Blog
NEWSLETTER Sept 2023
Posted on October 31, 2023
Dear Reader,
Ups and Downs
Disappointing news that it would not be possible to market White Clyffe and King’s Mercy through the Great British Bookshop was a setback for the whole of one evening, eased slightly by medicinal doses of gin and tonic. But a brilliant sunrise stimulated a change of heart and a recognition that the immediate priority was to crack the marketing issue. An early return to positive thinking was fed by a lovely lady at the Gazette and Herald in Swindon and an offer to test a proposed advert via Facebook ads before the main campaign in West of England local newspapers.
The War AG Story
A busy summer has been dominated with the publishing of Second Revolution, a story of two young brothers taking a farm in 1929 when British farming was in ruins and there were no hopes of recovery. They just had to hang in there, spend nothing and build up the small herd of cows; survival plan number one. And in the end, it worked. The two brothers later took a larger unwanted farm in the Blackmore Vale, then came the war with Home Guard duties alongside twice daily milking, swiftly followed by the War Ag wanting to plough up their best meadow to grow wheat.
The compulsion to grow more food while submarines caused havoc in the Atlantic, triggered an attitude of mind in complete contrast to the survival mentality during the depression, and this carried through to peacetime. The War Ag was replaced by the National Agricultural Advisory Service and a new generation of farmers were introduced to an age of high productivity farming.
Available on-line from the Great British Bookshop; just enter Second Revolution, and/or ISBN 978-1-913012-97-7 though it can also be ordered through your local bookshop using the ISBN number. The recommended retail price is £9.99 but it can also be purchased direct from Foxhangers by email, at colin@foxhangers.co.uk The price is £7.00 plus £2.10 post & packing if this is required.
Chalk Stream Books
I have enjoyed a great deal of help and attention from Duncan Potter and the wider team including proof reader Emma Shuttlewood. Emma was kind enough to describe Second Revolution as “a delightful tale which opened my eyes to the plights and trials of an ever changing farming community. Having had great-grandparents and grandparents living on Wiltshire farms, the local history is wonderful to read in a story.”
White Clyffe, traces the ups and downs of a Wiltshire village family during a very turbulent century. Five disastrous harvests in seven years have been described by economic historians as the worst famine in English recorded history. Worse was yet to come: the population was reduced by one third during the Black Death during the first wave of the disease. Life in England was never the same again. The balance of power had shifted in favour of the villagers.
Printed copies of White Clyffe can also be ordered through your local bookshop using the ISBN number 978-1-83975-557-6 or email me at colin@foxhangers.co.uk . The recommended retail price is £7.99 or if purchased direct from Foxhangers the price is £5.00 plus £2.10 post & packing if this is required.
King’s Mercy, published before Christmas, is the sequel to White Clyffe which takes place in Wiltshire and the West of England during the ugly years when the King’s forces were working to gain control during the Peasant’s Revolt. Printed books can also be ordered through your local bookshop using the ISBN number 978-1-80381-062-1 or visit Foxhangers again for the best price at £7.00.
A Review of ‘King’s Mercy’ by Colin Fletcher. 2022. ISBN 978-1-80381-062-1
The King’s Mercy (197 pages) is Colin Fletcher’s sequel to White Clyffe (129 pages), which established several characters in medieval England around the time of Richard II. These novels are therefore basically historical, but cleverly seen through the eyes of those who would have lived at the time.
The essential plotline started in his first novel, White Clyffe, and moves on here to the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 in the counties of Wiltshire and Somerset, and extending into Dorset and Hampshire. Charles the Clothier provides the chief thread and while knowledge of the areas is helpful, it is by no means essential.
While it would be preferable to read in order, both books can stand alone. ‘King’s Mercy’ continues Fletcher’s easily readable style, invoking page turning. He paints perfect pen pictures of the characters, which may be read as a Prologue before embarking on the journey through a fascinating period in England’s history. His use of the occasional dialects adds authenticity to the characters and his descriptions of working lives in the associated counties provide an interesting insight to 14th Century England.
Himself a farmer in Wiltshire, he uses his experiences to make the reader feel completely at home with his descriptions of both people and their work. He also shows a good grasp of maritime and river navigational aspects.
These novels are not what might be described as ‘cliff hangers’, but that is irrelevant to what are two thoroughly enjoyable reads. Recommended.
Cdr John R M Prime RN Retd.
1 August 2023
John Prime is a friend of many years and a fellow author, specialising in the Falklands War. His own and his colleague’s experiences are the core of his own accounts of dramatic days in the South Atlantic. Thank you, John.
I will be delighted to read all comments and opinions of my books and aim to show a selection in this newsletter. Please feel free to express your views – I promise not to be offended.
Best wishes to you all,
Colin Fletcher
