Wintercombe

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Still, as a family drama, it does make for a comforting read. The St Barbes are an enthralling, hugely likeable family, and spending so much time in their company has a similar comforting effect to watching multiple seasons of one's favourite character-based drama, where you are rooting for particular romantic pairings, glad to hear what one character truly thinks of another. It was an easy read, and still enjoyable despite my qualms. The book is told from multiple points of view which flow seamlessly from one to the next, although most of the first half is mainly Silence’s view. This gives the reader the opportunity to understand Silence and her deep love for her home and all her children, her relationship with her husband and also, as a Godly woman, the temptations of her developing relationship with Hellier. Belle has created a believable Puritan woman in Silence who although she carries, well hidden, the spirit of rebellion from childhood, she has a well developed conscience and understands that love for another does not give her licence to break her marriage vows. In the latter part of the book we come to understand more of Hellier and his view of Silence but, even by the end of the book, there is still much about him that is hidden. Tortured by a cold, Puritan father, Silence has learned to conceal her passionate nature inside a prison like shell of passivity. Her eventual marriage does not offer her the escape that she longs for and she craves some semblance of autonomy. It is only the sweep of history that finally offers Silence the freedom she so desires. Over the next few years 'The Epic', as it became known, grew and grew. Belle drew up a huge family tree and a plan of the house very like Rushbrooke.

What I did not like about the story is that the bad guys are so bad that they were beyond belief. No one could be as purely evil, gross, ignorant, etc. as her bad guys. Other characters were more well-rounded. Unlike many such books, there's obviously been copious research by the author who manages not to strew details haphazardly but instead make every scene incredibly rich visually. Her foreword confirms that most of the characters actually existed, and as they were portrayed, which makes this quite unusual, and the portrayal of both armies - and then the New Model Army - clearly shows the harsh reality for the people torn between the armies of King and Parliament. Jayne, thank you so much for the wonderful review! It’s been great knowing that my books are being reissued digitally for not only my previous fans, but hopefully new ones as well. I know some find them a bit slow to get going, but I like to set a scene, build up characters, and let the reader get to know and care for them, before getting bogged down in matters of plot. That way, hopefully, you’ll be desperate to know what happens! Pamela Belle was born and bred in Suffolk, the daughter of a local prep school headmaster. She went to the University of Sussex, and went on to become a primary school teacher. The Moon in the Water was the first in the four-volume Heron saga. Yes, this is the book of yours I read a while ago and which sent me on a pre-digital search mission for your (at that point) out of print hardcover books. Since I never did complete that quest, I’m glad to see them being reissued for me and, hopefully soon more, people to discover.I would have appreciated the novel much more had this author used the events in Silence's life rather to display opportunity for growth in her character. How much more I would have enjoyed seeing Silence finding contentment and happiness within the constraints of her marriage vows, home, family and children (certainly her garden has brought her much joy, and poverty is not a problem for Silence, although she must find creative solutions to feed a household of servants, family and fifty-plus soldiers). I love to read novels that illustrate personality change and watch the characters mature through their life lessons and circumstances. Remaining steadfast within challenging, difficult or even insurmountable situations, while modelling qualities such as faithfulness and building stability within one's household, (especially in front of young, impressionable children), would have made for me, a much more enjoyable story. Her eventual marriage does not offer her the escape that she longs for and she craves some semblance of autonomy. Married and a teacher of a class of six-year-olds, she wrote in longhand and, while publishers made encouraging noises, no one was prepared to risk publishing a large book by an unknown author. Eventually the agent Vivienne Schuster was wonderfully enthusiastic about it and found a publisher.

Wintercombe, once a tranquil bastion of family virtue, is transformed into an unruly, drunken, and licentious garrison.As Jayne commented, I’m currently writing a modern novel (with 17th century interludes) as a blog, issued in instalments, and I also have three unpublished novels, one set in 18th century London, one in Elizabethan England, and the other at the time of Alfred the Great, which I hope will see the light of day sometime, even if I have to do it myself! The Moon in the Water" and its two sequels were published in the UK and the USA with considerable success. Belle gave up teaching in 1985 to spend more time researching and writing. She plans to write a book about Alfred the Great if she can fit it in between looking after the children, dogs, cats and husband.

Silence knows the risks, she understands the impossibility of her situation and the ramifications should she plunge into a deeper relationship that has no hope of any positive outcome. Yet Silence (in her frail humanity), chooses ultimately to rebel against everything common sense and discretion would tell her, all for a brief romantic interlude. Even worse, Silence justifies her choice not just to herself alone, but to her children and her cautiously disapproving maid, all of whom (conveniently) end up supporting her. And so Silence is able to 'have her cake and eat it too', without regret or reaping any apparent consequence.I thoroughly enjoyed Wintercombe but, although the book has a definite resolution, it is clear that there is more to tell. I am now hunting down the next volume, Herald of Joy. It appears that there is not a single copy of it in either a public library or a bookshop in Australia. I am now impatiently waiting for it to arrive by post from the United States. (Thank Heavens for our web connected world!) There are four books in the Wintercombe series the other two are A Falling Star and Treason’s Gift which follow the St Barbes through the reign of Charles II and the Monmouth rebellion.

So we turn to her family to play the starring roles. This is not necessarily a bad thing - the St Barbes constitute a varied menagerie of personalities, and this leads to a number of intriguing plot diversions. However, what is striking is how frequently Belle disregards any attempt at 'show, not tell' - characters' emotions are constantly outlined in detail, leaving little to the imagination or to the capability of the reader, and there are far too many instances where one character outlines for another exactly what has happened, despite the reader having already experienced all of that in full in the previous instance. This is of course unnecessary, and makes the novel somewhat longer than it needs to be. Herald of Joy is the second novel in Pamela Belle's Wintercombe series and takes up the story about six years after Wintercombe ended. Silence St. Barbe is the Puritan wife of a man twice her age who has never loved her. He treats her with condescension, much like a child who needs his firm guidance. Her three stepchildren and three children love her to varying degrees but also take her for granted. She is the calm mistress of a household of servants who still see her as a London outsider and the daughter-in-law of a mean tempered, controlling old biddy who makes the lives of her family a misery – good Lord, Dame Ursula is enough to frighten a whole regimen of demon hellraisers into quivering jelly. Silence is also a woman of hidden passions and needs which no one has ever thought to inquire about much less fulfill. at Wintercombe faces a coming winter of knowing definitely that her husband is losing his battle with his life. She now has to find out how she can protect the estate and her children as best as she could. The main character Silence who had survived a controlling and abusive Puritan father and upbringing and was married at 19 to a widower, who was old enough to be her father, with three children. She was such a strong character who would not let her true self be broken and held her ground in the face of fear to protect the ones she loved.Tension is also very rarely left to simmer. Without dealing out spoilers, there are a few instances where a character is seen to be in peril, but then Belle almost instantly removes the threat, sometimes by a plot device that in the circumstances would seem wholly unlikely or indeed out of character. Very rarely did I worry for a character, and in a novel where the main plot revolves around escaped Cavaliers, this strikes me as something of a failing. Wintercombe is the first in a series written about a beautiful home in Somerset and its inhabitants during the Civil Wars that ravaged England. It’s a story of a woman taken for granted by all who know her who discovers an inner strength that is honed to fine steel over the course of a year. And how she discovers love with a most unlikely man, the Cavalier captain of the troop of horse which comes to garrison it. I do have to say that even if I love the cover, it’s hardly anything I can see Puritan Silence wearing though to quote Silence’s lady’s maid Mally the woman she do look “tarblish fine.”