Liz Shakespeare

I was alerted to this book via the Parish Chest newsletter, and straight away it appealed to me. I wasn't sure if the structure of the book, alternating the imaginary storyline chapters with factual ones would work or suit my reading style, but it soon did.

The author has done a fantasic job of bring to life, a parish in rural North Devon more than 100 years after the event. So much of whatever we research is open to conjecture because of lack of written evidence or simply because the subject matter was never recorded at the time - the fears, loves and emotions of a past generation. As I read the book, it has become apparent that the author loves the parish that is the subject matter and in a bizarre way has formed an emotional attachment with a group of strangers that are dots in the history of a single parish; a bizarreness that I hasten to add that I can identify with, as I have extensively researched a similar parish in rural Surrey. Of course the quirkyness of coincidence as the author realised that her own relatives are caught up within the storyline is one of the fascinations of family & local history… (plus d'informations)