Wintercombe (Wintercombe Series Book 1)

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WARNINGS: The villain of this book is truly despicable. There is a plot point involving Silence’s 15 year old stepdaughter whom the villain threatens with rape. It doesn’t progress beyond the threat but readers with triggers will want to be aware of this.

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

The intense love that Silence had for each of her children and how beautifully it was written. She truly knew her children and their characters, weaknesses and strengths and loved them as only a mother could love. I really enjoyed this. Pamela Belle is one of my favorite authors in general, but hands down my favorite author of historical fiction. It's really a shame her books are out of print, and also that it seems they get marketed so often as romance novels. While there is a love story involved, they are definitely a lot more than romance novels. Her portrayal of the these fictional families that struggle through real-life historical events seems so true to the time period and so detailed that it makes me feel I'm looking through a portal into actual events. Wintercombe, once a tranquil bastion of family virtue, is transformed into an unruly, drunken, and licentious garrison. 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. However, a surprisingly friendship is established between Silence and Captain Hellier who helps in any way to help her to summon this period of the English Civil War.Silence knows the risks, she understands the impossibility of her situation and the ramifications should she plunge into a deeper relationship that has no hope of any positive outcome. Yet Silence (in her frail humanity), chooses ultimately to rebel against everything common sense and discretion would tell her, all for a brief romantic interlude. Even worse, Silence justifies her choice not just to herself alone, but to her children and her cautiously disapproving maid, all of whom (conveniently) end up supporting her. And so Silence is able to 'have her cake and eat it too', without regret or reaping any apparent consequence. 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. This is one of my favorite novels of all time. I love Silence, Lady St. Barbe. I love the description of beautiful Wintercombe, a fictional place based on an actual house. I love the details about the domestic arrangements of the estate, about how a lady was supposed to behave, about life during the English Civil War.

Wintercombe - Lume Books

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. 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. 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.The main character Silence who had survived a controlling and abusive Puritan father and upbringing and was married at 19 to a widower, who was old enough to be her father, with three children. She was such a strong character who would not let her true self be broken and held her ground in the face of fear to protect the ones she loved. Pamela Belle is 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. Wintercombe, the home just outside of Bath England that is the setting in 1644. The descriptions of Wintercombe, the gardens that Silence loved and tended and gave her comfort, the rooms, the servants, the people even her beloved animals who lived in it made me feel that I was there and gave me a sense of why Silence wanted to protect it from the ravages of war. A young Puritan wife is left to hold her family and household together when her husband goes to war, and faces myriad difficulties: unruly step-children, Royalist soldiers billeted in her house, a sadistic colonel, and the possibility of adultery with a handsome enemy soldier.