Beverley Elphick: 2 books

Set in the 1790s, war between Britain, France and Spain forms the background to Beverley Elphick’s much-anticipated second novel, Retribution. Men and boys are being forced onto the King’s ships by unscrupulous press gangs while the womenfolk left behind struggle to deal with the consequences...

It is 1795 and Esther Coad is plunged into destitution when her mother, father and younger brother are taken by the Great Sickness. She is relieved when a distant relative offers her a home at Coad Farm in the tiny hamlet of Hamsey but soon discovers that the offer is not made in kindness but from...