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The Ballad of Mary Kearney by Katherine Mezzacappa

ABOUT THE BOOK

‘I am dead, my Mary; the man who loved you body and soul lies in some dishonorable grave.’

In County Down, Ireland, in 1767, a nobleman secretly marries his servant, in defiance of law, class, and religion. Can their love survive tumultuous times?

‘Honest and intriguing, this gripping saga will transport and inspire you, and it just might break your heart. Highly recommended.’ Historical Novel Society

‘Mezzacappa brings nuance and a great depth of historical knowledge to the cross-class romance between a servant and a nobleman.’ Publishers Weekly.

The Ballad of Mary Kearney is a compelling must-read for anyone interested in Irish history, told through the means of an enduring but ultimately tragic love.

Here is Katherine to talk about the book:

‘But one object was I able to save from the wreckage of their bedroom—a likeness of Lord Goward when Viscount done by a pastellist in Venice after the manner of Rosalba—wearing a domino and a look of mischief.’

The hero of my story, James Goward, in common with many Ascendancy gentlemen and contemporaries of their class in Britain, made his Grand Tour of the continent, from which he returns just before the novel opens. In Rome, he follows the practice of many Grand Tourists, and was painted full-length by Pompeo Batoni (or as James’s mother refers to him in correspondence, ‘Mr Battoney’: ‘the painting looks very fine with him gesturing at all those ruins as if he had discovered them himself.’) with the finished canvas being delivered to Ireland months later. In Venice, he sits for his portrait in pastels. Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757) was dead by the time James made his tour, so I had him depicted by one of her imitators, in the style of her 1730 portrait of the young Irish nobleman, Lord Boyne.

Image Rosalba Carriera:

Self portrait of Rosalba Carriera, c. 1743-1747

Accademia Gallery, Venice

Rosalba Carriera was the daughter of a Venetian lawyer and was initially trained in that most Venetian of feminine roles, lace making, but for economic reasons she turned first to painting miniatures on the lids of snuff boxes before proceeding to portraits in pastels. Her two sisters worked as her assistants. She was sought out by the Grand Tourists. As her sitters included Maximilian II of Bavaria, Frederick IV of Denmark and Augustus the Strong, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, her fame spread beyond her native city. She worked in Paris in the early 1720s (where she painted Louis XV) and in 1730 was at the court of the emperor Charles VI in Vienna, as well as travelling through northern and central Italy. Rosalba, as she was generally known, outlived all her family, but in her later years was afflicted by the worst disability a painter could have: she underwent failed operations for cataract and went blind.

Rosalba, in common with other women artists who are only now taking their rightful place in the pantheon, has sometimes been sidelined by art historians (though the variable popularity of the Rococo style has had something to do with this). John Steer, author of a standard text, A Concise History of Venetian Painting, granted her a paragraph and one illustration. He acknowledged that she was ‘internationally the most important of Venetian eighteenth-century portraitists’ and that she impacted the development of French artists of the period, like Boucher and Greuze, but described her portraits as having ‘a sweet, surface elegance, but little concern with depth of character’ and noted her ‘idealized figures of pretty women in a variety of allegorical roles.’ Her self-portrait in the Accademia in Venice suggests anything but ‘surface elegance’, and she certain appears to have considerable depth of character.

What’s next for Katherine?

I intend to return to Venice, about which I have written before, in a novel I am planning on the life of the feminist writer Lucrezia Marinella (1571-1653) and her milieu of the literary and philosophical academies which flourished in the city in her time.

Works by Rosalba Carriera:

 

Image Viscount Boyne:

Gustavus Hamilton, 2nd Viscount Boyne

Rosalba Carriera, 1730

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

 

 

 

Image Baronet Dunstanville :

Francis Basset, 1st Baronet de Dunstanville

Pompeo Batoni, 1778

The sitter is shown against a backdrop of the Castel Sant’Angelo and St Peter’s, but Basset never received the finished portrait. The ship on which it was travelling was seized by the French and the painting was sold to the Spanish. It is now in the Prado, Madrid.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

 

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About Katherine Mezzacappa

Katherine Mezzacappa is Irish but currently lives in Carrara, between the Apuan Alps and the Tyrrhenian Sea. She wrote The Ballad of Mary Kearney (Histria) and The Maiden of Florence (Fairlight) under her own name, as well as four historical novels (2020-2023) with Zaffre, writing as Katie Hutton. She also has three contemporary novels with Romaunce Books, under the pen name Kate Zarrelli.

