a loyal Royalist family, making haste to attend the sick baby son of her cousin in Dorchester. A physician by training but unable to declare herself one in the county, Jayne arrives as a frenzied crowd awaits the execution of two Catholic priests with her cousin’s husband, Samuel Morecott, leading the Puritan uprising. Encountering Lady Alice Stickland known for her outspoken support for Parliament in Dorchester it is the behaviour of her overly familiar footman, William, that gives Jayne pause for thought. As the conflict continues apace with a siege at Lyme Regis where Jayne takes charge of a former hospital for treating the wounded and wins plaudits aplenty, to returning to her family home and finding it divided by the conflict, Jayne seems to encounter William Harrier wherever she goes. In one instance a footman, in another a Knight or soldier comrade of her brother, William turns up everywhere and it is never quite clear on which side of the divide his loyalties lie.
Jayne Swift is a brilliantly drawn character, a woman to be admired and very much the focal point of this engrossing stand-alone. A woman who has never conformed to expectations, Jayne is an intelligent, quick-witted and kind woman who makes no secret of her intention to remain neutral from the outset of the conflict and treat the wounded, whether they be Royalist or Parliamentarian. William Harrier remains an enigma for the majority of the novel and in contrast to straight-talking Jayne I had difficulty warming to his chameleon-like persona and never quite felt he was trustworthy or indeed worthy of Jayne! The romance aspect of the story is muted and throughout plays second fiddle to the overriding story of the conflict dividing the nation and the opportunities it presents for Jayne to use her training as a physician. Jayne’s romance with William Harrier doesn’t feel written on the cards from the start of this novel and it certainly doesn’t read like a typical historical romance novel which I doubt would have held my attention so completely over the course of five hundred pages. The story is vividly evoked throughout and there is a regular cast of around twenty supporting characters that the reader gets to know with a balance between details of conflicts, political machinations and Jayne’s medical work.
Whilst I think that in reality a female physician, particularly one as doughty as Jayne Swift, would have had a far tougher time getting a modicum of respect and would have faced far more hostility than she did, it did nothing to detract from an extraordinarily compelling reading experience. Unequivocally well-researched and both dramatic and fast-paced enough to make it a real page-turner that is both an accessible and introduction to the period. That the denouement isn’t rushed is the icing on the cake to a powerfully told story where the very best and worst of humanity are on display.
Jayne Swift is a brilliantly drawn character, a woman to be admired and very much the focal point of this engrossing stand-alone. A woman who has never conformed to expectations, Jayne is an intelligent, quick-witted and kind woman who makes no secret of her intention to remain neutral from the outset of the conflict and treat the wounded, whether they be Royalist or Parliamentarian. William Harrier remains an enigma for the majority of the novel and in contrast to straight-talking Jayne I had difficulty warming to his chameleon-like persona and never quite felt he was trustworthy or indeed worthy of Jayne! The romance aspect of the story is muted and throughout plays second fiddle to the overriding story of the conflict dividing the nation and the opportunities it presents for Jayne to use her training as a physician. Jayne’s romance with William Harrier doesn’t feel written on the cards from the start of this novel and it certainly doesn’t read like a typical historical romance novel which I doubt would have held my attention so completely over the course of five hundred pages. The story is vividly evoked throughout and there is a regular cast of around twenty supporting characters that the reader gets to know with a balance between details of conflicts, political machinations and Jayne’s medical work.
Whilst I think that in reality a female physician, particularly one as doughty as Jayne Swift, would have had a far tougher time getting a modicum of respect and would have faced far more hostility than she did, it did nothing to detract from an extraordinarily compelling reading experience. Unequivocally well-researched and both dramatic and fast-paced enough to make it a real page-turner that is both an accessible and introduction to the period. That the denouement isn’t rushed is the icing on the cake to a powerfully told story where the very best and worst of humanity are on display.