A Shilling on Good Friday: VOLUME ONE: A Lesson Learnt (A Shilling on Good Friday: A Lesson Learnt) - Softcover

Hoare, John Adrian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0993336906 ISBN 13: 9780993336904

Publisher: Man of Kent Publishing, 2015

Synopsis

A novel based on the short, eventful and tragic life of Englishman William Reynolds as it unfolds against that of Prussian immigrant to the USA, George Atzerodt.

Following the death of his father in Gosport’s Haslar Hospital in 1853, a seafaring uncle exerts a paternalistic influence upon the young William Reynolds, deviously arranging his entry into the Royal Navy. This was much against his will since William’s ambition was to become a soldier.

Raised by his widowed mother and grandmother, Reynolds’ story shifts from the Hampshire village of Forton – and the kindly Parson Veck – to the boisterous streets of Portsmouth. Come 1862 and while attached to the Navy’s North America and West Indies Station, the disillusioned naval rating finds himself and his ship – the gunvessel HMS Cygnet – moored in Halifax harbour, Nova Scotia. After an abortive attempt to jump ship he is sent ashore to spend four weeks confined in the grim, local penitentiary. Yet it is here, with the connivance of others, that a plan is hatched to desert the Cygnet.

When that plan is successfully executed, shortly after returning to his ship from the penitentiary, Reynolds makes his way south, eventually arriving in the city of Baltimore. Here, in the Civil War-torn United States, he seeks a new beginning and realisation of his wish to become a soldier…

‘A thrilling adventure story in the tradition of great British storytellers.’ – Edward Steers Jr., American historian and author of Blood On The Moon (the University Press of Kentucky 2001) and The Lincoln Assassination Encyclopaedia (Harper Perennial 2010)

 

About this title

About the Author

Adrian John Hoare is a retired local government officer and former Chartered Town Planner. He lives in the village of Hildenborough, near Tonbridge, in Kent, England with his wife, Theresa.

Edition details

• Publisher: Man of Kent Publishing
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0993336906
• ISBN 13: 9780993336904
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464