Elizabeth Ellen Carter's Blog, page 5
October 15, 2020
Conversations with Anna Markland
In the second episode of Love’s Great Adventure Conversations, Elizabeth Ellen Carter talks with Anna Markland, author of the Clash of the Tartans series, about her contribution to the upcoming Dragonblade Publishing romantic Christmas story anthology, O Night Divine.
They also chat about writing and getting published. She reveals how, after being rejected by major publishers, she started by self-publishing and has now sold half a million ebooks.
Available for pre-order now and out on 17 December 2020, O Night Divine features 22 Dragonblade authors from around the world, including 9 USA Today best-selling writers.
Authors include Kathryn Le Veque, Caroline Lee, Chasity Bowlin, Collette Cameron, Hildie McQueen, Maggi Andersen, Mary Lancaster, Meara Platt, Violette Rand, Alexa Aston, Anna Markland, Anna St. Claire, Aubrey Wynne, Charlotte Wren, Elizabeth Ellen Carter, Elizabeth Johns, Elizabeth Keysian, Emily E K Murdoch, Emily Royal, Lynne Connolly, Maeve Greyson, and Whitney Blake.
PRE-ORDER O NIGHT DIVINE: https://www.dragonbladepublishing.com...
VISIT ANNA MARKLAND: https://www.annamarkland.com/
VISIT ELIZABETH ELLEN CARTER: https://eecarter.com/
SUBSCRIBE TO LOVE’S GREAT ADVENTURE MAGAZINE: https://eecarter.com/loves-great-adve...
CREDITS: Intro/Outro music and motion background footage used under licence from Storyblocks https://www.storyblocks.com/ Video produced for Love’s Great Adventure by Business Communications Management http://bcm-online.com.au/
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October 4, 2020
Conversations with Alexa Aston
Surprise!
I have a brand new project that I’m excited to share.
In addition to Love’s Great Adventure magazine, I’ll now be presenting a series of interviews with some of the world’s most fabulous authors.
Naturally, most of the authors will be historical romance authors, but I might switch it up from time to time to put the spotlight on authors of other genres. I have a very talented bunch of author friends.
The debut episode is with Alexa Aston, who is a USA Today best selling author and one of my fellow Dragonblade authors.
Together we talk about O Night Divine, a spirited collection of 23 short stories inspired by Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol.
Here is the interview:
There will be plenty more videos to come over the weeks and months to come, so do subscribe, share and leave a comment.
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June 27, 2020
Father’s Day
The King’s Rogues/ Heart of the Corsairs Crossover Novella
Kit Hardacre from Heart of the Corsairs meets his father, Adam Hardacre from The King’s Rogues. We see the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree but two men who are so much alike have a long way to go before they find they’re family.
This is not a romance per se, but it is a love story of family and hope.
Father’s Day, a special Christmas crossover featuring characters from The King’s Rogues and The Heart of the Corsairs. Purchase here: https://www.amazon.com/Fathers-Day-Ki...
It’s not Christmas, it’s Father’s Day
Father’s Day Blurb
Long believing himself an orphan, Privateer Captain Kit Hardacre is persuaded by his wife to learn more about his family. At the same time, Naval veteran and retired spy Adam Hardacre learns he has an adult son he never knew existed.
Thrown together one Christmas, by circumstances beyond their control, father and son must find mutual ground on which to come to terms with the past. Life is too short to hold on to regret, and a greater regret awaits if the two men cannot work together to save a life. Love comes in many forms… and none more strongly than the love from father to son.
Father’s Day Excerpt
Despite his confident words to Kit, Adam did not feel at all well. His head hurt like blazes and there was ringing in his ears. His stomach roiled. Concussion – or as near as damn it. He’d seen enough of it and experienced enough of it to know.
The weather had turned as bad he had ever known. The top portion of the scaffolding was beginning to fall away. It was not going to hold. A vertiginous glance down told him Kit had lowered Ross by hand, not rope, and dropped him into the sail cloth below. The scaffolding swayed ever more wildly as Adam climbed down to join him, working his way across until he reached Kit and the remaining two boys. Kit grasped the wrists of one and swung him out. The frame rocked back and forth. If Kit chose the wrong moment to let go, the boy would miss the outstretched canvas and fall onto the rubble of timber and masonry below.
