This Deceitful Light
by Jemahl Evans
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Pub Date Sep 20 2017 | Archive Date Aug 31 2018
Holland House | Caerus Press
Description
In a time of civil war and betrayal, one drunken fop could be the difference between victory and defeat.
Sir Blandford Candy is an irascible old drunk with a love of hats, a dislike of poets, and an idiot for a nephew. Resting after blackmailing an old acquaintance, he looks back on his life and adventures during the English Civil War.
Young Blandford returns to London after the First Battle of Newbury. He finds a new Lord Mayor in the Guildhall, and a murdered actor in his theatre. Blandford tries to foil a Royalist plot to smuggle gold to Oxford, find a sailor’s lost treasure, and hunt for a book that could change the course of the war. His search takes him from the dark streets of London and Southampton to the bloody battlefield of Marston Moor, but only one man can help. A man Blandford has sworn to kill.
The second book in the Blandford Candy series.
A Note From the Publisher
Born in Bradford Upon Avon to nomadic Welsh school teachers; Jemahl was brought up in a West Wales mining village during the 70s and 80s. He has pursued a lifelong passion for history, inspired by his grandfather’s stories and legends. Jemahl was educated in Christ College Brecon, St Mary’s University College (Strawberry Hill), and U.W.E. Bristol.
Jemahl graduated with an MA in History, focussing on poetry and propaganda during the Wars of the Roses, and then worked for IBM in London. At the turn of the millennium, he left the grind of the office and spent a couple of years travelling and working abroad. After time spent in India, Australia, and South East Asia he returned to Britain and took up a teaching post in West London in 2005. He left his role as Head of Year in the Heathland School in 2010, and returned to Wales citing hiraeth.
The Last Roundhead was released in August 2015 and nominated by Netgalley as one of the UK’s top ten books that month. His interest in the English Civil War was sparked as a child, after reading Simon by Rosemary Sutcliff, which is probably why his sympathies lie with Parliament!
The research for the novel meant visiting many of the places mentioned. Jemahl claims this was a great experience when it was a pub in Oxford or alongside the Thames, but he questioned his sanity standing on the Edgehill escarpment on a cold November morning. The Last Roundhead was the first in a planned series set during the most tumultuous age in British History. The follow up, This Deceitful Light, will be published by Holland House Books in September 2017.
Jemahl now spends his time teaching, reading history, listening to the Delta Blues, walking his border collie, and whining on Twitter about the government. He is a member of the Historical Writers Association, and has spent some time practising the authorial pose for photographs.
Advance Praise
‘This Deceitful Light is the sequel to The Last Roundhead and was well worth the wait. Reading it was like being back in the 17th Century...’ James Kemp, The English Civil War Society.
"In
the second book in the delightful Blandford Candy series, Jemahl Evans takes us
on a rollicking ride through embattled seventeenth century England. The
tumultuous times of the English Civil War leap from the pages like blasts from
the matchlocks and cannons over Marston Moor. Jemahl Evans does for the
seventeenth century what George MacDonald Fraser did for the nineteenth.
Blandford Candy is as endearing a rogue as you are likely to find in any work
of literature. Captain Candy is a truly stunning character." Matthew Harffy
Having read The Last Roundhead, I didn’t think Jemahl Evans could produce a better book, but This Deceitful Light is a tour-de-force. His character Blandford ‘Sugar’ Candy sits right up there with Rose Tremain’s Merivel as one of the great creations of a seventeenth century man. Opinionated and rascally, Candy gives us his take on the chaos of the English Civil War. In the process he gives us a realistic portrait of Cromwell and his unfortunate teenage son, the state of the English Theatre, and the battle of Marston Moor.
The story revolves around a murdered actor, and so involves a chase after the perpetrator as well as English Civil War skulduggery. As with the previous book, the footnotes are fascinating but distracting. I found the best way to read this book was to temporarily ignore them, but then go back to the beginning and savour each one. They are well worth reading and emphasize the amount of scholarship and research involved in producing the novel.
Here are a couple of Candy’s opinions to give you a flavour:
Most servants are mercenary sycophants. Keep them happy, pay them well, and they will desert you when a wealthier patron appears — I do not pay mine well.
‘Torture is a peculiarly continental affectation. The Ottomans are masters of the art – as I know to my cost – but it has never much taken hold in England. We have juries and common law – they have despots.’
‘Three hundred dead; ’tis what the newsbooks proclaimed after our victory. I told Mabbot ’twas drivel – there were at least five thousand naked corpses on the field the next day. I would wager more than a thousand were ours.’
This is a true treasure for fans of the seventeenth century or the English Civil War. I have no hesitation in telling you to go and buy it!
This Deceitful Light is due for release on 20th September. You can pre-order it HERE.
Deborah Swift, author of The Lady’s Slipper and The Gilded
Lily
Marketing Plan
Roadshow with talks and displays visiting several libraries in association with The Reading Agency (charity) and other venues beginning on the 21st September at Oliver Cromwell's House in Ely.
Giveaways and competitions to be announced.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781910688335 |
| PRICE | £9.99 (GBP) |
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