Katherine’s short fiction has been published in journals worldwide. She has in addition published academically in the field of 19th century ephemeral illustrated fiction, and in management theory. She has been awarded competitive residencies by the Irish Writers Centre, the Danish Centre for Writers and Translators and (to come) the Latvian Writers House.

​​Katherine also works as a manuscript assessor and as a reader and judge for an international short story competition. She has in the past been a management consultant, translator, museum curator, library assistant, lecturer in History of Art, sewing machinist and geriatric care assistant. In her spare time she volunteers with a second-hand book charity of which she is a founder member. She is a member of the Society of Authors, the Historical Novel Society, the Irish Writers Centre, the Irish Writers Union, Irish PEN / PEN na hÉireann and the Romantic Novelists Association, and reviews for the Historical Novel Review. She has a first degree in History of Art from UEA, an M.Litt. in Eng. Lit. from Durham and a Masters in Creative Writing from Canterbury Christ Church. She is represented by Annette Green Authors’ Agency.

Author Links:

Website: https://katherinemezzacappa.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katherinemezzacappafiction

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-mezzacappa-09407815/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katmezzacappa/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/katmezzacappa.bsky.social

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/katherinemezzacappa

Thank you to Katherine and The Coffee Pot Book Club for this interesting post.

The post The Ballad of Mary Kearney by Katherine Mezzacappa first appeared on Deborah Swift.

Spotlight on Strait Lace by Rosemary Hayward #Edwardian #CoffeePotBookClub

It is 1905. Edwardian England. Harriet Loxley, the daughter of a vicar and niece to a prominent Nottingham lace manufacturer, spends her days playing cricket with her brother, scouring the countryside for botanical specimens, and never missing an opportunity to argue the case for political power for women. Given the chance to visit the House of Commons, Harriet witnesses the failure of a historic bill for women’s voting rights. She also meets the formidable Pankhurst women.

When Harriet gets the chance to study biology at Bedford College, London, she finds her opportunity to be at the heart of the fight. From marching in the street, to speaking to hostile crowds, to hurling stones through windows, just how far will Harriet go?

Rosemary Hayward is the author of Margaret Leaving, a historical mystery uncovering little known events that occurred in the immediate aftermath to World War II. She is also the creator of Your Next Book, a deeply nerdy monthly newsletter describing a book picked from her bookshelf, or Kindle.

She is British by birth but now lives part of the year in California and part in southern Spain.

Author Links:

Website: www.rosemaryhayward.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/Rosemary-Hayward-1460369174026124

LinkedIn: https//www.linkedin.com/in/rosemary-hayward-6544ba60

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/margaretleaving/

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@margaretleaving

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hayward0738/_saved/

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/rosemary-hayward

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Rosemary-Hayward/author/B06XR7GZR4

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16658743.Rosemary_Hayward

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Death of a Princess by R N Morris #Review #CoffeePotBookClub #CrimeFiction

Summer 1880.

Lipetsk, a spa town in Russia.

The elderly and cantankerous Princess Belskaya suffers a violent reaction while taking a mud bath at the famous Lipetsk Sanatorium. Soon after, she dies. Dr Roldugin, the medical director of the sanatorium, is at a loss to explain the sudden and shocking death. He points the finger at Anna Zhdanova, a medical assistant who was supervising the princess’s treatment. Suspicion also falls on the princess’s nephew Belsky, who appears far from grief-stricken at his aunt’s death. Meanwhile, investigating magistrate Pavel Pavlovich Virginsky arrives in Lipetsk from St Petersburg, seeking treatment after a nervous breakdown.

