Lucinda Elliot's Blog, page 36

‘Child of the Erinyes’ – a Riveting Series by Rebecca Lochlann

I first encountered Rebecca Lochlann on a Goodreads discussion, as I recall about the book ‘Ariadne’ by June Rachuy Brindel. That sadly neglected novel ‘Ariadne’ is, unsurprisingly, about Ariadne, the Cretan princess who takes Theseus as her lover and according to the legend, is separated from him at Naxos (legends vary as to the reason).

I thought that book brilliant, but in discussing it I was to come across some more books about Ancient Crete and the Minotaur legend which I consider even better.

During this discussion, Rebecca Lochlann mentioned that she was writing an epic series, the first three volumes of which are set during the 1600’s BC.. . The Bronze Age section of this far reaching tale would encompass the devastating earthquake which largely destroyed the ancient civilisation of Crete.

As the date for this earthquake is now known to pre-date the time at which Athens was an important power, though the main character Aridela was, like Ariadne, a Cretan princess, Theseus would not feature in the story as the love interest. Instead, two warring half brothers from Mycanae are rivals for her love as she becomes heir to the throne of Crete – which was then – unlike the mainland powers, a matriarchy.

The series is planned to extend from the Bronze Age to some time in the future, involving the same main characters, reincarnated as different individuals.

I was intrigued. I didn’t get the time to read the first three books in this exciting projected series for some months, but when I did I was riveted. . The books are lively, excellently written, brilliantly researched and evocative. Ancient Crete comes to life and the dramatic confrontations between these vivid and believable, yet iconic, characters are played out against a vivid depiction of the Bronze Age Greek islands.

I would recommend them to anyone interested in ancient history, historical fantasy and mythical fiction. These first three novels in this epic series, which deal with the overthrow of matriarchy in Ancient Crete are real ‘page turners’, full of conflicted loyalties, passionate love and hatred, adventure and betrayals. Besides the enthralling depiction of the terrors of the volcanic eruption and the excitement of the rivalry between the King of Mycanae’s two sons for Aridela, there is war, invasion, murder,

diplomatic intrigue, and adventure in realms outside space and time.

It’s a wonderful story and on reading it I predicted that it would become a classic and am confident that in time I will be proved right. Rumour has it that it has already been chosen as a set book for a college course already.

The characters are, as I said, true to life. You’ll love some, dislike others and detest what many of them do. My favourite was the fearless, straightforward, blonde Amazon Selene. My least favourite was Aexiaire, devoted servant to the arrogant Mycanean Prince Chrysaleon, who would do just about anything to serve his interests, including – of course – murder.

Below is the review I wrote for the first book, ‘The Year God’s Daughter’.

The story of the main characters, their passions, loyalties and fates is set against the background of the concerted attack on matriarchy in Bronze Age Greece, as typified by the ambitions of Poisedon worshipping Mycenae on the wealth and sea power of Ancient Crete, the bastion of Goddess worship.

I was drawn into this from the first, and extremely impressed by the wealth of background knowledge of ancient Knossos and Mycenae.

R Lochlann is an unobtrusive narrator, but in depicting the defeat of matriarchy, doesn’t take refuge behind a stance of ‘authorial neutrality’ covertly to endorse the brutalities of invading patrirachy; without being a hectoring, authorial presence she nevertheless clearly shows the brutality of her mainland, Poiseden worshipping princes in their attitudes towards women, the shabbiness of their motives in their attack on Goddess worship (whatever they might say to themselves of ‘putting an end to a barbaric custom’ in ending the sacrifice of the King for a Year).

There is violence in this story, but it is never gratuitous; erotic intervals too, but they aren’t written just to excite the reader but an integral part of the plot. The writing is strong throughout, and the author doesn’t flinch in portraying the full bloodiness and violence of the death of The King for a Year any more than she flinches from showing the hostility towards a women that lies behind a culture that regards the routine rape of women taken in battle as acceptable.

