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Book Series

The Hodder and Stoughton library of great historical novels

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3
BOOKS
754
PAGES
~12h 34min
READING TIME

About Author

Charity Blackstock

Ursula Torday was born on 19 February 1912 (some sources say her birth in 1888 or 1914) in London, England, UK, daughter of mixed parents, her mother was Scottish and her father was Hungarian. She studied at Kensington High School in London, before went to the Oxford University, where she obtained a BA in English at Lady Margaret Hall College, and later a Social Science Certificate at London School of Economics. In 1930s, she published her first three novels with her real name, Ursula Torday. During the World War II she worked as a probation officer for the Citizen's Advice Bureau, and during the next seven years afterwars, she also running a refugee scheme for Jewish children, inspiration for several of her future novels like, The Briar Patch (aka Young Lucifer) and The Children (aka Wednesday's Children) as Charity Blackstock. She worked as a typist at the National Central Library in London, inspiration for her future novel Dewey Death as Charity Blackstock. She also teaching English to adult students. She returned to publishing in early 1950s, using the pseudonyms of Paula Allardyce, Charity Blackstock (in some cases reedited as Lee Blackstock in USA), to sign her gothic romance and mistery novels, later she also used the pseudonym of Charlotte Keppel. Her novel Miss Fenny (aka The Woman in the Woods) as Charity or Lee Blackstock was nominated for Edgar Award. In 1961, her novel Witches' Sabbath won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Ursula Torday passed away in 1997.

Description

Scotland in 1750.... Four years had passed since Culloden. Yet hatred still descended on the conquerors like the mist from the hills. The rebel Jamie MacDonald still lurked in the heather, evading capture despite the price on his head, his broken health, his lameness. And every so often---much too often---another redcoat would be picked off crossing the moors. In this occupied land that had already lost the half of its people, it seemed the other half waited silently to kill the intruder. Captain Adams had been posted to Culloden itself, his prime task to capture Jamie MacDonald: in this, beside a small company of nervous men, he had the doubtful assistance of Helen Moir, a voluptuous, black-haired virago who boasted of betraying Scotland, and the active resistance of gentle, indomitable Kirsty who could, he knew, quietly poison anyone who tried to ferret out her Jamie.

How the series evolves

beginning
The Bitter Conquest
0.0· tough start
finale
Poor man's tapestry
0.0· messes up the ending
overall
0.0· maybe series needed more care

Books in this Series

The Bitter Conquest

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Scotland in 1750.... Four years had passed since Culloden. Yet hatred still descended on the conquerors like the mist from the hills. The rebel Jamie MacDonald still lurked in the heather, evading capture despite the price on his head, his broken health, his lameness. And every so often---much too often---another redcoat would be picked off crossing the moors. In this occupied land that had already lost the half of its people, it seemed the other half waited silently to kill the intruder. Captain Adams had been posted to Culloden itself, his prime task to capture Jamie MacDonald: in this, beside a small company of nervous men, he had the doubtful assistance of Helen Moir, a voluptuous, black-haired virago who boasted of betraying Scotland, and the active resistance of gentle, indomitable Kirsty who could, he knew, quietly poison anyone who tried to ferret out her Jamie.

Scent of Cloves

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This novel is set in Indonesia in the seventeenth century, and it is characterized by the author's remarkable power to convey place and period. The heroine, Julie Ashley loses her family and her identity when Cromwell ravages Ireland and she is rescued from starvation by a Dutch sea captain. From Amsterdam she is eventually sent to an island in the East Indies as a partner in a 'Glove Marriage', bound irrevocably to a man she has never seen. In the mysterious island of Rua, with its luxury and cruelty, even her virtues are brought into conflict, and for the reader, the outcome remains uncertain until the end.