Review

I love stories with damaged and interesting characters and Virginsky, the protagonist in this book is suffering from distress so severe that all he wants to do is to attend a sanatorium and rest. As it progresses we find out who he is and that something ‘in the past’ has unsettled him to the degree he needs help. But this being a murder mystery, of course as soon as he arrives at the sanatorium, a person is murdered. In this case it is the elderly Princess Belskaya who has supposedly suffered an allergic reaction to the mud bath that was meant to cure her eczema. Mila, one of the nurses, is suspicious and suspects foul play but it is not long before she is kidnapped by a cohort of revolutionaries who are residing nearby. More murders ensue, and Virginsky must unravel them all.

This is a gripping mystery with interesting and well-developed characters. The atmospheric location of Lipetsk with its rivers and gloomy factories sets the scene nicely for the revolutionaries intent on sabotaging the ironworks. The volatile relationship between these young rebels, all under false identities, and intent on a terrorist plot,explores the falsity behind Zotov’s idea that there ‘can be no crime under a criminal regime’.

The murders are gruesome and believable and there is the added bonus of drama, intrigue and a few explosions before we hit the surprising denouement. Pitted against all this is a man who is barely sane and residing in a facility for treating people with nervous disorders. The question of whether or not he should believe the evidence of his own eyes not only stymies his investigations with the magistrates and the local police, but also leads him to question his own deductions.

This is a great read with characters that feel real, and one that immerses the reader in a fascinating and unusual time and place. Want to escape the humdrum? Then this is highly recommended.

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About the Author

Roger (R.N) Morris is the author of 18 books, including a quartet of historical crime novels set in St Petersburg featuring Porfiry Petrovich, the investigating magistrate from Dostoevsky’s great novel Crime and Punishment. These were followed by the Silas Quinn series set in London in 1914. He has been shortlisted for the CWA Duncan Lawrie Gold Dagger and the CWA Historical Dagger.

A former advertising copywriter, Roger has written the libretto for an opera, modern retellings of Frankenstein and Macbeth for French school children. He’s also a scriptwriter for an award winning audio producer, working on true crime and history podcasts including The Curious History of your Home.

His work has been published in 16 countries.

Married with two grown-up children, Roger lives in Chichester where he keeps an eye out for seagulls.

Connect with R N Morris

Website: www.rogernmorris.co.uk

Twitter: https://x.com/rnmorris

Facebook: www.facebook.com/roger.morris.7547

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/roger-morris-41679518

Instagram: www.instagram.com/rogermorris7988

Threads: www.threads.net/@rogermorris7988

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rnmorris.bsky.social

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/rogernmorris1

Amazon Author Page: www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B001JP9XXA

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/608784.R_N_Morris

The post Death of a Princess by R N Morris #Review #CoffeePotBookClub #CrimeFiction first appeared on Deborah Swift.

