Wintercombe

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This is one of my favorite novels of all time. I love Silence, Lady St. Barbe. I love the description of beautiful Wintercombe, a fictional place based on an actual house. I love the details about the domestic arrangements of the estate, about how a lady was supposed to behave, about life during the English Civil War. During this time Silence – now Mistress of Wintercombe – has enjoyed a harmonious time with her children. Tortured by a cold, Puritan father, Silence has learned to conceal her passionate nature inside a prison like shell of passivity. Tortured by a cold, Puritan father, Silence has learned to conceal her passionate nature inside a prison like shell of passivity. Her eventual marriage does not offer her the escape that she longs for and she craves some semblance of autonomy. It is only the sweep of history that finally offers Silence the freedom she so desires.

Civil war has raged and her sombre husband has been away for two years. During this time Silence – now Mistress of Wintercombe – has enjoyed a harmonious time with her children. Yet this sheltered world is shattered when enemy Cavaliers invade, causing havoc in the town. Wintercombe, once a tranquil bastion of family virtue, is transformed into an unruly, drunken, and licentious garrison. The main character Silence who had survived a controlling and abusive Puritan father and upbringing and was married at 19 to a widower, who was old enough to be her father, with three children. She was such a strong character who would not let her true self be broken and held her ground in the face of fear to protect the ones she loved. A lovely warm tapestry of a book, weaving together suspense and drama with a bittersweet love story and a richly detailed account of life in an English Manor House during the Civil War. Pamela Belle’s best book so far’— Rosemary SutcliffWhat I did not like about the story is that the bad guys are so bad that they were beyond belief. No one could be as purely evil, gross, ignorant, etc. as her bad guys. Other characters were more well-rounded. Set in 1644, during the English Civil War, Wintercombe is no longer just the St. Barbe family home and estate. Occupied by enemy soldiers, Lady St. Barbe (Silence) must keep the household together and protect her people and land from the callous Cavaliers while her husband is fighting for his King, but she is still considered an outsider, someone not born and bred in Somerset, and the staff don't fully trust her. It will take everything she has to keep her children safe, and in the meantime she herself is blossoming, as if until now she had lived only in a dim light.

Silence St. Barbe is the Puritan wife of a man twice her age who has never loved her. He treats her with condescension, much like a child who needs his firm guidance. Her three stepchildren and three children love her to varying degrees but also take her for granted. She is the calm mistress of a household of servants who still see her as a London outsider and the daughter-in-law of a mean tempered, controlling old biddy who makes the lives of her family a misery – good Lord, Dame Ursula is enough to frighten a whole regimen of demon hellraisers into quivering jelly. Silence is also a woman of hidden passions and needs which no one has ever thought to inquire about much less fulfill. A lovely warm tapestry of a book, weaving together suspense and drama with a bittersweet love story and a richly detailed account of life in an English Manor House during the Civil War. Pamela Belle’s best book so far” — Rosemary Sutcliff England's Civil War has reached Wintercombe Manor. Silence St. Barbe, raised by a remorselessly strict father, has escaped her troublesome childhood home through a marriage of convenience. Her (much older) husband has left to fight on the side of Parliament against King Charles. Silence is only twenty-eight years old, but she has been left with the responsibility of the manor estate along with several servants and her five children to care for and protect in her husband's absence. However Wintercombe is soon to be occupied by Royalist forces (and an attractive Royalist captain who more than once, will come to Silence's rescue, or to her children's). You will be safe," he said. "You would not be harmed by either side. If Wintercombe were besieged, you could be sent out to safety. The children can go to the village, if you yourself do not wish to leave. But it may not come to that. The garrison may be withdrawn to Bath or Bristol, if Fairfax comes too close - and then we will all be spared." I thoroughly enjoyed Wintercombe but, although the book has a definite resolution, it is clear that there is more to tell. I am now hunting down the next volume, Herald of Joy. It appears that there is not a single copy of it in either a public library or a bookshop in Australia. I am now impatiently waiting for it to arrive by post from the United States. (Thank Heavens for our web connected world!) There are four books in the Wintercombe series the other two are A Falling Star and Treason’s Gift which follow the St Barbes through the reign of Charles II and the Monmouth rebellion.

Jayne, thank you so much for the wonderful review! It’s been great knowing that my books are being reissued digitally for not only my previous fans, but hopefully new ones as well. I know some find them a bit slow to get going, but I like to set a scene, build up characters, and let the reader get to know and care for them, before getting bogged down in matters of plot. That way, hopefully, you’ll be desperate to know what happens! Over the next few years 'The Epic', as it became known, grew and grew. Belle drew up a huge family tree and a plan of the house very like Rushbrooke. Still, as a family drama, it does make for a comforting read. The St Barbes are an enthralling, hugely likeable family, and spending so much time in their company has a similar comforting effect to watching multiple seasons of one's favourite character-based drama, where you are rooting for particular romantic pairings, glad to hear what one character truly thinks of another. It was an easy read, and still enjoyable despite my qualms.