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Judith Allnatt is an acclaimed short story writer and novelist. Her first novel, A Mile of River, was a BBC Radio 5 Book of the Month and was shortlisted for the Portico Prize for Literature; her second novel, The Poet’s Wife, was shortlisted for the East Midlands Book Award. Her short stories have featured in the Bridport Prize Anthology, the Commonwealth Short Story Awards and on BBC Radio 4. She lives with her family in Northamptonshire.
A lovely story, beautifully told and very sad for this is World War I and the tale of a boy, George Farrell, who loved above his station. The descriptions of the war and battlefields in France are vivid and horrific. George is every inch a romantic hero returning home much changed both physically and mentally. Although perhaps a little predictable one does feel deep sympathy for him throughout his dreadful ordeals. A well-written, very good mature read.
A poignant story of love and redemption, The Moon Field explores the loss of innocence through a war that destroys everything except the bonds of human hearts. No man's land is a place in the heart: pitted, cratered and empty as the moon...Hidden in a soldier's tin box are a painting, a pocket watch, and a dance card - keepsakes of three lives. It is 1914. George Farrell cycles through the tranquil Cumberland fells to deliver a letter, unaware that it will change his life. George has fallen for the rich and beautiful daughter at the Manor House, Miss Violet, but when she lets slip the contents of the letter George is heartbroken to find that she is already promised to another man. George escapes his heartbreak by joining the patriotic rush to war, but his past is not so easily avoided. His rite of passage into adulthood leaves him believing that no woman will be able to love the man he has become. A poignant story of love and redemption, The Moon Field explores the loss of innocence in a war that destroys everything except the bonds of the human heart.
A story of farming folk in the 1970s fighting for their living. A brute of a father dominates his eight-year old son and treats his 17-year old daughter like a skivvy. The mother walked out seven years earlier. How, why and what happened comes as quite a shock in this eventful tale of rural England. Most impressive. Comparison: Susan Fletcher, Angela Huth, Mary Lawson (Other Side of the Bridge).
A beautiful and eerie story of love and memory from the author of The Moon Field. Anyone who's ever lost someone is haunted Rosie Milford inherits a house in an old silk factory after her mother's death and moves there with her young children. The discovery of a shocking truth about her own childhood, when she is already reeling from the breakup of her marriage, fills her with distrust and fearfulness. Then she starts seeing a strange child, wandering in the garden, who seems as lost as she is. In 1812, silk master Septimus Fowler has grand plans to keep his factory in step with the industrial revolution: he will plant mulberry trees, rear silkworms and import new mechanized looms. Orphan Beulah Fiddement works as a bobbin winder and has secrets that the master would go to any lengths to get. Caught up in a dark adult world of illicit love, rebellion and revenge, Beulah must put away her childhood and draw on all her spirit to protect those she loves. Beulah's story of guilt and bravery will echo down two centuries and change Rosie's life as she struggles to overcome the hand of her own past and find redemption.
A beautiful and eerie story of love and memory from the author of The Moon Field.Anyone who's ever lost someone is hauntedRosie Milford inherits a house in an old silk factory after her mother's death and moves there with her young children. The discovery of a shocking truth about her own childhood, when she is already reeling from the breakup of her marriage, fills her with distrust and fearfulness. Then she starts seeing a strange child, wandering in the garden, who seems as lost as she is.In 1812, silk master Septimus Fowler has grand plans to keep his factory in step with the industrial revolution: he will plant mulberry trees, rear silkworms and import new mechanized looms. Orphan Beulah Fiddement works as a bobbin winder and has secrets that the master would go to any lengths to get. Caught up in a dark adult world of illicit love, rebellion and revenge, Beulah must put away her childhood and draw on all her spirit to protect those she loves.Beulah's story of guilt and bravery will echo down two centuries and change Rosie's life as she struggles to overcome the hand of her own past and find redemption.
A lovely story, beautifully told and very sad for this is World War I and the tale of a boy, George Farrell, who loved above his station. The descriptions of the war and battlefields in France are vivid and horrific. George is every inch a romantic hero returning home much changed both physically and mentally. Although perhaps a little predictable one does feel deep sympathy for him throughout his dreadful ordeals. A well-written, very good mature read.
A poignant story of love and redemption, The Moon Field explores the loss of innocence through a war that destroys everything except the bonds of human hearts. No man's land is a place in the heart: pitted, cratered and empty as the moon... Hidden in a soldier's tin box are a painting, a pocket watch, and a dance card - keepsakes of three lives. It is 1914. George Farrell cycles through the tranquil Cumberland fells to deliver a letter, unaware that it will change his life. George has fallen for the rich and beautiful daughter at the Manor House, Miss Violet, but when she lets slip the contents of the letter George is heartbroken to find that she is already promised to another man. George escapes his heartbreak by joining the patriotic rush to war, but his past is not so easily avoided. His rite of passage into adulthood leaves him believing that no woman will be able to love the man he has become.
A poignant story of love and redemption, The Moon Field explores the loss of innocence through a war that destroys everything except the bonds of human hearts.No man's land is a place in the heart: pitted, cratered and empty as the moon...Hidden in a soldier's tin box are a painting, a pocket watch, and a dance card - keepsakes of three lives.It is 1914. George Farrell cycles through the tranquil Cumberland fells to deliver a letter, unaware that it will change his life. George has fallen for the rich and beautiful daughter at the Manor House, Miss Violet, but when she lets slip the contents of the letter George is heartbroken to find that she is already promised to another man. George escapes his heartbreak by joining the patriotic rush to war, but his past is not so easily avoided. His rite of passage into adulthood leaves him believing that no woman will be able to love the man he has become.A poignant story of love and redemption, The Moon Field explores the loss of innocence in a war that destroys everything except the bonds of the human heart.