The characters in this story are complicated, vivid and human, their motivation often realistically hidden from themselves. Intriguing symbols decorate the chapter headings, redolent of Ancient Crete. All the archetypical factors for a story of epic grandeur are here, conquest, ambition, conflicted loyalties, love, betrayal permeate the story.

Aridela, impulsive, recklessly brave, warm hearted, sensual, idealistic, impatient of the ‘wisdom of her elders’ is a lovable heroine.

Her first love, Menoetius is a truly tragic figure, as warped internally by his subjugation to his brutal half-brother as he is scarred externally by the attack from the lioness.

Chrysaleon, hateful in his arrogance and dishonesty, impelled my reluctant respect through the force of his courage, but I hope for his come uppance later in the story.

You can buy this first book or the Bronze Age section of the fascinating series, either in book or ebook form on various outlets. Here is the Amazon.com link:

http://www.amazon.com/Year-gods-Daughter-Child-Erinyes-ebook/dp/B0060XMMSY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364722094&sr=1-1&keywords=the+year+god%27s+daughter

Review: ‘The Quickening’ by Mari Biella

 

I love a psychologically slanted ghost story, and classic ghost stories generally, and this is a combination of the two.

I was sometimes put in mind of ‘The Turn of the Screw’ and also of ‘The Woman in Black.’ Not because there is anything derivative about this story, but through the power of description and the skilful building up of an atmosphere of a remorseless, impending doom closing in on the characters, struggle against it though they do.

Reminiscent of classical ghost stories though this is,the characters are depicted with a depth and realism that is only possible to a more sophisticated age than the Victorian one.

The story is told from the point of view of Lawrence Fairweather, amateur botanist, a determined atheist and believer in rationality, who together with his wife Julia and their daughter Hazel, is struggling to come to terms with the loss of their younger daughter, Emily.

The shared grief about which the couple find it impossible to communicate has driven them apart. They cannot comfort each other. Lawrence, a naturally passionate man, represses his emotions beneath a surface of icy calm and drinks steadily; the sensitive Julia has been overwhelmed by her grief, taking refuge in morphine and opium. Their daughter Hazel refuses to speak, and concern over this drives a further wedge between the unhappy couple.

And yet, passionate feeling still remains between Lawrence and Julia Fairweather; this story became so real to me that I found myself longing for them to find each other again.

The two adults’ different interpretations of what it is that is causing an atmosphere of increasing fear and despair in their family home in the lonely Fens is gradually tearing the family apart. Meanwhile Lawrence Fairweather’s friend the local Doctor tries to help keep things on an even keel, while his sister Sophie has brought up from London the medium Mrs Marchant, in whom Julia desperately wants to believe, and who embodies everything that Lawrence Fairweather despises.

The writing is sensitive and evocative. There are wonderful word portraits, of states of mind, of the stark Lincolnshire countryside.
I could quote many, but here are three of the best: -

‘I sensed that whatever lurked there in the passageway wished me ill …It’s anger and hostility seemed to seep through the wood of the door and to radiate across the bedroom.’

‘A scarlet sun slunk towards the horizon, and stained the water in the dikes and the drains…The reeds crackled and hissed in the strengthening wind. A crow gave a strange, wild cry at my approach, and soared into the ashen sky.’

‘She carried her secrets with her like a child; I imagined them curled up in the warm cradle of her body, awakening, quickening.’

Mari Biellia leaves it to the reader to judge whether or not there is anything supernatural in the sensations and visions that plague the Fairweather family.

An excellent, disturbing and absorbing read.

Review – ‘Into the Deep’ by Lauryn April

This starts off as interesting, and gets more and more so. The main character, Ivy, is at first under the influence of a superficial, vain set of girls who see themselves as ‘high flyers’ but gradually, her new abilities lead her not only to detect a deadly threat to her fellow students but also, that people are often very different from how they appear to be. This has happy and unhappy consequences for Ivy, who begins to question her old values.

