Retallick Saga
10 total works
1915: Ben Retallick is asked by a War Office friend to provide two traction engines for a secret expedition attempting to take two gunboats overland from Cape Town to Lake Tanganyika - more than 3,000 miles - to wrest control of the lake from the Germans. He sends engines with young Ruddlemoor as the driver, who meets a Portuguese East African nurse and takes her side against a group of white racist south Africans.
Meanwhile Antonia St Anna is influential in having Ben released, when he is arrested on circumstantial evidence provided by a business rival and accused of being pro-German.
In Brothers in War, E. V. Thompson returns to his acclaimed Retallick saga, immersing the family in the upheaval of the First World War and, through them, creating a captivating tale of love and war, loyalty and betrayal, loss and adventure that weaves its way from Cornwall to the uncharted territory of the depths of Africa - and an eventful conclusion in Cornwall once more.
Cornwall 1864. Josh and Miriam Retallick return home from Africa to find the chimneys smokeless, the men and women hungry, and Lottie, guarding goats on Bodmin Moor, an unmistakable Trago in looks and spirit.
Josh soon takes stock of these hard times to become a new power in his native land. While Jane Trago, a sensual woman but an unfeeling mother, sweeps in like an ill wind to take up HER new trade in the local tavern.
Against the fluctuating fortunes of the Sharptor mine we follow Lottie, as she is drawn first to Jethro Shovell, a dedicated trade unionist, and then to the smooth-talking aristocratic Hawken Strike. Little knowing how heavily the sins of the mother can fall - even on a daughter as wild as the moor...
Josh Retallick, hardy son of a respected Cornish family, and the wild Miriam, daughter of a drink-sodden copper miner, explore together the secret places and wild creatures of Bodmin Moor, unaware that fate will soon sweep them apart.
Yet destiny brings them together again and again through hard and bitter years when the forces of property and power fight to crush the sturdy mining folk who refuse, come what may, to see their spirit broken . . .
Josh Retallick and his wife Miriam take on an exciting new challenge as owners of Ruddlemoor china clay works on the outskirts of St Austell. But a family tragedy forces Josh to leave almost immediately. When he returns he knows that his youngest grandson will one day follow him.
So it is that several years later Ben Retallick journeys to Cornwall. His arrival rocks the local community - labourers are wary of this strapping young lad; rival clay owners see him as an unwelcome threat; and Ben's charm sets many a girl's heart aflutter. Deirdre Tresillian, a member of the landed gentry, takes advantage of Ben's naivety; Jo, a poverty-stricken young widow, brings out his protective instincts; Tess considers any man fair game; but it is Lily, Ben's distant cousin, who loves him the most. But what would the future owner of Ruddlemoor see in a humble maid like Lily?
As Ruddlemoor enters troubled times, Ben proves that in business no challenge is too great; and in love only one girl can win his heart.
Daniel Retallick has grown to manhood during the years of flood tide in the chronicles of Africa. The son of Josh and Miriam Retallick, he settles with his wife and children on a homestead in a valley of Matabeleland.
But the years are the 1880s, and the Matabele impis are advancing with their singing spears towards the deal-dealing Maxim guns of the white man. Daniel Retallick's loyalties, plans and dreams are about to be swept by fate into the whirlpool of history...