Ghost Encounters by Helen and Kathy Hollick #CoffeePotBookClub

Everyone assumes that ghosts are hostile.
Actually, most of them are not.You either believe in ghosts or you don’t. It depends on whether you’ve encountered something supernatural or not. But when you share a home with several companionable spirits, or discover benign ghosts in public places who appear as real as any living person, scepticism is abandoned and the myth that ghosts are to be feared is realised as nonsense.It is a matter for individual consideration whether you believe in ghosts or not, but for those who have the gift to see, hear or be aware of people from the past, meeting with them in today’s environment can generate a connection to years gone by.Kathy and Helen Hollick have come across several such departed souls in and around North Devon and at their 18th-century home, which they share with several ‘past residents’.In Ghost Encounters: The Lingering Spirits Of North Devon, mother and daughter share their personal experiences, dispelling the belief that spirits are to be feared.Ghost Encounters will fascinate all who enjoy this beautiful region of rural South-West England, as well as interest those who wish to discover more about its history… and a few of its ghosts.(Includes a bonus of two short stories and photographs connected to North Devon.)BUY THE BOOKGhost Encounters is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.Helen HollickKnown for her captivating storytelling and rich attention to historical detail, Helen might not see ghosts herself, but her nautical adventure series, and some of her short stories, skilfully blend the past with the supernatural, inviting readers to step into worlds where the boundaries between the living and the dead blur. Helen, husband Ron and daughter Kathy moved from London to Devon in January 2013 after a Lottery win on the opening night of the London Olympics, 2012. She spends her time glowering at the overgrown garden and orchard, fending off the geese, helping with the horses and, when she gets a moment, writing the next book…Kathy HollickDiagnosed as severely dyslexic when she was ten, Helen pulled Kathy out of school at fifteen to concentrate on everything equine. When not encountering friendly ghosts, Kathy’s passion is horses and mental well-being. She started riding at the age of three, had her own Welsh pony at thirteen, and discovered showjumping soon after. Kathy now runs her own Taw River Equine Events, and coaches riders of any age or experience, specialising in positive mindset and overcoming confidence issues via her Centre10 accreditation and Emotional Freedom Technique training. EFT, or ‘tapping’, uses the body’s pressure points to aid calm relaxation and to promote gentle healing around emotional, mental or physical issues. Kathy lives with her farmer partner, Andrew, in their flat adjoining the main farmhouse. She regularly competes at affiliated British Showjumping, and rides side-saddle (‘aside’) when she has the opportunity. She produces her own horses, several from home-bred foals. She also has a fun diploma in Dragons and Dragon Energy, which was something amusing to study during the Covid lockdown.Connect with Helen: Website • Blog • Twitter / X • Facebook • BlueskyAmazon Author Page • Newsletter
Connect with Kathy: Website • Facebook

 

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The Fires of Gallipoli by Barney Campbell Excerpt #CoffeePotBookClub #WW1

The Fires of Gallipoli by Barney Campbell

Autumn turned into winter. The battalion moved a mile to the north-west of the blind crests to relieve a unit that was deemed combat ineffective following the twin heads of a failed attack and a virulent strain of dysentery that had torn through it.

Progress up to the line was appallingly slow, rivulets of loose earth and rocks running down the trench walls to line the bottoms with obstacles. To Edward, sleep-deprived and hallucinating in the cold, it was as though he was a giant treading through a twilit valley, the countless little landslips becoming mighty waterfalls tumbling down the sides into the plain below. His feet – as they stumbled on the pebbles and stones – were great hammers that crushed houses and villages. He realised he was grinning and that the sounds that punctuated his progress were his own short bursts of laughter. He took several gulps of air to snap out of it and hoped that no one had noticed him in that state.

The next day, the men got used to the tiny strip of ground that was now their home, titivating the line and getting to grips with the lie of their land.

And then came the evening. The normal weather of the daytime, no different from the hundred that had preceded it save for winter’s siphoning away its daily ration of heat, passed into a squally, adolescent late afternoon with fast-moving clouds scudding across the sky before a vast grey blanket was pulled across it.

At seven o’clock the first drops spattered down onto them, tiny pinpricks to start but growing soon to fat droplets that sounded like sleet as they hit helmets and hands clenched round rifles. They kicked up sand round the rims of the tiny craters they bored in the ground, soldiers craning their necks back to let them fall onto parched tongues. Within ten minutes, the rain had whipped up to a tempo that would not drop for three days, skin, uniform and ground all now equally saturated and the men sitting there like cattle, morale and discipline melting away.

After half an hour, Edward had never seen the men so low, so visibly deflated, so defeated. The wind picked up and up, each gust bringing waves of freezing rain onto their scant, thin uniforms. They started to shiver uncontrollably, some lucky ones seeking shelter under the flimsiest tarpaulins. Those who couldn’t sat in the bottom of trenches that had quickly become swamps, hands thrust into pockets, their necks bent forward over their chests as rifles were cast into the mud, sentry duties abandoned, anything military forgotten about. Each minute rammed home that the biggest threat to their survival now came not from the Turks but from the weather.

The darkness was total, with the moon entirely obscured. The mud grew into an ooze that sucked in anything that fell on it, a slick, slippy filth that afforded no purchase for their boots, the leather already sodden and chafing. Edward held off from looking at his watch for as long as he could, but eventually broke and saw its luminous hands tell him it was only nine o’clock; it felt like four in the morning. He was so cold that he knew that to sit and sleep might be fatal; he had to keep moving, so he began a lonely plod up and down the trench, slipping and sliding, cutting himself a dozen times, anything to keep moving, anything to encourage the men.