In company with the School Bad Boy (colourfully and sensitively drawn) Ivy is forced to confront the dangers into which her new, extra sensory powers lead her.

I particularly like the conjoining of the psychological and the psychic in this book. The writing is lively, but there are serious points being made about teen culture. The two main characters stand out because they are learning to question the accepted values of their contemparies. They are lead into an uneasy partnership and a terrible sense of responsibility.

There are a lot of brilliant descriptive touches, so many that it is hard to pick one out, but my favourite is ‘the clouds looked like orange waves rolling in and crashing against the darkening sky’.

The characters are excellently drawn in this, the pace is well maintained throughout, the tone of realism is impressive, and the contrast between the normal school background of Ivy and her associates makes a telling contrast to her strange experiences.

This is the third YA I’ve really enjoyed of late, and I have to give it a five star rating.

I have been meaning to start doing reviews of fiction generally, and particularly of some of the outstanding Indie fiction, for some time.

I can’t think of a better way to begin than with Lauryn April’s ‘Into the Deep.’

Now, I admit that Lauryn April has become a cyber friend of mine – but she was unknown to me when I started to read this book, and I was impressed with it at once.

I have to admit something else; though not a young adult (and not even a young at heart adult) I have a weakness for a really well written YA story. There’s something that infuses them which is lacking in most adult fiction – exubriance, maybe? – certainly, optimism. Life is seen as a challenge, not an tragedy, and life is seen through the eyes of those who find it relatively new and exciting.

This starts off as interesting, and gets more and more so. The main character, Ivy, is at first under the influence of a superficial, vain set of girls who see themselves as ‘high flyers’ but gradually, her new abilities lead her not only to detect a deadly threat to her fellow students but also, that people are often very different from how they appear to be. This has happy and unhappy consequences for Ivy, who begins to question her old values.

In company with the School Bad Boy (colourfully and sensitively drawn) Ivy is forced to confront the dangers into which her new, extra sensory powers lead her.

I particularly like the conjoining of the psychological and the psychic in this book. The writing is lively, but there are serious points being made about teen culture. The two main characters stand out because they are learning to question the accepted values of their contemparies. They are lead into an uneasy partnership and a terrible sense of responsibility.

There are a lot of brilliant descriptive touches, so many that it is hard to pick one out, but my favourite is ‘the clouds looked like orange waves rolling in and crashing against the darkening sky’.

The characters are excellently drawn in this, the pace is well maintained throughout, the tone of realism is impressive, and the contrast between the normal school background of Ivy and her associates makes a telling contrast to her strange experiences.

This is the third YA I’ve really enjoyed of late, and I have to give it a five star rating.

You can get ‘Into the Deep’ on http://www.amazon.com/Into-Deep-Lauryn-April/dp/1478267917/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1363466998&sr=8-4&keywords=Into+the+Deep

and

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Into+the+Deep+Lauryn+April+

Very Inspiring Blogger Award

I have been nominated for an award! This by lovely Lauyrn Arpil, whose YA books I love.

Take a look at her blog http://laurynapril.blogspot.co.uk/ to find out about those intriguing, psychologically slanted paranormal YA books.

There’s a sequel to ‘Into the Deep’ coming out soon, and I’m eager to read it, though sadly, I stopped being a YA a long time ago. I really enjoy Ivy and Brandt as a team.

So, I can only say, Thanks, Lauryn, you are a star, and your blog is always an intriguing read.

So, to comply with the rules, seven facts about myself.

1. I am a names geek.

2. I find polishing boots and shoes nice and soothing, so my

family tend to have wonderful glossy shoes.

3. I love tea. I love tea! I love tea!!!

4. I was so horrified by ‘1984’ when I read it when young – and got a

ridiculous phobia about it over the years, to the point where I felt that my day was somehow polluted if I saw it in a library. Recognising

this as neurotic, I did a psychological experiment on myself and practised ‘desensitising’ myself about it as I understood the process.

