A Visit to Bedlam -Bloody Vengeance by Jemahl Evans
The Welcome Return of Sir Blandford Candy in 2026
In 2015, the world was introduced to Sir Blanford Candy " an irascible old drunk with a hatred of poets and a lover of hats", ninety five years old in 1719 and counjouring up his years fighting in the Civil Wars. The first novel in the series was The Last Roundhead. Readers looking for stories about dashing Cavaliers or Puritan idealists building a new Jerusalem will probably not immediately take to Jemahl Evans's work which is quite 'anti-heroic'. But this is immaculately researched and entertaining historical fiction drawing in both the obvious and far lesser known aspects of the British and Irish Civil Wars. The endnotes of Jemahl Evans's work show the depth of his knowledge for this era. But in 2019 the series ended.
Seven years later, a sequel emerges, A Visit to Bedlam.Opening in 1648. Blandford Candy's old school chum Hezekiah is caught up in a feud with his brother and their 'Cane and Abel' relationships seethes throughout the story. The novel opens with a visit to Bedlam leading to horrors of its own. Blandford Candy makes a brief appearance, rather pleased to be on the winning side and to have a position within the new ruling elite. King Charles has been executed, the next round of the Civil Wars is yet to flare up. Hezekiah remains centre stage in this tale.
Hezekiah finds himself in exile in France in the early 1650s and joins a band of travelling players,performing Molière's plays, the paywright himself becomes a minor figure in the novel. France is just coming out of its own civil wars known as the Fronde- and is heading for a conflict with Spain. And so the decade unravels in France.The travelling players encounter their own internal dramas and a world deteriorating into farce and disorder. Hezekiah meets some famous musketeers but is straining at the leash, wanting to pursue his own Jacobean type revenge tragedy. Just like his school friend, Hezekiah is no hero or idealist, simply doing his best to survive during fractured times. For a short while he does some clandestine work for Cardinal Manzarin.
As 1660 dawns Hezekiah returns to Restoration England. The pace of A Visit to Bedlam accelerates and becomes quite sensational, as Hezekiah starts to settle various scores. There is only one man who can stop him- and that happens to be Blandford Candy. Samuel Pepys and two of his young Admirality clerks also get embroiled in the events of this story.....and everything crashes. Captivating work. Just not clear where the 'Blandford Candy' series can go from here.
The attention to historic detail and archaic language do not cause the plotline to stumble.References to literature as well as history are woven in well. A Visit to Bedlam should please readers of the earlier novels even though it belongs to a slightly later historical setting. A roaring success.
Sir Blandford Candy books : Kindle versions are on Amazon UK.
The Last Roundhead (2015)
This Deceitful Light (2017)
Of Blood Exhausted (2019)
The Emerald Cross (2019)
A Blood Campaign (2019
A Visit to Bedlam (2016)
This Deceitful Light (2017)
Of Blood Exhausted (2019)
The Emerald Cross (2019)
A Blood Campaign (2019
A Visit to Bedlam (2016)
Other Blogs by Michael Bully
Bleak Chesney Wold 19th century history & literature
World War 2 Poetry As stated on the tin
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