Gloriana's Torch by
Patrica Finney
pbk out September 03
(Orion)
at £10.99
A big book of more than 450 pages, which is really a straight historical
novel, not a crime story, unless you consider torture and war criminal. It is
another in a sequence of novels about David Becket, the others being
Firedrake's Eye and Unicorn's Blood
It concerns the run-up to the Spanish Armada of 1588 and is fiction
superimposed on a mass of historical fact, many of the characters having
been real persons. The author's slant on the conventional history of the
period is deliberately different, which is in line with much new thinking on
British history, which is now rejecting a lot of the constricting, hallowed
political correctness forced on the truth by the Georgian establishment.
A former soldier, David has survived torture in the Tower due to the
changing politics of those times, but has been rehabilitated and is now
responsible for the Queen's Ordnance, vital in the defence of the realm.
He discovers than someone is selling masses of their gunpowder to the
Spaniards – which rings a bell with the reviewer, as many of the guns on the
Spanish ships were made in Merthyr Tydfil and other Welsh foundries at the
time, even though we were theoretically at war with Spain!
A friend of Becket, Simon Ames, is sent to Portugal to seek information, but
is captured and sentenced to the Spanish galleys, part of the Armada. David,
Simon's wife and Merula, a West African princess-turned-slave, go to
rescue Ames and at the same time, spy on the preparations for the Spanish
invasion.
The plot is long and complicated, but displays an incredible amount of
research. The author even obtained a grant to go on several training sailing
ships to literally learn the ropes.
There is a long explanation in a foreword and a historical postscript. I found
the style of writing a little odd, as the writer begins by inviting the reader to
survey the scene with her as a fellow god - it is not quite the old Victorian
"And now, gentle reader" stuff, but somehow I felt the writer was too
intrusive into the story, using many artifices to change the orientation, with
some chapters in italics for Becket's dreams and changing from third to first
person speech in different sections. A substantial and historically-satisfying
book, but might have been even better if the author had not overworked it so
much.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
Gloriana's Torch by
Patrica Finney
