This Rough Ocean by Ann Swinfen
It is December, 1648, and England faces one of the greatest crises in its history. Bands of renegade soldiers and broken men roam the countryside, looting, burning and raping. In Parliament, former allies are torn apart after six years of bloody conflict. Will there be peace instead of war, or a military take-over of the country? John Swynfen, a rising young MP and one of the leaders of the moderate party, is working for peace, but only if safeguards can be established to protect Parliament and control the powers of the king. Ranged against him and his friends are Oliver Cromwell and his son-in-law Henry Ireton, intent on seizing power by the sword and destroying not only the monarchy but the elected government. Within a few weeks, London is occupied by Cromwell's army, parliamentary government is in ruins, the king is executed. And John Swynfen is a prisoner. Anne Swynfen travels home from Westminster to Staffordshire with her young children through a desperate winter. There, uncertain whether she will ever see her husband again, she takes charge of the large estate, where starvation looms due to bad harvests, and violent danger threatens from outlaws and the armies of both sides. While she struggles against prejudice to do a man's job, John is shot, beaten, shackled, humiliated and tortured. Tempted by golden promises if he recants, threatened with death if he does not, he tries to cling to his sanity and his beliefs. When he finally escapes, he begins a terrible journey home across war-torn England to find his wife. This is a story about keeping faith - many kinds of faith - in the face of terror, anguish and despair.Ann Swinfen is the author of The Chronicles of Christoval Alvarez, a critically regarded series. It follows a young Marrano physician who is recruited as a code-breaker and spy in Walsingham's secret service in the late sixteenth century. The Hidden World of Christoval Alvarez, The Enterprise of England, The Portuguese Affair, Bartholomew Fair, Suffer the Little Children, Journey to Muscovy, The Play's the Thing, That Time May Cease, and The Lopez Affair are the volumes in chronological sequence. Her Fenland Series is set in the seventeenth century in East Anglia. Both men and women battle fiercely to rescue their land from selfish and unscrupulous speculators in the first book, Flood.
The second book, Betrayal, follows the story of the oppressed villagers' perilous hunt for legal redress and protection at a time when few could be trusted. Her most recent series, Oxford Medieval Mysteries, is set in the fourteenth century and follows bookshop Nicholas Elyot, a young widower with two little children, and his university companion Jordain Brinkylsworth as they fight crime in the post-Black Death era. The Bookseller's Tale, The Novice's Tale, The Huntsman's Tale, and The Merchant's Tale are the books in order. This series, as well as the Christoval Alvarez series, are available as unabridged audiobooks.
She's also the author of two stand-alone novels. The Testament of Mariam, set in the first century, tells one of the most renowned and yet unclear episodes in human history from an unusual point of view, while also addressing life under a foreign occupying power in countries plagued by strife to this day. This Rough Ocean is based on the real-life events of the Swinfen family during the English Civil War in the 1640s, when John Swynfen was imprisoned for opposing the king's assassination, and his wife Anne was forced to battle for the survival of her children and dependents. Ann Swinfen now lives with her husband, a former vice-principal of the University of Dundee, a rescue cat named Maxi, and a cocker spaniel named Suki on the northeast coast of Scotland.
Sign up for Ann's mailing list at www.annswinfen.com/sign-up/ to be notified when new books and audiobooks are released, and subscribe to her monthly blog at www.annswinfen.com/blog. www.annswinfen.com http://annswinfen.com/blog/
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780992822897 |
| ISBN 10 | 0992822890 |
| Title | This Rough Ocean |
| Author | Ann Swinfen |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Shakenoak Press |
| Year published | 2015-01-23 |
| Number of pages | 474 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |