Historical Fiction
History fascinates me. It's part of my past, your past, everybody's past.
Hold my Hand and Run
isbn 019-275168-9
Kazy is thirteen, and the year is 1628. Life at home has become unbearable, and her little sister is suffering. What can she do? Kazy needs all her strength and quick thinking to battle her way across the north of England to a place of safety.
The period and the landscape are vividly portrayed, the characters are compelling, and I cannot recommend this book highly enough
Carousel
Readers will be swept along by the thrills and spills of this survival adventure story
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
An exciting story with an authentic historical background and some very deep undertones
Historical novels review
High Crag Linn
isbn 978-0-7459-6062-3
HIGH CRAG LINN is for slightly older readers, about 12 plus. It's set at the end of the Middle Ages, at a time of war and upheaval. With outlaws threatening their village and all the fighting men at war, the people of Hollylaw are under terrible attack. In the castle, fourteen year old Anna and her maid Thomasin think they see a solution.
How bad can things become?
How good can things become?
What do you do when all you know and love is destroyed?
High Crag Linn was nominated for Lancashire Book of the Year 2008
A real page-turner...a plot packed with surprises
Beth Webb, author of the Star Dancer novels
I read it with great enjoyment - a brave adventure story following the paths of both villains and heroines to a rousing conclusion.
Julia Golding, author of The Diamond of Dury Lane
Very good historical novel - girls of 12 and up will gain much from this book
Books for Keeps
Extract:
Prologue
It was not always like this. If you go to Hollylaw in summer today, you find a gleam of cars jostling to park in the market place because the visitors love it so much. They would like to live in this village with its ruined castle on the top of the hill, its weathered old church at the bottom, and stone cottages in between. Bright flowers trail from hanging baskets and windowboxes. There are antique and bric-a-brac shops, a delicatessen, a bookshop called Holly Leaves, the Lillie Arms Hotel with a bar called Jankin's Lair, and the Flower of Hollylaw Gift Shop and Tea Rooms, where a girl and her mother are finishing their iced drinks. The mother browses among the postcards and pretty paper napkins while the girl goes to explore the village. She is fourteen, on holiday, and has not been here before.
She wanders down to the church, imagining this village in the past, not noticing that that she is walking over a flagstone with something carved into one corner. It is old and worn, and could be a flower. A lily? In the coolness of the church with its smell of flowers and furniture polish, she picks up a leaflet, photocopied on yellow paper, which gives the story of the village.
The most well-known and poignant story of Hollylaw is of Anna, 'the Flower of Hollylaw'. She was the only daughter of the Lord of the Manor, Sir Hugh Lillie, and his wife Lady Isabel. Hollylaw, being in a wild and remote pan of the north, was threatened by a gang of outlaws led by Jankin, or Hawl{ Jankin, whose family had been the overlords in the past. In the Wars of the Roses, Sir Hugh, his only son (also Hugh) and most of the able-bodied men had gone to fight on King Richard's side, so the village was poorly defended. Hawk Jankin and his men attacked ruthlessly. Anybody who defied them was taken to High Crag Linn waterfall and hurled down to die on to the rocks. Anna Lillie was believed at this time to be about fourteen years old, which, at that time, was considered old enough to marry.
Fourteen, thinks the girl. Like me.
High Crag Tower. Hawk Jankin looked down from a dim, grim room that smelled of sweat and leather. His hair was red and wild, coarse ginger hairs grew thickly on his arms and the backs of his hands, and his leather jerkin and boots were hard worn. From a slit of a window in the rough stone he could see six men tramping up the steep hill, three of them leading horses. The tower was cool, but outside the sun was strong and the laden horses glistened with sweat. The trapdoor in the floor banged open and shut again, but Jankin did no more than glance over his shoulder as his kinsman Falcon strode to his side.
Falcon's boots creaked and the sword at his side swayed. Long dark hair straggled down his back. He was a little taller than Jankin, and stretched to look over the top of his head.
'Are they bringing the Hollylaw harvest?' he asked idly. 'We may as well have it. We already have their sheep.'
'Our sheep,' said Jankin. 'Our sheep, our cattle and our harvest. It's all ours by right, and we'll have it again.'
'Soon?' asked Falcon. He was almost smiling, which was a rare thing for Falcon.
'Very soon,' said Jankin. 'With the fighting men away, they can't hold against us. We took horses last week, we went back for the sheep, we're carrying off their harvest, and they haven't even followed.'
'That's because they know about High Crag Linn and don't want to end up at the bottom of it,' observed Falcon calmly. 'It's my guess that Lady Isabel won't send for help any more. The bottom of the Linn could get dammed up with bodies. Mind, I didn't push the last one down the Linn. He was more trouble than he was worth so I left him dead on the moors, but it's gey hot for leaving a body lying around. If you think Hollylaw is ours for the taking, why don't we take it now?'
Jankin grinned as he examined his grimy fingernails. 'We could take Hollylaw tonight,' he said. 'We could take it any time, but it's not enough to take it by force. We need to hold it by lawful right so nobody can ever take it from us.'
There was still a smile on his face as he turned to face Falcon — the smile of the man who throws a pair of loaded dice and knows he has already won.
'I have Hollylaw and the castle in my hand,' he said. 'The chances are that Sir Hugh and his son will not come back alive from this war. We can make sure they don't, if we have to. With neither of them left, it will pass to...'
'Young Anna! But she's only a lassie!' said Falcon.
'She's old enough to wed,' he said. 'And she's a beauty.'
'The mother won't have it,' said Falcon.
'It's not the mother I want,' said Jankin, and their laughter scared the crows from the battlements above them. 'We'll do this properly. I'm the true lord of Hollylaw, and that's what they're going to see. Whenever we ride to Hollylaw, you and I must look like knights from the court. Anna might be scared of marrying me, but she won't be ashamed. Falcon, be my ambassador. Take a gift — there's a silver chain we got from somewhere — take that, take an escort, give my regards to Lady Isabel and tell her I want to marry her daughter. Give her a day, then go back for her answer.'
Falcon jumped back down through the trapdoor, scattering the rats below. Striding towards the spring to wash, unlacing his jerkin, he heard the clink and creak of harness. The sweaty horses and sweatier men were bringing Hollylaw's harvest to Jankin's store.
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