Taking Liberties

by Diana Norman | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0007105460 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingNu-Kneeswing of Knaresborough, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on 8/21/2013
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2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingNu-Kneeswing from Knaresborough, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, August 21, 2013
I was very impressed with the selection of books in the new Salvation Army charity shop in Ripon this morning. At least, I think it's new, I don't remember seeing it before! Anyway, I was delighted to find no less than three books from my Wish List! Someone with very similar tastes to mine must have been donating there! Thank you!
I first fell in love with Diana Norman as a writer through the Mistress of the Art of Death mysteries that she published under the pseudonymn Ariana Franklin. Her many fans were very sorry when her sudden death cut the series short, leaving us with a bit of a cliffhanger!
I've already read two of her other historical novels under her own name and am always looking out for more. I was particularly pleased to see the reference to Plymouth in the back cover blurb for this one, the city where many of my husband's family live and one we regularly visit!
A Catch of Consequence
The Vizard Mask

Amazon Editorial Review: "A remarkable, sparkling historical novel by the author of A Catch of Consequence. Diana Norman's second book for us is another brilliant, stylish historical novel. Even though it is set in the eighteenth century, this novel, like her previous one, A Catch of Consequence, has rare contemporary echoes. Two women, both searching for apparently missing people, meet in the chaos of wartime Plymouth. Britain is at war with the French and the rebellious American colonies. But where the French captured by the British navy are recognized prisoners of war, the Americans are the non-combatants of their era. One woman, a young aristocrat recently saved by the death of her husband from a brutal marriage, is searching for the imprisoned son of a colonial friend: the other, a self-made woman, is looking for her daughter and companions, rescued from their destroyed ship but somehow lost on arrival in Britain. The journey of discovery both women make through docks and prisons, government offices and brothels, palatial houses and smugglers hideaways, not only allows them to find the missing persons but also to forge an unlikely friendship and to find remarkable lovers. Finding liberty for others leads them to splendid liberty for themselves."

Journal Entry 2 by wingNu-Kneeswing at Knaresborough, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on Sunday, August 25, 2013
Wonderful! A real page-turner! An epic tale on a grand scale!
Smugglers, revenue men, aristocrats, slaves and ex-slaves, prisoners, jailers, sailors, prostitutes, fishermen .... all human life is here ....
Many interesting comments on the concept of freedom, what it is and what it means in theory and practice!

Journal Entry 3 by wingNu-Kneeswing at Knaresborough, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Released 10 yrs ago (8/28/2013 UTC) at Knaresborough, North Yorkshire United Kingdom

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On its way to France - highly appropriate in view of the story :-)

Journal Entry 4 by bluenoser at Eymet, Aquitaine France on Friday, September 6, 2013
We'd just returned from a few days away on holiday in the Tarn department of SW France.
While LaBarbe took the suitcases out of the car I emptied the mailbox and found a lovely parcel of two super books - a lovely surprise RABCK from Nu-Knees. This is one of them. Thank you so much Nu-Knees, looking forward to seeing you again the last week of the month.

Wow! What a rave review for this Nu-Knees. I have other books that I must read before I take them to Leeds, so I must hide this under a couple of others before I even dare read the blurb on the back.

Journal Entry 5 by bluenoser at Eymet, Aquitaine France on Thursday, September 19, 2013
What a great read! A real swashbuckling tale that would make a terrific film or TV series if done properly. There are some great male characters in here, but it is the strength of the women that makes the story so powerful - a trapped in her awful life countess, a tough American inn-keeper, her young daughter, a hardened prostitute and a village of seamens' wives. Throw them all into an 18th century Plymouth, escaped prisoners, smuggling, aristocrats, servants, slaves and hard weather and you end up with a book that I literally could not put down over the last 150 pages.
Merci mille fois Nu-Knees. I'm going to save this for my Scottish friend, who will be back in France in November.

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