Tuesday, June 14, 2011

A new novel...

...from a young author who won an award for her first, and this new one looks set to be the summer must-read of this year. It's terrific. Poor Banished Children has a courageous and adventurous heroine, good historical resonance, a gripping plot, and is written in clear and vivid English with a vigour which is fresh and enjoyable.

The young author is a relative, and it has been a delight to watch her writing develop over the years. The book is well-researched: I remember studing a 16th-century pirate ship with the author on a seaside visit a few summers back, and getting squeamish as we discovered the details, while she simply absorbed and noted everything...the story-line of this new book centres on the Barbary pirates who raided the coasts of parts of Christian Europe and took people off as slaves. Did you know that Britain's western coast, and parts of Ireland, were thus attacked? That a Devon village lost almost all its inhabitants this way?

Ordering books over the Internet is easy - this one is also available at St Paul's Bookshop, next to Westminster Cathedral.And there's more about the book here.

3 comments:

Fiorella said...

Hehehe. I can still remember the look on your face - or rather the sound that came out of your mouth - when we were creeping through the hold of the ship and you found the skeleton chained up in the brig :-) Happy days xx

Malcolm McLean said...

Well done Fiorella.

I'll try to buy your novel.

Little Voice said...

I've heard very good things about this book. I look forward to reading it.