Accordingly, I went up to the dreaded object, touched it, handled it, read one sentence, read a paragraph, finally read about the torture scenes.. Ridiculous, eh? And I’ve never minded rats…

Well, I’m glad to say it worked and these days I don’t shudder with abhorrence when I see it, but I still say that is one horrific book, as of course, it was intended to be.

5. On a point so hammered home in 1984 – surveillance – I am

concerned for the threat to civil liberties by constant surveillance by CCTV in towns.

Ah, yes, I know the arguments – it can be invaluable in catching violent criminals (witness that man who carried out a disgusting attack on two women from behind recently being caught by CCTV) but I think we must still be very wary of accepting constant surveillance.I remember when I was a child the surveillance that we practised in Russia was deplored in the British press.

Now we have it ourselves, it has suddenly become a good thing, on the grounds that ‘If you aren’t doing anything wrong, you won’t object to it’. No doubt the KGB said the same back then…

6. When posting on my thread about Wuthering Heights on Goodreads

I noted something ironic in my attitude to Heathcliff. I started that

discussion stating that I am amazed I am that anyone can see him, with his habit of bullying women and children as romantic, and how ridiculous it is that he devotes his whole life to taking vengeance on the people who caused him to lose his love object Cathy (and their descendants).

But, I equally dislike the less well known Charley Kinraid from Elizabeth Gaskell’s ‘Sylvia’s Lovers’ because of his emotional shallowness. He’s conveniently able to forget his vows to marry Sylvia or nobody within a few months, and as for his compromises over the press gang – anyone who’s had the misfortune to discuss the issue with me knows how I can go on about that!

Now, there’s a contradiction, I dislike the one for obsessive faithfulness, the other for emotional shallowness! There’s no pleasing me.

7. I have a terrible singing voice. I would love to sing well, but…Nobody

can stand hearing me sing. The cat runs away! I can’t stand hearing me sing!

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http://mymykerikeri.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/te-houtaewa-and-the-stolen-sack-of-kumara/

http://bluebirdsunshine.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/my-wedding-ten-years-on/

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http://thomascotterill.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/do-memes-have-a-life-of-their-own/

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Some Thoughts on the Terror…

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Here’s some jolly pictures pertaining to the execution of aristocrats during the French revolution. That is a of the guillotine used circa 1793, I shouldn’t imagine the original was painted red, though I haven’t been able to find out…

I’m just breaking off here to make a few comments about the historical background to this story.

By the way, it does, I promise, become as Gothic and over-the-top as any Gothic addict could wish when Emile soon arrives in Wales, and encounters the would be time-travelling vampire, Kenrick, with his precious spectacles and habit of drooling on pretty girls’ hands; (of course, Sophie has already met this individual, once in the dining room, and once by her bed).

People’s perception of The French Revolution often seems to be on sensationalist lines – the looming guillotine, Charles Dickens’ lurid depiction in ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ , thousands of heads rolling into buckets every day, frenzied crowds of sans cullotes cheering, the tumbrels rolling through the streets…

Two reservations are appropriate here: George Orwell’s comment that regarding the Napoleonic Wars, as many people were killed in any of Napoleon’s big battles as were killed during the years of the Terror, and that the guillotine, though peculiarly associated in people’s minds with the French Revolution, was merely a comparatively humane mode of execution (compared to the slow hangings favoured in Britain, for instance) introduced at that time and used until shortly before the death penalty was abolished in France in 1981 (last used in 1977).

It was a ferocious political reaction to the threat of invasion from the combined military might of the invading powers and internal crisis – inhumane and tragically mistaken, like most punative ractions to political crises.

For aristocrats, though, and unfortunately often for those among them like Emile who had opposed the outrageously unjust situation of the peasants in the old order – taxed to support the artistocracy and with no political representation – the threat of execution was a real nightmare, with the new government inflexible in its definitions of who was an ‘enemy of the state’ and what constituted counter revoluionary activity.