Adam got close and hoisted himself up between a section of cross-struts. He raised his legs, bracing his feet against the brick of the clock tower.
“What the hell are you doing?” yelled Kit.
“What the hell does it look like?” Adam yelled back. “Stop arguing and just drop the bloody boys down!”
He felt the strain on his shoulders as he fought the sway. Every ounce of concentration and strength went into keeping the crumbling structure steady.
Adam heard Kit reassure the last boy. He squeezed his eyes tight and recalled what his son had told him of the corsairs, of the women and children he and his men rescued. He imagined that Kit would use the same reassuring tone of voice, one that conveyed empathy and compassion as well as trust.
He fought undeserved paternal pride. He had done nothing to shape the man Kit Hardacre had become, but he couldn’t wish for a better one to call his son.
“Watch out!” yelled someone from below.
Adam opened his eyes in time to see a length of planking falling towards him. A second later he felt the impact. His feet slipped off the stone wall and he managed to fall onto what was left of the platform with Kit.
“Get yourselves down here now!” shouted Ridgeway. “She’s falling apart!”
Adam struggled for purchase. He could no longer feel his hands, numbed by the freezing, driving rain.
“Easy old man,” said Kit. Adam couldn’t see him but heard the younger man panting and out of breath.
“Less of the old,” Adam snarled.
Kit’s voice was full of humor as he replied. “Chastise me when we get down from here in one piece, father.” Now let go of the beam and let me take your weight.”
“Too heavy for you.”
“Don’t argue, just do it.”
Adam put his trust in his son and let go of the cross struts. Every joint ached. He heard Kit scramble for purchase, trying to hold him over the edge as he had done with the children, but there was nothing for him to brace against and Adam was a full grown man, not a child.
“Let me go,” he said.
“No!” Kit replied.
“You have to.”
“It’ll be a bad landing.”
“It will be worse if I take you down with me.”
Adam ignored the pain in his head and raised it to look at Kit.
“There’s no choice… son.”
The agony was writ large on Kit’s face. He turned his head away and screamed, “God damn it Ridgeway! Get some men under here! Break his fall!”
Then Kit let him go.
Father’s Day Buy Link:
Read for free on Kindle Unlimited: https://www.amazon.com/Fathers-Day-Ki...
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Warming Winter’s Heart
Warming Winter’s Heart follows the story of Julian Winter who appears in Spy Another Day. Read his and Caroline’s story here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08...
The King’s Rogues Novella
Julian Winter is a secondary character in The King’s Rogues story, Spy Another Day. Read that story here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084DY8H97
A touch a kindness is all it takes to warm the coldest heart.
Warming Winter’s Heart Blurb
Julian Winter has had his heart broken a time or two. And he’s tired of his well-meaning family trying to set him up with yet another vapid debutante. His attitude to attending a winter house party is frosty indeed until he meets fellow guest Caroline, a widow with a young son.
Warming Winter’s Heart Excerpt
“I’m afraid my husband passed away five years ago.”
Mrs. Erskin looked over at Lucas. “And it is just you and your son?”
The question was phrased carefully enough, with just right amount of lightness and inflection to make it sound innocent. Caroline hadn’t remained so out of touch as to not know the second question that lurked in it.
Lucas was a typical boy of his age. That age, as near as she could discern it, was no older than four. Mrs. Erskin seemed to know that too.
“Yes, it is just the two of us.”
“Have you made plans for Christmas?” Lady Abigail enquired.
Caroline glanced over at Reverend Camp who, with the denizens of St Luke’s Mission, were handing out the last of the pamphlets while Mrs. Camp directed the rest of the ragtag choir in another carol.
“I’m afraid I haven’t the—”
“Then I insist you join us at least once. It’s been too long since we’ve had the pleasure of your company, and there are some new and interesting people I think you ought to meet.”
Before Caroline knew it, she found beginning to nod in agreement. How odd it was that no one could actually say ‘no’ to Lady Abigail Ridgeway…
Perhaps it would be no bad thing to re-enter society; her time of mourning was long past and reclaiming her position would mean she could speak to those who had influence in the House of Commons and House of Lords. Among them, she could make a great difference to the plight of the poor. And her position could only benefit Lucas as he grew older.