The Fires of Gallipoli is a heartbreaking portrayal of friendship forged in the trenches of the First World War.‘In this vivid and engaging novel of war and friendship, Barney Campbell shows us once again that he is a natural writer. This is a novel of men at arms of the highest quality.’
~ Alexander McCall SmithEdward Salter is a shy, reserved lawyer whose life is transformed by the outbreak of war in 1914. On his way to fight in the Gallipoli campaign, he befriends the charming and quietly courageous Theodore Thorne. Together they face the carnage and slaughter, stripped bare to their souls by the hellscape and only sustained by each other and the moments of quiet they catch together.Thorne becomes the crutch whom Edward relies on throughout the war. When their precious leave from the frontline coincides, Theo invites Edward to his late parents’ idyllic estate in Northamptonshire. Here Edward meets Thorne’s sister Miranda and becomes entranced by her.Edward escapes the broiling, fetid charnel-house of Gallipoli to work on the staff of Lord Kitchener, then on to the Western Front and post-war espionage in Constantinople. An odd coolness has descended between Edward and Theo. Can their connection and friendship survive the overwhelming sense of loss at the end of the war when everything around them is corrupted and destroyed?The Fires of Gallipoli is a heartbreaking, sweeping portrayal of friendship and its fragility at the very limits of humanity.Barney Campbell, author of The Fires of Gallipoli, was brought up in the Scottish Borders and studied Classics at university. He then joined the British Army where he commanded soldiers on a tour of Helmand Province, Afghanistan at the height of the war there.That experience inspired him to write his first novel, Rain, a novel about the war, which was published by Michael Joseph in 2015. The Times called it ‘the greatest book about the experience of soldiering since Robert Graves’s First World War classic Goodbye To All That’.Barney has walked the length of the Iron Curtain, from Szczecin in Poland to Trieste in Italy. He currently works and lives in London.Author Links:Amazon Author Page • Goodreads • Publisher’s Author PagePublisher Links:Website • Twitter / X • LinkedIn • Instagram • BlueskyThe post The Fires of Gallipoli by Barney Campbell Excerpt #CoffeePotBookClub #WW1 first appeared on Deborah Swift.

The Lifeline by Deborah Swift – New edition #WW2 #HistoricalFiction

THE LIFELINE was published five years ago and over that time gathered up more than a thousand fantastic reviews from readers. Unfortunately when it republished, due to some sort of Amazon glitch it lost all its reviews and is now showing only 13. I can’t seem to get the reviews back, even though other books I republished got their reviews transferred without any problem. I’ve contacted four different helplines, and none of them were able to solve this conundrum. If you haven’t read this one yet, then do give it a try as it could use some love! It’s on KindleUnlimited too!

Here are its reviews on Goodreads

A heart-pounding WW2 historical saga that you won’t be able to put down!
From the heart of Norway to Shetland in Scotland, one couple fight to overthrow the Nazis…

1942, Nazi-occupied Norway

Schoolteacher Astrid Dahl has always kept out of trouble. But when she is told to teach the fascist Nazi curriculum, she refuses and starts a teacher’s rebellion, persuading eight thousand teachers to go on strike.

The Germans arrest her, and terrified of what punishment her trial might bring, she is forced to go into hiding.

Astrid’s boyfriend, Jørgen Nystrøm, has joined the Norwegian Resistance. When his cover is blown he escapes to Shetland where he is taken on as crew for the Shetland Bus; a dangerous clandestine operation of small fishing boats that supply arms and intelligence to war-torn Norway.

In Shetland, hearing Astrid is in trouble, Jørgen sets off through enemy waters to meet her.

But the Nazis have a spy on Shetland and have been tipped off about the Shetland Bus.

With the enemy in pursuit from both directions, will Astrid and Jørgen be able to survive and find each other?

THE LIFELINE is a moving war & military saga following the separate stories of a young man and woman in the Second World War as they fight for freedom in Norway and the Shetland Islands in Scotland.

