aBurntShip

        Book 2 in the War of the Three Kingdoms 'Rebellion'  Series  Delighted to have a chance to review Mark Turnbull's new novella featuring Royalist soldier Maxwell Walker. I have done my best not to present any 'spoilers'.  And the tale begins on 4th October 1645, with the Royalist cause, post the defeat at Naseby, in desperate straits, and their chances of victory are looking quite hopeless by May 1646 when the novel ends.  The author presents  the more enjoyable and  familiar strands of fiction quite well.  Maxwell Walker fights his own private battles,  being continually confronted  with his nemesis, Gervase  Harper , who is nominally  fighting on the same side. The contrast between the two is well shown. Walker  uses his intelligence to persuade Parliamentarians who are trapped into surrendering to avoid pointless bloodshed, tries to ensure prisoners are treated fairly. Harper is just a master of li...

  Crabchurch Conspiracy  Weymouth , Saturday 29th February 2020                           After  devoting a lot of time to launching  the  13th century blog  this year's  Crabchurch Conspiracy event,was sufficient enough to get 'A Burnt Ship'  back into life.   At the start of 1645 the twin coastal towns of  Weymouth and Wycombe Regis were held by Parliamentarians under the command of Sir William Sydenham and his two brothers Francis and Thomas. At midnight on 9th February  two Royalist forces made up of men from Portland attacked and seized the two main local forts at Nothe and Chapelhay. Within an hour Major Francis Sydenham organised a counter attack in a bid to retake the Chapel fort. This failed and Francis died the following morning from his wounds. The Parliamentarians managed to still hold on to Melcombe. After a number of days of facing bombardment...