In the end it was easy to justify to herself a decision she was coerced into making. If only she could ignore the traitorous little voice that whispered also how nice it might be to spend more time in the company of Julian Winter.
“Then I gladly await an invitation,” she said. The look of pleasure of Julian’s face made her surer of herself than she had felt in years.
“And I look forward to running into you again – but under much more pleasant circumstances than out first meeting,” he said.
Was he flirting with her? A twinkle in his grey eyes seemed to suggest so. She felt a frisson of pleasure she had not experienced since the days of courting with Tristan. An unbidden blush grew on her cheeks.
Julian and his party took their leave of her and she watched them cross over to Park Lane and climb into the carriage that waited for them. The last of the afternoon light was fading away and so too had their audience. The final verse of Hark the Herald Angels Sing came to an end and Mrs. Camp’s makeshift choir started to disperse.
Caroline called Lucas to join her. The boy scampered up to her with at least three variations of paper darts and they made her way over to Reverend Camp.
“That was a splendid afternoon, don’t you think?” he asked.
“Well, we certainly distributed all of the pamphlets and I don’t see too many of them discarded.” She glanced down at Lucas then sheepishly back up at the reverend. “A few turned into playthings, yes… In any case, hopefully we have done some good.”
“I’m sure once people have read The Nightingale’s next article, today’s effort will not return void.”
“About The Nightingale…” Caroline hesitated. “I chose to use a pseudonym deliberately. I think it would be best if no one beyond you, Mrs. Camp, and the editor of The Argus know I am the author.”
Warming Winter’s Heart Buy Link:
Read for free on Kindle Unlimited: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BY1SPGN
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The Lyon Sleeps Tonight
A Lyon’s Den Connected World Novella
Dragonblade Publishing has a new connected world series called Lyon’s Den.
The Lyon Sleeps Tonight by Elizabeth Ellen Carter. A story in the new Lyon’s Den Connected World Series. Grab it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BY1SPGN
Love is just a whim away…
The Lyon Sleeps Tonight Blurb
Free-spirited Opal Jones and straight-laced Peter Ravenshaw are childhood friends growing up in India, away from the structured mores of English society. But all good things must come to an end. The friends are sent to England and go their separate ways.
Years pass but not Opal’s love for Peter. Opal is determined to get her man, but she will need the help of Lady Dove-Lyon, the most notorious matchmaker in London.
The Lyon’s Den will host a most unusual game: He who can stay awake the longest, wins the hand of the fair Miss Opal Jones. Peter is horrified that his beautiful, headstrong friend would give herself away on a game of chance, not realizing that Opal already holds all the cards.
The Lyon Sleeps Tonight Excerpt
“How long do you intend this charade to continue, Opal?” hissed Peter quietly.
She gasped, even though she knew full well he had already recognized her behind the mask, the paint, and the fine costume.
This was a side of him she had never seen before, intense and focused, most unlike her easygoing childhood friend. He approached her step by step, like a tiger she had once seen stalking its prey.
Now they stood no more than an arm’s length apart. He could pull her into his arms right now. She was shocked to realize how much she wanted him to do just that.
“Are you sure this is something you want?” he said softly.
“Are you asking me if I’m chicken-hearted?”
She took a step forward, close enough that if she deeply inhaled, the bodice of her gown would brush against his jacket. She could smell his scent, warm and earthy with a hint of spice. She could feel the gravity between them. The way he searched her face told her everything she needed to know. He wanted her.
“I’m all in,” he said and slowly slid his arm around her waist to pull her to him. The feel of their bodies together was delicious. He did not ease his grip, showing her he was in control.
He leaned forward to whisper in her ear. Desire hit her like a thunderbolt.
“Is there nothing I can do to dissuade you to giving yourself away on a turn of the card?”
Yes! But she had to remain firm in her resolve.
“No, there is not.”
The Lyon Sleeps Tonight Buy Link:
Read for free on Kindle Unlimited: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BY1SPGN
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April 2, 2020
The Day The Border Closed
One of the several places that marks the state border. This photo was taken in the 1980s complete from the Qld side into NSW with the Twin Towns Service Club. At that time Qld didn’t have gambling, so people had to cross the border to play the pokie machines.
My goodness, who could have predicted on January 1 what twists and turns 2020 would bring.