BUY THE BOOK

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The Usurper King by Mercedes Rochelle #CoffeePotBookClub #Review #HistoricalFiction

About the book:

From Outlaw to Usurper, Henry Bolingbroke fought one rebellion after another.

First, he led his own uprising. Gathering support the day he returned from exile, Henry marched across the country and vanquished the forsaken Richard II. Little did he realize that his problems were only just beginning. How does a usurper prove his legitimacy? What to do with the deposed king? Only three months after he took the crown, Henry IV had to face a rebellion led by Richard’s disgruntled favorites. Worse yet, he was harassed by rumors of Richard’s return to claim the throne. His own supporters were turning against him. How to control the overweening Percies, who were already demanding more than he could give? What to do with the rebellious Welsh? After only three years, the horrific Battle of Shrewsbury nearly cost him the throne—and his life. It didn’t take long for Henry to discover that that having the kingship was much less rewarding than striving for it.

REVIEW

I hadn’t read either of the previous two books and had only a sketchy idea of the history behind this novel. I feared I might be lost and confused, but I’m happy to say I found this novel gripping and interesting and so I highly recommend this journey into the story of Henry Bolingbroke who becomes Henry IV –  King of England from 1399.

Henry came to the English throne by force. He made his cousin, Richard II, abdicate, and then seized the crown himself. This started the famous dispute between the House of Lancaster and the House of York. In The Usurper King the plot features the rivalry between Henry and the Percy family and Harry Hotspur who I dimly remembered from reading the Shakespeare play at school. This tension is what drives the narrative and provides two characters with conflicting interests.  The novel is impeccably researched from the real history and this shows. Mercedes Rochelle is a re-enactor and this is evident in all the little details that she provides that immerse the reader in the time. Even though Henry is the usurper, the author did a good job of eliciting our sympathy for him as a character. There is a lot of trouble and unrest in this book as you might expect and the author also does a good job of distinguishing who’s on who’s side. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the Plantagenets and this period of history, and it was a joy to see these historical events unfold on the page.

BUT THE BOOK The Usurper King: https://books2read.com/u/3nkRJ9 

Mercedes Rochelle

Mercedes Rochelle is an ardent lover of medieval history, and has channeled this interest into fiction writing. Her first four books cover eleventh-century Britain and events surrounding the Norman Conquest of England. The next series is called The Plantagenet Legacy about the struggles and abdication of Richard II, leading to the troubled reigns of the Lancastrian Kings. She also writes a blog: HistoricalBritainBlog.com to explore the history behind the story. Born in St. Louis, MO, she received by BA in Literature at the Univ. of Missouri St.Louis in 1979 then moved to New York in 1982 while in her mid-20s to “see the world”. The search hasn’t ended! Today she lives in Sergeantsville, NJ with her husband in a log home they had built themselves.

Find Mercedes – Website |  Blog | Facebook | Twitter | BookBub | Amazon Author Page |  Goodreads

 

 

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The Lotus House by Ann Bennett #Philippines #WW2 #CoffeePotBookClub

NEW RELEASE! The Lotus HousePraise for Ann Bennett:

“What an amazing read!!! I didn’t expect this to be a roller coaster of emotions, suspense, and mystery but it was everything!!… The characters were amazing, the story will keep you wanting more and more until the end.”
~ Goodreads Reviewer, 5*

“So captivating, I was on edge while flipping through the pages as fast as I could… Truly heartwarming… Emotional, heartbreaking … I loved this… A must read… Amazing.”
~ Page Turners, 5*

A gripping, emotional drama of love and courage set in the Philippines during WW2.

1960: Nancy Drayton, an American nurse living on Lake Sebu, is visited by a stranger who hands her some faded letters, given to her by a dying man. Reading them transports Nancy back to the terror of the war years.

1941: When Nancy’s world is blown apart by the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, she volunteers to travel to the Philippines to serve at the front. She soon finds herself working in a field hospital on the Bataan Peninsula in the thick of the fighting, experiencing the horrors of war first hand.

