Usually I knew what was going to happen, but not exactly how, and I was eager to see how things turned out. Ending was NOT predictable. I am not quite sure how Belle’s books dropped off the radar–maybe the pace and the length? She wrote historical romantic fiction of the highest caliber; thank you for bringing her works to the attention of a new generation of readers. As the ugliness of war continues, Silence must learn to shed the submissive nature that life has forced her to assume and draw upon the inner strength that she has always possessed. Her eventual marriage does not offer her the escape that she longs for and she craves some semblance of autonomy. 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).

Wintercombe by Pamela Belle | Goodreads Wintercombe by Pamela Belle | Goodreads

Now, however, he has returned to Somerset to claim Wintercombe as his inheritance — but his arrival is greeted with trepidation and foreboding. Bitter quarrels break out on his first night home and soon, the old fires of family passions and religious contention are raging. In all the doubt and trouble and fear and confusion of her present existence, the utter certainty of her garden was a delight and a consolation. The sun would rise, true, but could be hidden by clouds and rain. Nothing would hide that joyous celebration, that yellow trumpeting for spring, and even if by some dread mischance she were not at Wintercombe to see it, there would be other flowers, other gardens. Not all the king's soldiers, not even the king himself, could stand like Canute and deny the inexorable turning of the seasons and the renewal of the year. Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth 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.

By Pamela Belle

The people of Bath were frightened, and furious. The soldiers were from Bristol, and could well have brought the plague with them, to infect their clean, sweet, and pleasant city, and they did not see why they should risk such a disaster when the Royal cause seemed well and truly lost. When it became apparent that many of the reinforcements were the hated and despised Welsh, their rage was redoubled. Crowds surrounded the governor's house in West Street, throwing rotten eggs and filth and stones, and shouting "No Welsh!" Despite the appearance of being a romance novel, do not let that stop you. What *romance* there might be in the story between the two (and I'm not letting on) is well towards the end of the book - what this book is about is characters and family and how they are affected by war as their home and lives are taken over by brutal, ruthless soldiers - and let me tell you there are some terrifying scenes in this book. There is a lot of family interaction and details of daily life in 17C England, as well as seeing the conflict from both sides. Belle really brings the period and people to life, and I especially enjoy how she writes children and pets. Married and a teacher of a class of six-year-olds, she wrote in longhand and, while publishers made encouraging noises, no one was prepared to risk publishing a large book by an unknown author. Eventually the agent Vivienne Schuster was wonderfully enthusiastic about it and found a publisher. She knew that she should, as a good wife and mother, of the sort called Puritan, turn to God for help and comfort. And indeed her prayers, morning and night, were more fervent than they had ever been. But she had always gone for solace to her garden, and it had never yet failed her."

Wintercombe - Lume Books

When her house is taken by the soldiers, with the leadership of Lieutenant Ridgeley, she and her five children starts to suffer with the soldier's brutality and harassment. This is the story of Silence St. Barbe, who has been left in charge of Wintercombe, near Bath in Somerset, while her husband and eldest son are fighting for Parliament. I could not help but contrast this with Lucilla Eliot's excellent characterization and similar experiences in her novel "The Bird in the Tree"!) I didn't know there were other books, that this is the first in a trilogy, and honestly it stands excellently on its own, but I'll be hunting out the others when I can!

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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." This is one of my all-time favorite books, and I look forward to one day seeing the house in Wiltshire that inspired this novel about the English Civil War.

Wintercombe by Pamela Belle - Dear Author REVIEW: Wintercombe by Pamela Belle - Dear Author

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. Thanks for reviewing this book. It is one of my favourite books of all time. It deserves to be re-discovered by readers who have been clamoring for a long-slow burn, more accurate history, amazing writing.Wintercombe is the first in a series written about a beautiful home in Somerset and its inhabitants during the Civil Wars that ravaged England. It’s a story of a woman taken for granted by all who know her who discovers an inner strength that is honed to fine steel over the course of a year. And how she discovers love with a most unlikely man, the Cavalier captain of the troop of horse which comes to garrison it. I do have to say that even if I love the cover, it’s hardly anything I can see Puritan Silence wearing though to quote Silence’s lady’s maid Mally the woman she do look “tarblish fine.”