For sure, Emile’s parents have truly engaged in counter revolutionary activity, been arrested, and await trial . He tries to get them out through bribery and corruption, while lying low disguised as Gilles a journeyman employee in one Marcel ‘Sly Boots” workshop; this workshop serves as a front for the eighteenth century style protection racket to which Marcel and his men subject the better off’hucksters’. They know how to get round the form of conscription just introduced, the Grand Levee…

Emile of course -two of whose younger siblings have been acidentally killed when their family Chateau was set on fire – must always regard the Revolution with horror – yet as a natural democrat, had his family survived, it would be more in line with his general temperment to support the aims, if not the methods, of the Revolution.

Sophie, Much more Open to the Reader Than The Scoundrel Emile

.Sophie and Agnes no doubt chatted like this as Agnes laced her, admiring that neat waist of hers…

Sophie I felt I soon came to know easily. She is motivated by the normal desires of a middle class girl of the late eighteenth century (her branch of the family having lost most of their status). As I said earlier, her career options are dismally limited; she must either marry, become a governess or resign herself to being a burden on her relatives (though the generous Lord Ynyr and the Dowager Countess hardly find her to be so when she is packed off by her brother John and his wife to life with them).

She is fond of children and wants to marry, but she wants romance and excitement too; she continues to read books like Samuel Richardson’s ‘Clarissa’ at Plas Uchaf as she did in Chester (where Harriet no doubt forbade reading in bed as a waste of candles).

At that date, girls couldn’t go off on adventures on their own behalf; they had to be passive, hoping to become involved in one through a man.

That certainly happens to Sophie…

Although foolishly romantic in some ways (she hero worships Emile and used to draw him as Theseus, Achilles and Robin Hood) she is earthy enough to sense the importance of physical attraction in a marriage and it perturbs her that the handsome Lord Ynyr’s touch leaves her unmoved.

Of course, having no mother to arrange a match for her, she has no choice but to do it for herself, and she has a try at Lord Ynyr, as any spirited girl would do. His title could hardly fail to appeal to her. She uses all the old tricks, laughing at jokes, flirting eyelashes, listening to him talk about is interests, besides, of course, her playing and singing.

She has, luckily, the most lovely singing voice. Emile likens it to that of a siren.

The young Count’s passions are hardly easy to heat up; but he becomes sufficiently drawn in by Sophie’s blonde and voluptuous sweetness to feel torn betwen herself and Morwenna, his cousin on the Welsh side of the family, who cannot believe that he can really be impressed with such an insignificant little chit.

That is, this is Sophie’s scheme until Emile turns up on a visit; within days, she’s unaccountably lost all interest in that title.

She’s untried – when she gets the opportunity to marry Emile, with whom she has become besotted, she jumps at the chance, though she knows a gothic doom of vampire infection and time warps hang over them. She’d rather take the risk of marrying her hero than remain safely unpicking the Dowager Countess’ Sad Tangles any day.

It’s lucky that she has Agnes, who is anything but subjegated by the then current views of female weakness and dependence, as an ally.

Agnes has her own ideas about everything, including the right of the Vicar to prohibit fortune telling and the absurdity of conventional moral codes for young woman. Her influence soon starts to tell on the compliant, sweet-natured Sophie…

Sophie Develops As the Story Goes On…

by Lucinda Elliot

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To continue then, with Sophie; I always see her as being, like Lucie Manette in ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ the embodiment of loving kindness. Unlike Lucie Manette, though, she is a female character whom the author wanted to show developing in independence as the story goes on.

She starts off submissive (as becomes a true Regency heroine) foolishly romantic, beguiled and in awe of her rich relative Émile Dubois, for so long her hero for his determined attempts to save his parents in France.

