by Lee Pennell
Cricklade Author’s historical novel
‘Darkleigh’ is the title of the exciting new novel written by accomplished author Lee Pennell, which is the pen name used by Elisabeth Anne White, better known to her friends as ‘Bizzie’.
It is set in 1815 with change coming to the remote hamlet of Knights Darkleigh as soldiers return from the Battle of Waterloo to the small Cotswold valley.
Sophie Latham, the younger daughter of the curate of Knights Darkleigh, has no future prospects other than that of being the unwilling handmaiden to her discontented, complaining mother. However, with soldiers returning after Waterloo and new people coming to live in the Cotswold valley, life changes irrevocably for its inhabitants, particularly the family living at the Rectory in Knights Darkleigh.
Sophie’s brother, Robert is one of the returning soldiers in August 1815, but is injured and doesn’t know what to do with his life. George Harries, who is engaged to Sophie’s beautiful, self-centred sister, Lucy, is also one of the soldiers returning from Waterloo.
The narrative reveals answers to the questions:
Why has Major James Howard imposed himself on Sophie’s family?
What is his relationship with Caroline Firth, a young widow who has befriended Sophie?
Why does Sophie find Mr Freeman, the imposing Evangelical preacher, so frightening?
The answers challenge Sophie, her family and neighbours, as well as the incomers themselves.
Bizzie, who lives in Cricklade but was brought up in the Gower, has been writing for as long as she can remember, writing essays and poetry as a child and completing her first novel of around 20,000 words when she was just 16 years old.
She’s also written plays, which have been performed by amateur dramatic groups and has had a children’s adventure story published called ‘Midnight at Lucas Bay’ set in the Gower Peninsula. She’s recently finished a sequel for this and is now working on another historical story based on fact and set in the late Victorian times.