Flower for your Troubles

Benjamin Swan

Description

1944, WW2's English home-front. Land Girl, Rose, and Bevin Boy, Eddie, work their respective national services above and below a northern, Yorkshire Landscape. A small display of community pride and joy at the Summer Fair will bring heart and soul together and every layer of the district's society. A war nearly won abroad, but conflicts of personal and collective obligation further turn and tug at the gathered faithful.But first the crowning of The Summer Queen: head and tail of the judging body are a Mr Charles Butterworth, wealthy pit owner, industrialist and the newly assumed Lord of Carford Hall's grandeur, and a Miss Moorhouse, Methodist firebrand with an incomparable spiritual capital.Overlooking the miniature whole, the venerable Ma Higgins, a wellspring of natural goodness and grace, and worth her salt, her sobering sentence...''Flower for your Troubles', is a novel as rich as chocolate cake!" Carry Franklin, screenwriter 'Suzie Gold'.

Sujets

• Sagas

Informations

• Publié par: Bee and the Swan Publishing
• Date de parution: 16 septembre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781912317394
• Langue: English

Extrait

Benjamin Swan Flower for your Troubles
Copyright Benjamin Swanton 2017
The right to be identified as the author of this work, in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, has been asserted by Benjamin Swanton.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This work contains extracts from two songs: They ll Always be an England , 1939, by Ross Parker /Hugh Charles; and, Goodnight Children Everywhere , 1940, by Harry Phillips / Gabriel Romero. The examples are derived, to the best of my knowledge, from recordings in the public domain.
Benjamin Swanton - Flower for your Troubles
First Printing: August 2017
Cover Design by eBookPartnership
ISBN-13: 978-1-912317-39-4
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Patricia and Colin, my parents most dearly beloved. I offer eternal gratefulness, for all good of me has derived through your striving and wonder.
Thank you, too, for my dear siblings and their families. Sparkling waters under our bridge of time; surely, much more shared joy to come
To Gavin Cooper, my bright and brave friend, and my brother in kind. Thank you for your care and sincere affections.
To my neighbour, Solafah, thank you for your unerring kindness and heavenly soul. God s Peace be with you always.
Thank you to Carry Franklin, for your wisdom, humour and guidance, and for your tea. There will always be Jam Tomorrow
To my many beta readers, thank you for your gentle, just and firm opinions.
Thank you to all at the National Coal Mining Museum, https://www.ncm.org.uk/ a living testament to a blessed folk, brightest diamonds in the rocks who animated the country through every darkest hour.
Thank you to E. Oldroyd Sons and their staff in Carlton. The sweet heart of Yorkshire s Rhubarb triangle, thriving with much love and devotion at the earliest and latest of hours; keeping wealthy traditions in prime. http://www.yorkshirerhubarb.co.uk/ruhbarb_triangle.htm
Thank you to successive managements and staff at Oulton Hall Hotel Spa - The De Vere Hotel Group and The Q Hotel Group. Special mention to David Earnshaw whose careful passion for truer origins surfaced many valuable research materials. Further kind mention to sales director, Karen Mills and the General Manager of De Vere Hotels for their generous permission; likewise, many thanks to Helen Blacker at Q Hotels and the General manager for offering a further kind permission.
Head and heart-felt thanks to Leeds Libraries, where, as it so often does, much of this began to join-up. Keep our libraries loud and alive by voice and presence!
To eBookPartnership, thank you for your expertise and patience, particularly so, Diana and Matt Horner.
Ey up, to Rothwell s welcoming and good people of the past and to those of the present.
To every woman, child and man, who lived within WW2 s duration. All valiant in fight and focus; your royal examples continue to inspire, never to be forgotten.
All Praise to God; and peace be with all the angels and prophets.
To all my mothers and fathers - My Lord! bestow on them Thy Mercy even as they cherished me in childhood.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Acknowledgement
Dedication
Contents
Epigraphs
Part 1: Heads
Chapter 1 An Air is borne
Chapter 2 Bread and Butter
Chapter 3 Manna from Heaven
Chapter 4 Fair Ground Ride
Chapter 5 Pony and Trap
Chapter 6 The Lion s Head
Chapter 7 Earth-wards
Chapter 8 Home Guard
Chapter 9 Silence is Golden
Chapter 10 The Cupbearer
Chapter 11 Wipe Away
Chapter 12 With or without a Squeak
Chapter 13 Flesh and Bone
Chapter 14 Back to the Land
Chapter 15 Method in Madness
Chapter 16 Key Rings
Chapter 17 Wonderful Alice
Chapter 18 Melt in the Mouth
Chapter 19 By a Thread
Chapter 20 Why the Long Face?
Chapter 21 At Last
Chapter 22 Another Suit
Chapter 23 A Look on the Brightside
Chapter 24 Now Then
Chapter 25 And Mirrors
Chapter 26 Moment to Moment
Chapter 27 Heart to Heart
Chapter 28 A Little Moorhouse
Chapter 29 In Her Wake
Chapter 30 Mine
Part 2: Tales
Chapter 31 New Leaves
Chapter 32 Things Change
Chapter 33 Oranges and Lemons
