The Lark and the Laurel

   

    There's just the right amount of jeopardy in this book; in fact, it's its balance that makes it, I think. It's a good-hearted story, a quiet, steady, unshowy sort of novel, and it's informative and intelligent without being obvious or forced. It has the weighting of historical detail, setting, and plot just right.

    As I've mentioned before, The Lark and the Laurel is the first of the Mantlemass series by Barbara Willard, set on a Sussex manor farm from 1485 over two centuries.

    With the defeat and death of Richard III at Bosworth Field and Henry Tudor now on the throne, noblemen who supported the late king are deemed traitors. One such, Sir Thomas Jolland, flees to France leaving his young daughter Cecily in the care of his sister, the redoubtable Dame Elizabeth FitzEdmund, a woman more plain of dress and direct of speech than any Cecily had encountered in her sheltered, sophisticated London existence.

    Here at Mantlemass, schooled by her aunt, Cecily must learn country ways and adopt country habits. She exchanges rich gowns for homespun, fine sewing for coarser work, but she has a freedom denied her in the capital, and makes a friend from a neighbouring farm, the skilled horseman and gallant swain, Lewis Mallory.

    However, her increasing delight in her new home and her fresh understanding of the world arising from her open and practical way of life are threatened by the prospect of her father's return from exile, for Cecily's worth to him stems from more than blood ties and paternal love. How can she possibly have the future she so desires?

    Excellent stuff all round, and I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series, The Sprig of Broom.

    (In the same vein, see this post and this one.)

Comments

[Helen]

I read the series years ago. My mother gave one to each of us. Mine was the Iron Lady. I must look and see if I still have any of them. I’m sure they are worth a re read.

[Cornflower]

I should think so, Helen.

[CLM]

I love this series so much, especially book 1. Some of them are so sad (A Cold Wind Blowing) that I couldn't bear to reread (yet couldn't bear not to own the complete set). Pre-Internet days I recall buying The Keys to Mantlemass (which had not been published in the US) very expensively from Hong Kong of all places. I also recall when Harrow and Harvest came out, rushing to the library to get it and forgetting to check it out in my haste to go home! It is lucky the librarians liked me.

[Cornflower]

That is great, CLM!