This week’s choice was influenced by book 4 and a hankering for some good, old-fashioned, historical romance.
Book 6 – Daughter of Satan, by Jean Plaidy. The daughter in question is Tamar – a child forced on her mother by the devil, wild and full of magic in 16th Century England. The day her mother is caught by the ‘witchpricker’ and hanged as a witch, Tamar’s true parentage is revealed – but she still believes the Devil is inside her. She is wild and beautiful, intelligent and loyal, and the subject of both adoration and hatred. When the risks of being caught and tried as a witch – or named as a Puritan – become too great, she and her family sail for the ‘promised land’ of New England, only to be just as unsafe amongst the Puritans of New Plymouth.
Reading this book, which came from the inheritance shelves, I was transported back into childhood: Jean Plaidy and Victoria Holt (who were the same person) books were constantly cycling around the house and I have a signed first US edition of a Jean Plaidy that I bought as a teenager. Her books spurred on my love of all things Elizabethan, and even as an adult, when I visited beautiful Kenilworth Castle it was with memories of courtly intrigues that I had read in the pages of her books.
I am telling you this so you know this post will inevitably be tinged with nostalgia and romance – but I do love a Plaidy. This book has everything you need from a historical romance set in that time: religious bigotry, witches, danger, passion, anger, violence and a beautiful maiden. The violent, ruthless and lecherous rogue as love interest pushes my ability to suspend disbelief a little – and yet I can well imagine that people could have acted that way without punishment or even a sense of guilt. The loyal nature of Tamar, with her lifelong friendship of Annis and her protection of her loved ones, is the heart of the story and despite knowing what mistakes she is making along the way it is hard not to hope for the best for her.
Intertwining the story with historical details – the Spanish Armada, and the subsequent starvation of the seamen who saved England from the Inquisition; the growth of Puritanism; the arbitrary cruelty of the witch hunts – all imbue the book with a sense of danger and loss for the protagonists. They also serve to make Tamar’s decisions more realistic, for a more modern reader.
I can’t help but be full of pleasure about reading this book, and revisiting a little corner of my childhood. It’s as evocative as finding an old toy I used to carry everywhere.
Happy reading,
EJ
🙂
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