Here in Australia we spent December and January battling tremendous bushfires in all our states.
No sooner than the last of these had been extinguished, our nation – indeed the whole world – has been hit with a pandemic the likes of which haven’t been seen for 100 years.
The Gold Coast, the city where I live, is actually made up of a string of little coastal villages that grew together in the latter half of the 20th Century and the post WWII boom.
The southern most village Coolangatta (named for a shipwreck), sits right next another village called Tweed Heads in the state of New South Wales.
Coolangatta-Tweed is known as Twin Towns. Perhaps, more accurately, they would be cojoined twins because it is very nearly impossible to separate.
In some places, neighbours on opposite sides of the same street can be living in different states!
A town meeting with concerned locals. Queensland is on the left on the beach side. The gents on the footbridge straddle the border.
The South Coast railway was extended from Nerang railway station to Tweed Heads in New South Wales and opened on 10 August 1903. The terminus, Coolangatta railway station, was located to the south-west of the intersection of Griffith and Dutton Streets in Tweed Heads, resulting in a Queensland railway station being located in another state.
The railway guaranteed the success of Coolangatta as a holiday township and it flourished from that time forward.
Even now, the current Gold Coast Airport run way crosses the state border
But separate the two towns did in 1919 for the Spanish Flu pandemic.
The Queensland-New South Wales border was closed in January 1919 to stop the spread.
Being the height of summer many people holiday in the Coolangatta-Tweed region and they found themselves unable to return home to Queensland.
The quarantine camp to limit the spread of the Spanish Flu into Queensland. It might sound like a nice beach-side holiday but considering the concern about the pandemic, it was anything but. People had to stay there for two weeks before being allowed to travel further north.
A quarantine camp was set up on the Queensland side of the border at the beautiful Rainbow Bay. But unlike today, it was not 5-star hotels – it was tents on the shoreline.
Students in Coolangatta who would have walked across the border to attend school in New South Wales found themselves stranded. Hastily, a new school was established at Coolangatta.
The borders were reopened in May 1919 and had remained open until March 2020 with no end date announced.
In global terms, the influenza killed about 100 million people – more than had been killed during the First World War, but it was the economic catastrophe that lingered and can be argued as being one of the key factors than spurred the Second World War
An estimated 40% of the population of just over 5 million was infected. The death toll was estimated at 15,000 – 2.7% of the population, one of the lowest recorded of any country in the world.
A group of women cross the border from Tweed to Coolangatta, escorted by a policeman on horseback. They would be staying at the quarantine camp at Rainbow Bay, just over the border into Queensland.
At the time of writing, Australia’s population is 30 million and the COVID-19 death toll is less than 30.
Knowing that personal movement might soon be limited my husband and I took advantage of the beautiful national parks in our region.
There was one bushwalk that I don’t recall ever having taken. Twin Falls at Springbrook is the most beautiful place I have seen.
The Twin Falls are the major attraction. At the base is a place to swim and it’s popular with families. Those waterfalls are only part of the attraction. The 4km walk went over, through and around at least another six.
As part of program to better my health, we had been going to the beach more often and that is a pleasure that we’ll forego for now in favour of exploring places within walking distance.
However you’re spending your self-isolation, I hope you’re doing it well for your mental and physical health.
Coolangatta-Tweed as it is today. In the foreground with its lovely expanse of beach is Coolangatta, Queensland. Running down the centre of that peninsular is the New South Wales border. The river that opens out into the Pacific Ocean is the Tweed River in New South Wales.
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February 1, 2020
Open for pre-orders Spy Another Day
I’m thrilled to announced that Spy Another Day, Book 3 in The King’s Rogues series will be released on February 20!
This is the final book in the series and I have to say that I’ve had so much fun with these characters over the past 18 months. It’s been great fun bringing back Lady Abigail Ridgeway, the villain and later hero of the Moonstone series, along with her husband, the gentleman spy, Daniel Ridgeway.
In total there will be five stories in this series – the three full length novels: Live And Let Spy, Spyfall and Spy Another Day and two Christmas novellas: Father’s Day and Warming Winter’s Heart which is in the Stars Are Brightly Shining anthology.
And Father’s Day, of course, ties into the Heart of the Corsairs series.
Spy Another Day is at once a huge adventure, a psychological study and a romance – all of my favourite things rolled into one!
