Guest blogging with me today is Canadian author Anita Birt, who has several novels at Cerridwen Press and like me, will see her first novel coming into print soon. Until then you can find A Very Difficult Man and all her other excellent titles online at
Cerridwen Press. Her direct link is accessible
here and this is her
website.
Her topic today is "Writing the Historical Romance" - which I specially commissioned. Enjoy!
When Heather invited me to visit her blog she suggested I mention the Crimean War, 1853-1856. My hero, Richard, Lord Glenmore, was grievously wounded during the famous charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava, October, 1854.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem, The Charge of The Light Brigade, illuminates the horror of the battle and the resulting carnage better than I can. His poem begins:
"Half a league half a league, half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred
'Forward the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns,' he said.
Into the valley of Death rode the six hundred."
My hero, Lord Glenmore, served with the 17th Lancers as part of the Light Brigade. Little did he know when ordered by Lord Cardigan to charge the Russian guns over looking the valley that the written and verbal orders from Lord Raglan, through Lord Lucan and delivered by one of their officers to Lord Cardigan had been totally misunderstood sending the Light Brigade into a narrow valley with Russian guns above them. It was like shooting fish in a barrel and hundreds of brave men died horrible deaths along with their horses.
"Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
*While horse & hero fell,
They went thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred."
*My hero's horse struck by a cannon shell, crumpled to the bloody battle field. Thrown from his horse, Richard's left leg was shredded below the knee from the shell that killed his horse. That Richard survived is a miracle. He returned home to England a bitter and disillusioned man. (Think, post-traumatic stress syndrome.) Poor leadership had led to the deaths of his brave Lancers. Richard became a recluse, suffering from recurring nightmares, until his family decided to engage a companion, supposedly to cheer him up.
And that is how my story begins. Catherine Thurston arrives at the Glenmore Estate as a companion for Richard. Nothing sexual, she is to read and chat with him, encourage him to leave his darkened rooms and face the light of day. Did she succeed? Read my book. A VERY DIFFICULT MAN.