In true Gothic style, Émile on marrying Sophie takes her off to live with him in an isolated mansion staffed by brigands (in his case, fellow villains from his highwayman days, his fellow highwayman cum valet Georges and their jolly accomplice Mr Kit, plus his redoubtable wife Dolly).

In fact, Plas Planyddwyn is a comparatively modern house and situated just outside the village. I am unable to find a picture of a white plastered house, but perhaps it looked something like this. Monsieur thought it rather cramped, while Sophie finds it perfect.

Sophie found the house Emile rented near Llandyrnog perfect – but he thought it very small.

This is something like my image of Dubois Close, Emile’s own house (then rented out) in North Buckinghamshire…

Even then he is changing, though mostly he is his old, good natured if rascally self, and no doubt he can’t see how convenient it will be for him should he decide that the threat from the Kenrick’s is such that she must live as a virtual prisoner in the house.

As he starts to change, and the threat from the Kenrick household increases, he decides that it really is not safe for Sophie to leave the grounds without being accompanied by himself, or Georges, or Mr Kit…

The sensible thing would be for her to join him. It would not only serve his bloodlust, it would protect her from the Kenrick threat.

Here, to his outrage, he runs up against stubborn resistance.

Sophie has been brought up, like all girls of that era, to believe that a wife should be obedient (at once stage, Émile points out cynically that she has after all, sworn to obey him during the marriage service).

However, Émile forgets that her favourite reading has been Samuel Richardson’s ‘Pamela’ and ‘Clarissa’. In these, the virtuous heroine is compliant towards the dominant male in all things but in the matter of spiritual integrity.

And this is the ideology that gives Sophie the strength to oppose Émile determinedly’ she wont’ become a Semi Vampire like him because it would be tantamount to despairing of God’s mercy, and a serious sin…

Besides, she has the support of Agnes, as determined a girl as anyone could meet, who sees Émile’s transformation to a monster as clearly as it is obscured from his own understanding.

Émile has an unexpected fight on his hands…

Free on Kindle on 15 and 16 February – ‘That Scoundrel Emile Dubois’

I’m having a giveaway of my ebook on Friday 15 and Saturday 16 February on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Here’s the links: http://www.amazon.com/That-Scoundrel-%C3mile-Dubois-ebook/dp/B00AOA4FN4/ref=pd_rhf_pe_p_t_1_CSAQ

http://www.amazon.co.uk/That-Scoundrel-%C3mile-Dubois-ebook/dp/B00AOA4FN4/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1_D0FZ

It’s got comedy and  Gothic adventure and it’s got highwaymen and special breed of vampire, time travel and and two love stories, and here’s my blurb from Amazon.

When Sophie de Courcy, bored but patient companion to the Dowager Countess of Ruthin, marries her long-time hero, the dashing but rascally French émigré Émile Dubois, she has more excitement than she ever wanted as she is catapulted into Gothic adventure with man vampires and time warps.

With the help of her dauntless maid Agnes – who combines Tarot reading with a no-nonsense attitude – and whose own love interest is Émile’s swaggering valet and former accomplice, Georges – Sophie must come to terms with Émile’s criminal past and help free him from the machinations of their evil neighbours the Kenrick’s.

Set during the French Revolution in North Wales and in war torn France, this story is full of lively humour and combines believable characters and over-the-top Gothic adventure as a pair of down to earth eighteenth century villains become incongruously caught up in occult happenings. This darkly funny, sometimes sad and often romantic tale will captivate readers who enjoy well written steampunk and who love novels in the Gothic tradition.

The erotic content and violent element in this makes it unsuitable for under eighteens.
 

 

and

 

Emile and Georges in hiding at Brentford, at one Mr Kit’s…

For a while after their fellow highwyaman Tom’s shooting by a patrol of soldiers, Emile (known as Monsieur Gilles) and Georges lie low.  They have been dividing life between Emile’s town house, where Georges is Emile’s valet  and life in Brentford, where they are equals and stay with  the jovial rascal Mr Kit and his overbearings stout  wife,  Dolly.