When tending to some wounded men, she meets Captain Robert Lambert, and they become close. But the Japanese are closing in on Bataan, and when the US surrenders, they are driven apart.

As Robert struggles to survive the horrors of the Bataan Death March and the brutality of captivity in a prison camp, Nancy too finds herself a captive, fighting for her life. Will they survive to find one another again or will the forces of war keep them apart?

If you enjoy compelling historical fiction, you’ll love this sweeping story of love and war. Perfect for fans of Kristen Hannah, Dinah Jeffries and Victoria Hislop.

BUY THE BOOK https://mybook.to/lotushouse

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ann Bennett

Ann Bennett is a British author of historical fiction. Her first book, Bamboo Heart: A Daughter’s Quest, was inspired by researching her father’s experience as a prisoner of war on the Thai-Burma Railway and by her own journey to uncover his story. It won the Asian Books Blog prize for fiction published in Asia in 2015, and was shortlisted for the best fiction title in the Singapore Book Awards 2016.

That initial inspiration led her to write more books about WWII in Southeast Asia – Bamboo Island: The Planter’s Wife, A Daughter’s Promise, Bamboo Road: The Homecoming, The Tea Planter’s Club,  The Amulet, and The Fortune Teller of Kathmandu. Along with The Lotus House, published in October 2024, they make up the Echoes of Empire Collection.

Ann is also the author of The Oriental Lake Collection – The Lake Pavilion and The Lake Palace, both set in British India during the 1930s and WWII, and The Lake Pagoda and The Lake Villa, set in French Indochina during the same period. A Rose in the Blitz – the first in the Sisters of War series and set in London during WWII, was published in March 2024.

The Runaway Sisters, USA Today bestselling The Orphan House, The Child Without a Home and The Forgotten Children are set in Europe during the same era and are published by Bookouture. Her latest book, The Stolen Sisters, published on 29th November 2024, is the follow-up to The Orphan List (published by Bookouture in August this year) and is set in Poland and Germany during WWII.

A former lawyer, Ann is married with three grown up sons and a granddaughter and lives in Surrey, UK. For more details, please visit www.annbennettauthor.com

Find Ann on these links:

Website • Twitter • Facebook • BookBub • Instagram

Amazon Author Page • LinkedIn • Goodreads

The post The Lotus House by Ann Bennett #Philippines #WW2 #CoffeePotBookClub first appeared on Deborah Swift.

Love Habit by TL Clark #MM #TudorRomance #HistoricalFiction #15thCentury #Monastery

SPOTLIGHT ON Love Habit: A Historical Tudor Romance About Christian Monks (Love Through The Ages; stand-alone historical books) Two monks in love… 1485: Paul timidly enters Darenth Priory to avoid marriage. In good faith, he expects to live out his days in chaste devotion to God. But there is temptation lurking within the monastery walls.For there is also another novice, Luke, who both resembles and sings like an angel. Is he a test? A gift?Paul must decide.Can these two young men venerate love alongside liturgy? Or will they be cast out?A religious yet irreverent story awaits.NB This is a work of fiction about what may have been, told in first person POV; a positive, realistic LGBTQ+  story which probably happened many times over and deserves now to be shared in the light with love.As England moves from the Medieval to the Tudor era, attitudes may be different than expected, even for Benedictine monks in the Catholic Church.NB There are scenes of a mature nature, which require patience to discover. Includes improper use of candles.TL Clark is also the author of How to Write A Historical Novel and Love it.

Got a historical novel inside you desperate to get out? Discover the tactics and methods to bring it into the world.

Award-winning, best-selling author, TL Clark, shares wisdom from her ten years of writing and publishing experience. Written in her signature warm, informal style, you’ll find this book as fun and approachable as it is useful.

If you’re new to writing, this book will:
~ Show you which aspects of history to research before you ‘put pen to paper’.
~ Give easy step-by-step prompts and tasks to set you on the right path for your writing journey through time.
~ Guide you through your options once you’ve successfully typed “The End”.
~ Provide tips on writing, formatting, publishing, and advertising.
~ Supply you with an easy-to-follow checklist of self-publishing tasks.