Chapter 34 The War Effort
Chapter 35 Another Force of Nature
Chapter 36 Be Mother
Chapter 37 Weak at the Knees
Chapter 38 Be Prepared
Chapter 39 Man Friday
Chapter 40 Beneath Contempt
Chapter 41 A Ring o Roses
Chapter 42 House Rules
Chapter 43 The End of a Tether
Chapter 44 In Store
Chapter 45 Mind in Absence
Chapter 46 Muck and Brass
Chapter 47 Jitterbugs
Chapter 48 Sub Rosa
Chapter 49 Darkness in the Air
Chapter 50 Prisoners of Conscience
Chapter 51 A Salt of the Earth
Chapter 52 Tangled
Chapter 53 Coming Home
Chapter 54 Broken Flowers
Chapter 55 The Iron is Hot
Chapter 56 En Passant
Chapter 57 Mourning
Chapter 58 Complements of the Season
Chapter 59 The Taste of Porridge
Chapter 60 Castle
Chapter 61 Mr Longs
Chapter 62 Empty Handed
Chapter 63 Ding Dong Bell
Chapter 64 Sister of Mercy
Chapter 65 Dunwell and Proper
Chapter 66 Handfast
Chapter 67 Cheek to Cheek
Chapter 68 Head to Head
Chapter 69 Face to Face
Chapter 70 Aye for an Eye
Tis said as Cupid danced among the Gods
He downed the nectar flung,
Which, on the white rose being shed,
Made it forever after red...
...it s pretty, but it ain t true.
What goes to make a Rose, ma am, is breeding, budding and horse manure.
Said by Mr J. Ballard to Mrs Miniver
Directed by William Wyler (1940)
The two speechless gazers bent themselves down to the earth, as if in prayer, and remained thus a long time, absolutely motionless: the flag continued to wave silently. As soon as they had strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on.
Thomas Hardy - Tess of the d Urbervilles (1891)
Part 1 : Heads
Chapter 1
An Air is borne
In the gathering around them everyone knew their part. Without further cue the townsfolk ceased their chatter, gingerly replacing teacups and biscuits into saucers, eyes into line; some removed hands from pockets, cigarettes from mouths; others even stood up to attention, joining voices to the unearthly brass of the Crosswell Temperance Band in what had become another national anthem during these war years.
There ll always be an England,
while there s a country lane,
whenever there s a cottage small
beside a field of grain.
There ll always be an England,
while there s a busy street,
whenever there s a turning wheel
A million marching feet.
Red, white and blue -
What does it mean to you...
From behind a table Mrs Hartley s young boy presented a wet front having knocked over his glass of lemonade. Two eyes pipped dismay and a silent mouth wailed so much disappointment. Sweeping him up into her arms mum smoothed his front, cooing into his ear while the last of the song was sung.
... Surely, you re proud,
shout it aloud,
Britons awake!
The Empire too,
we can depend on you.
Freedom remains,
these are the chains,
nothing can break
There ll always be an England
and England shall be free
if England means as much to you
as England means to me.
Mr Hartley had been killed at Abbeville less than a year in. But then she was lucky I ve only a little one to look after, she d always say. Bobby won t remember his dad anyways . It was a blessing of sorts.
More than a moment s apprehension followed the final chorus as small gestures of readjustment passed through faces and fingers, roused pride and sentiment in distanced eyes returned to present.
There must have been six, seven hundred or more, from Crosswell and the other smaller wards - Carford, Muddleton, Stanton, Westfield and Woodhouse, from Upper and Lower Rhodes Green. And a few from Leeds and Wakefield too no doubt, though, if visitors needed reminding, despite proximity to both, the Crosswell district was still resolutely independent.
All folk were welcome this day, a day of light amongst the grey. Hitler s heels and heils would not stamp upon this or any other English soil; all good souls knew that victory was coming: The Yanks held the Pacific and the Soviets had retaken Belarussia; moreover, the beachhead had been well established in Normandy, France was sure to be liberated any day now. Some even said that Hitler had been killed, but really, that was loose talk amongst the few
No, the end of the war was nigh, most quietly agreed on that. What a knees-up that would be...! But here and now was a little relief, some normality amongst the necessary strictures. One s eyes need not be closed to think of England. Being here was to feel the warm hum of the Albion sun upon cut grass, the Yorkshire tang given at tongue, a wet brown supped from bright china. There was no time for tears today, nor laughter wholly unrestrained, but a certain special grace was present; harmony and propriety rang out and not only from the Methodist players.
There was quite a spread to be had. Tabled along two opposing rows plate after plate of sandwiches were piled up - meat paste and tinned meat, sardines in tomato sauce, even cheese, though the white bread seemed to have been reserved for the high table; there were scones, with margarine only, but a good number of various cakes and buns, improvised custards, bakewells, jam tarts and jellies; and on one side, in a great wooden barrel, a vast fruit cocktail simmering beneath its sunned square of linen. And, of course, numerous pots of tea, squat in position, filled from bigger bellied metal urns. The children too had their lemonade, not fiz