Here’s the blurb:
He is a dangerous man. And his darkness runs deep…
Reduced to genteel poverty following the closure of the family’s Cornish tin mine, Alexandra Gedding and her twin are saved from the wrath of angry, unpaid workers by the timely intervention of a secretive stranger.
David Manston, the disgraced Baron of Carreg, lives as a hermit in a clifftop cottage, his true identity unknown to everyone in the village – just as he prefers. His offer of mediation was to be a one-time act of kindness, but it does not stop Allie trying to pry into his past nor lessen his own attraction to the beautiful gentlewoman.
In the midst of strange happenings at the rundown mine, a figure emerges from Allie’s childhood – her notorious godmother, Lady Abigail, who possesses the means to lay bare David Manston’s darkest secret…
Will the truth bring Allie into his arms, or drive her away for good?
And, to further whet your appetite, here is an exclusive preview:
Excerpt
Her breath quickened. If her brother’s transformation had been remarkable, then David’s was even more so. She thought him devastatingly handsome in his working clothes, but now, dressed in evening finest – a crisp black tail coat worn with white breeches and highly polished black leather shoes, a cravat expertly tied and fixed with a sapphire stickpin that was both elegant and understated – he looked positively aristocratic.
Every inch the Baron of Carreg. A stranger to her.
He bore her inspection without comment, but when she returned to his eyes, one brow was cocked in a rakish manner that made her weak at the knees. A flush of heat filled her. She wafted her fan to cool the blush she knew was on her cheeks.
Allie drew in a breath and exhaled slowly to steady her nerves. She could not let David be ambushed by Lady Abigail’s stunt.
“There’s something I need to tell you about one of the guests tonight,” she said.
“Claire Owen-Jones?”
Allie started, disarmed. She nodded mutely. A mix of expressions crossed David’s face in an instant.
“Your godmother is a hell of a woman,” he said.
She didn’t know whether that was a compliment or a condemnation.
“You are not married to her as you let me believe.” It was less a question than a statement.
Allie kept her voice even, but could not hide the disappointment.
He nodded, his face a mask.
You want the truth of the matter? Look in Manston’s eyes.
All she saw in them was defensiveness and hurt.
“Is what they say of you true?”
His face crumpled a moment as though he were in pain before he recovered himself.
“That’s a hell of a question, Allie.”
“Well?” It was the only word she could articulate.
David swallowed hard, then spoke, his voice flat.
“I shudder to think what that godmother of yours told you. What was it? That I abuse and beat women? That I had to flee in exile to the Continent for ten years? That my proclivities are so vile that experienced courtesans quail? Are they the questions you want answers to?”
Fighting for composure was difficult. She felt her face burn. Her chest was tight, making it difficult to breathe.
David straightened himself, his normally open expression shuttered from her. “If I denied it, I’d be telling a lie. If I admitted it, that wouldn’t be the truth either.”
Spy Another Day, FREE to read on Kindle Unlimited.
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January 25, 2020
New Series Lyon’s Den
Now I can share some news I’ve been keeping under my hat for a few months!
Dragonblade Publishing is about to start a new connected world series called Lyon’s Den.
The Lyon Sleeps Tonight by Elizabeth Ellen Carter. A story in the new Lyon’s Den Connected World Series
If you are not familiar with the concept of a connected world in literature, it is a series set in the same universe written by different authors. There maybe supporting characters in common, or a particular trope but the hero and heroine are original characters unique to that author.
Dragonblade has a three of these – Wolfebane, Pirates of Britannia and, now Lyon’s Den – and Kathryn Le Veque is very generous in letting other historical romance authors have a ‘play’.
I was delighted to take part in the Pirates of Britannia series with The de Wolfe of Wharf Street, which gave me the opportunity to introduce Gabriel Hardacre, an ancestor of Kit Hardacre from the Heart of the Corsairs series.
Now, I’m thrilled to be part of a launch of a new Regency-set series called Lyon’s Den. Here is the set up:
Rich women with either bad reputations themselves or daughters with bad reputations pay The Black Widow of Whitehall to find them wealthy husbands from her gambling den near Westminster.
