Retallick Saga Series

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.

Lottie Trago

by E. V. Thompson

Published 8 February 1990

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...

Chase The Wind

by E. V. Thompson

Published 28 April 1977

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 . . .

Ruddlemoor

by E. V. Thompson

Published 25 May 1995

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.

Singing Spears

by E. V. Thompson

Published 31 December 1980

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...

The Stricken Land

by E. V. Thompson

Published July 1985

It is 1899. A new generation has inherited the Rhodesian birthright that Dan Retallick won from the legendary king of Matabeleland. Once again, the dark clouds of conflict loom on the horizon as the blood-streaked bayonets of the Boer War encircle the sons of Dan Retallick. Nat, with one eye on the wilful wife of an English colonel, joins the colours as a 'guide' for the British army. But his younger brother Adam follows a rebel star and a farmer's daughter to enlist with a Boer commando. The tides of history have set Retallick brother against brother in the savage struggle of the South African war.

Ben Retallick

by E. V. Thompson

Published 1 January 1980

In the tin mines of Cornwall during the first decades of the nineteenth century, death is the constant companion of the working man. Ben Retallick has grown to sturdy manhood among the miners and fisherfolk, through the hard and hungry years when blood was often the price of bread. When cruel fate steals away Jesse, his dark-eyed love, Ben searches the hiring fairs to find her again, knowing nothing of her parentage and caring only for the day he'll make her his wife.

Harvest Of The Sun

by E. V. Thompson

Published 14 September 1978

It is 1846: the ship was bound for Australia. Aboard were Josh Retallick and Miriam Thackeray, prisoners destined for the convict settlements...until the random hand of fate wrecked their vessel on the Skeleton Coast of South West Africa (Namibia). Far from the brooding Bodmin Moor, Josh and Miriam are strangers in a strange and hostile land, an alien world of Bushmen and Hereros, of foraging Boers and greedy traders, of ivory tusks and smuggled guns. Josh, Miriam and their son, Daniel, live in times of turbulence until Josh is pardoned. E.V. Thompson's bestselling historical novels sweep magnificently from 19th Century Cornwall to the Africa of the Boer War. They bring the past powerfully to life, offering readers unforgettable evocations of the lives and loves of past generations.

E.V. Thompson Omnibus

by E. V. Thompson

Published 10 August 2000

SOMEWHERE A BIRD IS SINGING Sally is an orphan living in Plymouth's Barbican, where a vile trade flourishes in young girls, duped and shipped off to the brothels of Europe. She finds employment delivering wares for a local shop, meeting fisherman Ethan and Eva, a Salvation Army captain, who has dedicated her life to rescuing the endangered girls. When Ethan, his father and brothers are reported missing at sea on a fishing ship, Sally volunteers to help Eva's crusade - with near disastrous results. SINGING SPEARS 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 in a valley of Matabeleland. But the years are the 1880s, and the Matabele impis are advancing with their singing spears towards the death-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...

Fires of Evening

by E. V. Thompson

Published July 1998

Josh and Miriam Retallick - and their grandson Ben - seem almost a part of the wild and rugged Cornish landscape of 1913. Yet, as a revolutionary spirit of change sweeps across the country with terrifying haste, endangering the institutions of both mining and marriage, they symbolise Bodmin Moor at its most vulnerable. The advent of the Trade Unions and strike action pits owner against worker, compromising Ben's position in the community and threatening the future of the tin mining industry. And the presence of Ben's cousin, Emma Cotton, inspired by the blossoming Suffragette movement, is equally unsettling. It is a cause she pursues to London when she meets ardent campaigner Tessa Wren, but although Emma's steadfast refusal to marry young Jacob Pengelly stems from a commitment to her beliefs, the couple need to assess whether matrimony is truly incompatible with modern life. Events , however, are soon to take an even more unexpected turn, when the onset of the Great War plunges Europe - and the family's lives - into turmoil...