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The World Turned Upside Down by Seth Irving Handaside #USHistory #CoffeePotBookClub

“The World Turned Upside Down” takes readers on an exhilarating journey through one of history’s most transformative periods.

​This masterful work of historical fiction follows the audacious British-American colonists, known as the Founders, as they boldly rise against the mightiest empire of their time: England. Their unprecedented struggle challenged the status quo and reshaped the foundation of global politics and human rights, ushering in the era of democracy. As the narrative unfolds with rich, immersive detail and dynamic characters, the story poses a profound question: after securing their hard-won liberty, could they preserve and nurture the fragile promise of a new world?

This compelling tale captures the spirit of revolution and the enduring quest for freedom.

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“I thought you would like a narrative,” wrote Alex to Reverend Knox, “of my late involvement in a battle.”

“Asked by the hard-drinking Lord Sterling to help man some cannon, I went to Long Island on Monday morning, August 26.

Quickly, we learned by the return of some of the scouting parties that the English were in motion and coming up the Island with several fieldpieces.

Three thousand men received orders, chiefly from the Pennsylvania and Maryland troops, to attack them on their march.  About sunrise, they meet up with a very extensive body of them.

The assault from this flanking force began amid a clear and cloudless sky at nine A.M., the 27th.  This unopposed force under Howe outnumbered the whole American army.  It was now in the rear of the American detachments under Sullivan and Sterling, who rushed forward to defend the direct western routes.

Yours truly and my men, with few cannons to defend ourselves, set up in an orchard.

On the enemy’s approach, we gave them a very severe fire.

We kept this up for a considerable time until we were near surrounded.

We then retreated to the woods.

The overweight and rheumatic Lord Sterling, who commanded, immediately drew us up in a line and offered them intense battle in an authentic English taste.

The British army then advanced within about three hundred yards of us and began a heavy fire from their cannon and mortars, for both the balls and shells flew very fast, now and then taking off ahead.

Ordered not to fire until the enemy came within fifty yards; the patriots stood their fire coolly and firmly, but the British declined to come any nearer, although treble in number.

In this situation, my men and I stood from sunrise to midnight, the enemy firing upon us most of the time.

By a route never dreamed of, the main body of the British army surrounded the rebels and drove within our lines.  Ordered to withdraw, we fought through the enemy on every field and road.  We retreated a quarter of a mile before being fired upon by an advanced party of the enemy.   In our rear, we received fire from their artillery.  Our men fought with more than Roman courage, and I am convinced they would have stood until they were shot down.  We forced the advanced party, which first attacked us, to give way.  Through an opening, we got a passage down to the side of a marsh, seldom before waded over, which we passed, and then swam a narrow river, all the time exposed to the enemy’s fire.

The whole of our battalion’s right-wing, thinking it impossible to pass through the marsh, attempted to force their way through the wood.  They were almost to a man killed or taken.

The Maryland battalion has lost two hundred and fifty-nine men, amongst whom are twelve officers: Captains Veazey and Bowie, the first certainly killed; Lieuts. Butler, Sterrett, Dent, Coursey, Muse, Prawl; Ensigns Coats and Fernandes; who are killed, or who prisoners, is yet uncertain.  Many of the officers lost their swords and guns

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Seth Irving Handaside

 

Growing up in Putnam County in the town of Putnam Valley, named after General Israel Putnam, Seth Irving Handaside walked its roads.He explored the hills and valleys that American rebels tread. But, he often thought, what would have done when the head of the state, King George III of England, ignored his rights and the rule of law?Would he have marched to the tune of the revolution and been in a regiment commanded by General Putnam or sided with the loyalists?Fascinated by American history since elementary school, politics runs in his veins. He has spent the last ten years researching and reading about the founding fathers and settled on six men, three boys not yet twenty, and three Virginians who risked having their necks stretched to make the American dream a reality.

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Website • Facebook • InstagramAmazon Author Page • Publisher’s Author Page • GoodreadsThe post The World Turned Upside Down by Seth Irving Handaside #USHistory #CoffeePotBookClub first appeared on Deborah Swift.