Tracy Rees
RAISED in small villages at the heart of South Yorkshire’s
tough mining country, Tommy Green and Josie Westgate are destined to be a pair
of star cross’d friends.
Born on opposite sides of rival pit communities, the two
young people have always been marked out to live, marry and work by rules and
traditions that were laid down decades ago… but it’s the dawn of the 20th
century and changes lie ahead that will break down class barriers and turn
expectations on their head.
Welsh author Tracy Rees – whose debut novel Amy Snow won the
Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller Competition in 2015 – is acclaimed for
her acutely perceptive and compassionate writing, and her fifth book sets the
seal on her reputation as an accomplished and imaginative historical novelist. Inspired by the experiences of her own collier grandfather,
Rees brings us an exquisitely written, hard-hitting and powerfully emotional
tale of family, friendship, love, loss, cruelty and kindness set against the privations,
inequalities, social struggles and sometimes blind prejudices of tight-knit mining
communities.
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| EMOTIONAL TALE: Tracy Rees |
By far the cleverest boy at the village school, Tommy wants
to leave Grindley, meet people who talk of things other than mining, and find
rooms that are filled with books. But his schoolmaster warns him, in no
uncertain terms, that ‘the world’s realms and reaches are not for the likes of
you.’ United by their desire for something better and by their
fascination with the local gentry, Josie and Tommy become firm friends even
though their families would frown on their relationship as they come from
different communities and work for different mine owners. Tommy’s family are employed by the wealthy and glamorous
Sedgewicks of Silvermoor who inhabit a world that is utterly forbidden to Tommy
and Josie, but have always proved to be fair and philanthropic employers.
Meanwhile, Josie’s father and brothers work for the Barridges,
a family that ‘work their men harder than dogs’ and once lived in the grand
mansion, Heston Manor, which they closed up and left chained and unlived in
when their eldest son and heir died in a riding accident.
As an escape from their grim lives, Tommy and Josie have
found a way to sneak into the grounds
of deserted Heston Manor between their two villages, but there are dangers at the big house, and when they discover that its mysteries aren’t all in the past, the pair become entangled with two the wealthy families and their lives change forever...
of deserted Heston Manor between their two villages, but there are dangers at the big house, and when they discover that its mysteries aren’t all in the past, the pair become entangled with two the wealthy families and their lives change forever...
With hidden secrets simmering at its heart, The House at
Silvermoor is a penetrating exploration of corrosive class divisions, the
gritty, brutal and claustrophobic realities of working in a coal mine, the stubborn
loyalties that can divide families, and the breakdown of age-old traditions.
The bitter struggles of Josie and Tommy to shake off the expectations
of their communities, and to dare to dream of a life beyond the confines of
hearth, home and pit, inevitably come at a price, and their ambitions are too
often thwarted by cruelty, dogma and suffering.
But, with a narrative that alternates between the two young
people, we witness the gentle blossoming of both their precious friendship and their
daring ambitions, and observe how they become the symbols of a new era of
social change that will erode old beliefs, and challenge the strict lines
between classes.
Immaculately researched and with rich historical detail
woven into its delicate threads, this is a moving and thoroughly entertaining tale
steeped in romance, mystery and drama, and delivers storytelling at its elegant
and descriptive best.
(Quercus, paperback, £7.99)
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