The Black Widow of Whitehall is Mrs. Bessie Dove-Lyon and her gambling establishment is called the Lyon’s Den, a front for the rather ruthless matchmaking service. She takes an ‘order’ from a wealthy woman and then targets the men who come into her establishment, rating them on their viability. If they meet her standards, she will trap them into the marriage contracts by rigging the games they are playing.
The Lyon’s Den isn’t a usual gambling establishment – they bet on odd things, like drinking liquor that’s been mildly poisoned to see who passes out first, or feeding gluttons too much to see who will vomit first. There are traditional games, but it’s more known for it’s odd and sometimes ruthless games.
Because there are high stakes to be paid out, it lures some of London’s finest men. Mrs. Dove-Lyon serves the finest wines and alcohol, plus she always has the best food in London. Lots to attract high stakes gamblers and she knows it.
The women who pay her for her services pay through the nose – Mrs. Dove-Lyon owns country estates, more fine carriages than she can use, etc, etc, because she delivers the best husbands to the most disreputable brides. It’s not a secret, but men go willingly to the establishment, some of them actually looking for a wealthy bride as much as the disreputable women are looking for husbands.
Mrs. Dove-Lyon comes from a very old family, but it was her husband’s family who built the house that is home to the Lyon’s Den. Located on the west end of London on Cleveland Row, the home was once known as Lyon’s Gate Manor and is distinctively painted blue. Mrs. Dove herself was a woman of questionable repute, rumored to be a courtesan, but she married Colonel Sandstrom T. Lyons, a much older man from a highly respected family. When Colonel Lyons died only a few years into their marriage, Bessie came to see that there was no real money left, only a mountain of debt hidden behind a good family name. Since the house belonged to her, she decided to do what she knew best – and turned it into the most lucrative gambling dens in London. By the time our stories are set, The Lyon’s Den has been in existence for about twenty-five years.
And check out the other great authors who will also have stories in this universe – Jade Lee, Chasity Bowlin, Mary Lancaster, Alex Aston, Maggi Andersen, Hildie McQueen, Whitney Blake… and there will be more announced as the series continue.
My story, out in July, is called The Lyon Sleeps Tonight. Isn’t the cover gorgeous?
And here’s the story blurb:
Love is just a whim away…
Opal Jones and Peter Ravenshaw are childhood friends growing up in India, away from the structured mores of English society.
But all good things must come to an end. The friends are sent to England and go their separate ways.
Years pass but not Opal’s love for Peter.
Peter has returned from India as a Captain but for some reason has become politely aloof to his old friend. Opal is determined to get her man but she will need the help of Lady Dove-Lyon, the most notorious matchmaker in London.
The Lyon’s Den will host a most unusual game: He who can stay awake the longest, wins the hand of the fair Miss Opal Jones.
Peter is horrified that his beautiful, headstrong friend would give herself away on a game of chance and steps up to play for her honour, not realising that Opal already holds all the cards.
Check back here over the next few months for release dates and info about the other great titles in the series.
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November 29, 2019
Your Christmas Romance 2019 Advent Calendar
I know you’ve been stressed dealing with the Christmas shopping, the holiday traffic and the 101 things which crop up around this time of year.
I thought you deserved some “you” time, so I’ve collated a 100% calorie free, 100% enjoyable advent calendar filled with wonderful seasonal stories from around the world.
As this is the season of giving, I’ve teamed up with some wonderful authors to present:
The Elizabeth Ellen Carter and Friends 2019 Advent Calendar
Each day between December 1 and 24 (in your local time zone), the numbered door will open with a Christmas story book cover and a link to a seasonal title.
If you’ve come to the calendar part way through the month, fear not! It just means you get to open lots of doors all at once.
I’d like to wish you love, joy and many hours of wonderful reading.
With love,
Elizabeth
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November 16, 2019
Film Review: Ford v Ferrari
Christian Bale as Le Mans driver Ken Miles in Ford vs Ferrari
One of my few pleasant memories of my father was sitting down on a particular Sunday in October to watch Bathurst.
For those who are not Australians, Bathurst is a large country town in New South Wales which hosts an iconic annual endurance motor race.
Back in the 1970s Australia had a motor manufacturing industry and the race came down to one of two teams Ford vs Holden (owned by General Motors).
The 12 hour race involves production cars rather than especially designed racing cars. The model of car you saw race at the weekend was once you could drive from the dealers yard.