Monsieur Gilles, shirt sleeves rolled up, skins a rabbit for Mrs Kit in her kitchen.  “I still cannot credit your being the cousin of some Lord, and able to light a fire and skin a coney as well as any of us. I never thought of gentry as having freckles, neither.”

He’s lost in thought and doesn’t answer for a minute; then he snaps back to the present, and smiles at her. “But I ain’t exactly lived as one of the gentry in a while, Dolly. As for the freckles, I always had the ugly things. I remember when my youngest sister was a baby, she asked -” he breaks off abruptly. “If it weren’t for Georges, I’d be tempted to go out on the highway again. I don’t like hiding away after what became of Tom.”

She crosses her arms: “Will it bring him back to get yourself shot, too?”

“I said, if it weren’t for Georges…Here we are, all done…I’m thinking Georges and I might go and stay with Cousin Ynyr in Wales.”

“In Wales! That’s a world away…”

“And yet it isn’t such a big world at that, Dolly. I met one Kenrick who I used to know from staying at Cousin Ynyr’s at a lecture in London when I was being my other self.  I never did like him, and he ain’t improved, bien sur. Still, I should thank him for making me laugh with the wild notions he came out with, all about time travel and wizardry.”

Dolly gawps. “Time travel, you say? Now I have heard everything.”

Georges stands in the doorway. “A lecture, you say, Monsieur Gilles?” He jeers. “No wonder the looby’s brain is turned, if he wastes his time with suchlike stuff. You’ll do yourself a mischief one of these days, overtaxing your mind by reading too many of them fancy books.”

Emile laughs. “It may be the tollgates and patrols pose a still bigger threat to rapscalions such as ourselves, Georges…”

Mrs Kit shakes her head. “You and them fancy words of yours, Gilles. You’ve done a neat job of that rabbit, anyway.”

Emile and Georges as Highwaymen

Swinley Forest – once a notorious danger spot for highway robbery.

So, skipping a bit now, I come to a slight career change on the part of those two assiduous rascals, Emile Dubois and his one-time valet Georges.

They’ve escaped to the UK, and Emile’s sister Charlotte -the only one he succeeded in rescuing on the night of the riot in Provence, when their family chateau was razed – has now succumbed to the decline from which the unfortunate girl had been suffering for years.

This is tragic for Emile, but it breaks off his last tie with the need to return to respectability; he can be a determined rogue now, and indulge his carelessness with his life as much as he wants; he’s got no surviving relative to consider.

He is hardly in a frame of mind himself to let the threat of a public hanging at Tyburn deter him; and high grounded moral scruples and fear are not things Georges understands, though his inherent sense of fairness means that he is happy to join Emile in his suggestion that they help to redistribute wealth in favour of the less wealthy a little – by acting out the part of a couple of late eighteenth century Robin Hoods, robbing wealthy travellers and giving a large part of their booty away to the poor.

On the night of Charlotte’s funeral, Emile, whose unusually taciturn state worried even the less than sensitive Georges, begins to talk again. “My financial affairs are involved, Georges. A good thing my grandfather had the prescience to invest half his money in Britain, eh? I should go and rusticate at Dubois Court in Buckinghamshire, fending off creditors with my tongue. Frankly, the thought does not appeal. Recollect you our fellow ruffian’s mention of one Mr Kit, living in Brentford…”

They soon set up a business concern with Mr Kit, and are joined by a man called Tom, who tries to rival them in gallantry towards the ladies, of the sort ascribed to highwaymen so often in legend, though not unfortunately, so often true in real life.

Of course, they have to watch out for patrols, ever more frequent in the 1790′s, and turnpikes are the bane of their lives, but they manage to escape from serious trouble until one night when they are surprised by a group of soldiers, and Tom is killed being dragged from his bolting horse…