Wilbur Smith with Tom Harper
WHEN teenagers Theo and Constance Courtney are orphaned in a
brutal attack on a British fort in Madras in 1754, the siblings vow to each
other that they will never be parted. But with the only life they have ever known now lying in
ruins around them, and the future looking uncertain, both youngsters believe
they have been cruelly betrayed by each other… can time ever heal the chasm
that has opened up between them?
From the dawn of the 17th century right through to the 20th
century, we have witnessed the fortunes and misfortunes of the sprawling and
ambitious Courtney family as they negotiate war, social upheaval and the dark
side of history.
Their creator is the phenomenally successful South African
author Wilbur Smith whose thrilling novels have sold over 130 million
worldwide, and whose full-time writing career began in 1964 with the
publication of When the Lion Feeds. Fifty-five years later, the 86-year-old shows no sign of
flagging as the nineteenth novel in the Courtney Series sweeps us away to the
mid-18th century for an epic story of tragedy, loss, betrayal and courage.
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| FIRED UP: Wilbur Smith |
At the heart of this pulsating new adventure – written with
thriller writer and historical novelist Tom Harper – is another branch of the
sprawling Courtney family who find themselves caught up in the bitter French
and Indian War of 1754-63, part of a larger imperial war between Britain and
France known as the Seven Years’ War.
The French and Indian War pitted the colonies of British
America against those of New France, a colony that stretched from Louisiana
through the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes to Canada, with each side
supported by military units from their home countries and by American Indian
allies.
In Ghost Fire, we meet 16-year-old Constance and 15-year-old
Theo Courtney holed up in Fort St George, Madras, in 1754 as the rumblings of
war between France and Britain are being felt amidst the well-heeled colonists
making money by trading through the East India Company.
Inseparable since birth, the siblings are as different as
chalk and cheese… ‘Connie’ Courtney is outspoken, restless and daring,
constantly railing against the restrictions imposed on her as a female in a
man’s world, while her younger, more cautious and serious brother has learned
lessons from ‘painful experience.’
When their parents are killed during an attack on the fort
by the bellicose French, eager to capture some of the rich pickings in the
East, the shattered young Theo blames himself for their deaths and is racked
with guilt.
Left alone and orphaned, Connie and Theo are placed into the
care of their cousin, Gerard Courtney, in Calcutta but while Connie revels in
her new life of luxury, Theo is set to work as a clerk at the local fort and
strikes a solitary and lonely path.
But he is still determined to atone for his mistakes and
when he discovers that Connie is compromising and betraying him with her new
free-spirited, free-living lifestyle, he decides to seek salvation in combat
and conflict and joins the British in the war against the French and Indian
army.
Connie, meanwhile, believes her brother has abandoned her,
and abused and brutalised by a series of corrupt guardians, she vows never to
let any man own her. Instead, she uses her beauty to manipulate her way to
France, where she is welcomed into high society.
But Connie once again finds herself at the mercy of vicious
men, whose appetite for war and glory lead her to the frontlines of the French
battlefield in North America. And as the siblings find their destinies
converging once more, they realise that the vengeance and redemption they both
desperately seek could cost them their lives…
Smith is on his best form in this thrilling new adventure
for the Courtneys as the action moves from the heat and humidity of Calcutta to
the chic society of France and on to the warring amidst the wilderness of North
America which would lead ultimately to the American Revolution.
Brimming with rich historical detail, real events, stirring
adventure, bone-crunching violence, cruelty, conflict, and soaring passions,
Ghost Fire delivers everything – and more – that we have come to expect from
this exciting author.
Caught up in some of the most dangerous times in world
history, Connie and Theo’s journey from childhood to adulthood is a
spellbinding, rollercoaster ride, and one that no adventure-lover would want to
miss!
(Zaffre, hardback, £20)
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