Win on Sunday, sales on Monday was the mantra. Bathurst is Australia’s Le Mans.
And the rivallry between the teams and among their fans was fierce. My father was a Ford man and I became a Ford girl and even today I have a friendly dig at a cousin who is a staunch Holden man.
That’s me back in the year 2000 sitting on the bonnet of my Mustang having won best paint work at a local car show.
Funnily enough I’ve only ever owned one Ford and that was a 1973 Mustang with a 302 V8 under the hood.
Mustangs are considered exotic here in Australia and thanks to the Ford v Holden rivalry on the track, Mustangs hold a special place in Australia’s heart even though they’ve only been reliably available to purchase off the lot since 2015.
So being an owner of such an exotic beast as a 73 Mach 1, I became an enthusiast of all things Ford during the ‘first generation’ Mustang era of between 1964 (and a half) and 1973.
I have an autographed photograph of Carroll Shelby in my garage, I’ve read Lee Iaoccoca’s autobiography, so when I saw a film called Ford vs Ferrari had been released, then I just had to see it.
The film, starring Christian Bale as driver Ken Miles and Matt Damon as Carroll Shelby is phenomenal.
It spans a period of four to five years from 1962-1967. Ford Motor Company is in the doldrums and sees the opportunity to capture the teenage Baby Boomer market who crave speed an excitement by going after the holy grail of motorsport achievement – a win at Le Mans. Thus came the GT40, to this day the only American-made car to win Le Mans.
Matt Damon as Carroll Shelby uses some high speed persuasive techniques to ensure Henry Ford II sees things his way when it comes to his choice of Le Mans driver.
The only man to have done that is Carroll Shelby, sidelined from his sport because of a heart condition, he is now producing race cars and limited edition production cars – the iconic Shelby Cobra.
The only man Shelby know capable of winning against the all dominating Ferrari is scrappy British driver Ken Miles who is a demon on the race track but struggles to support his wife and son.
But to only see Ford vs Ferrari as simply a motorsport story or a Ken Miles biopic would be to miss out on so much more.
This is one of those ‘they don’t make ’em like that any more’ films, except they have, and they did.
As heart-pounding as the race action scenes are, where you can experience every down shift and have your heart pound at the redline, this is a character driven story and a love story at its core.
This is a man’s story and I mean that in the best, most positive way, and I would love to see Hollywood make a return to these kind of films. This is an honest and positive portrayal of men and masculinity – their drive for purpose and perfection is something which drives Miles and Shelby. They butt heads – even comes to blows – but the respect is there from the beginning and remains strong, right to the end.
The film understands the male psyche and brings it to the fore. I highly recommend that every female romance writer watch this film to understand how men think, feel and act.
Christian Bale as Ken Miles with his son Peter. One of the tender highlights of the film that paints the characters are fully fleshed out human beings.
I said this is a love story and it is. Ken Miles loves his wife Mollie (a strong and sympathetic portrayal by Outlander’s Caitriona Balfe), adores his son Peter and the feeling is mutual.
Ken also loves racing and the cars he brings to the track. That is no tossed off description. Ken brings as much dedication and his focus to his sport as he does to his family.
We really get to know this man during the course of the film, played to perfection by Christian Bale. He’s an intense actor at the best of times. The nervous energy he brings to the character is perfect, showing the drive takes Ken to the brink of danger in the drive for the perfect car and the perfect lap.
Matt Damon is never better as Carroll Shelby, a man who understands the drive and passion of a race car driver, but he’s taken a new venture – becoming a business owner with all of attendant risks that involves.
He is offered a deal of a lifetime from Ford – to build a Ferrari-killing race car but there are catches in dealing with such hide-bound bureaucracy in all its Mad Men-esque Mid-Century Modern glory.
Do see it at the cinema, the action scenes are best experienced on the big screen in its digital Dolby surround sound glory.
And Hollywood, keep producing films like this instead of, oh I don’t know, pointless remakes of Ghost Busters, then you might recapture your glory days.
P.S. If you think all of this motor racing is silly ‘boys and their toys’ nonsense, as this reviewer does, then I suggest you park your car and hand in your licence because the direct line benefit of motorsport exists in better, safer and more reliable cars for the rest of us to drive.
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