Top Ten Tuesday: Fruit salad...yummy yummy

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is, well, it's a freebie, so there isnt really one.

I had a few different ideas for a theme, but I have ended up choosing books with fruit in the title. This came about because I just finished reading The Last of the Apple Blossom yesterday, and I also have Apple Tree Yard sitting on my bedside table, so that's where my inspiration came from! And you have to take inspiration where you can find it, right?

The Last of the Apple Blossom by Mary-Lou Stephen - I just finished this today.

Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty - I got this as part of a blind date with a book. I really need to read it so I can hand it to the next person.

The Oak Apple by Cynthia Harrod Eagles - This is the fourth book in the sprawling Morland dynasty series with this one focussing on the period during the reign of Charles I. I've read 7 books but there are still around another 22 to go. I haven't read one for years though

Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris - Apparently I owned this book at one point. I have no idea if I still have it or if it was victim to a cull a couple of years ago. When I finish the current cull and packing I might have more of an idea.

Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms by Anita Heiss - I definitely own this one. We were planning to go to a town called Cowra last week which is very close to where this book is set but because of lockdown we couldn't go anywhere.

Big Cherry Holler by Adriana Trigani - I haven't read this one. I did read the first book in the series many years ago and I suspect I borrowed this one from the library at least once. I just never read it.

Watermelon by Marian Keyes - If I was making an actual fruit salad one thing that wouldn't be included is any type of melon. Bleugh!

A Crown of Bitter Orange by Laura Florand - I loved Laura Florand's books, and she was one of only a couple of authors that I kept reading during my massive reading slump a few years ago.

Spring Clean for the Peach Queen by Sasha Wasley - This one is on my list to read soon!

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen - I do enjoy SAA's books.

For those of  you who might not be familiar with the Wiggles, this song is the reason why my post is called Fruit Salad Yummy Yummy!

Christmas Quotes: Christmas at Morland

Today's Christmas quote comes from The Chevalier by Cynthia Harrod- Eagles, the seventh book in the Morland series which follows the fortunes of the Morland family through from the days of the Plantagenets through to the 20th century.

I liked this passage because I like the idea of being able to watch such a scene unfold. Wouldn't like to be the cook, or live like this all the time, but just once it would be fun!

Everything was done in the best of style, and the food was both lavish and elegant. Most of the servants liked and admired India, but the cook positively worshipped her, for under Clovis's direction, during Matt's minority, there had been little scope for his skills. Food at Morland Place had been plentiful, but plain and wholesome, no canvas for a great artist. This Christmas, inspired by India, he excelled himself. The centrepiece of the whole season's feasting was the colossal Twelfth-Night cake, which was three feet in diameter and decorated to be a perfect miniature of Morland Place in beautiful detail, right down to the marzipan peacocks who spread their paper tails on the sugar drawbridge.

As well as the feasting, there was of course music and entertainment of all kinds, all the favourite Christmas games and, every night, dancing. India danced with the best of them, and Matt, though he could hardly get a dance himself with his own wife, stood at the side of the room and watched with pride and love as she flew tirelessly up and down the sets, conspicuous in her peacock-blue satin, with the Queen's Emeralds glittering at her throat.

Christmas Quotes: A Very Morland Christmas part 2

Like yesterday's quote, today's is taken from The Long Shadow, book 6 of the Morland Dynasty books by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles (pages 315 to 317)

Hugo was delighted, but somewhat surprised, that his mother remained at Morland Place for Christmas: he had expected her to take the opportunity to go to London. But she threw herself into the celebrations with a will, organising a large party to ride out on Christmas Eve and fetch the holly and ivy and mistletoe and bay to decorate the hall, and to drag back the Yule log. The day was sharply cold, dry and crisp; snow had been falling for a week, but on that day the skies cleared and were wide and curved and blue as a robin's egg, and the snow glittered like diamond dust, and crunched and cracked beneath them with a noise like dry twigs. the sun shone down on them, pale, brilliant and heatless, and their voices rang and echoed as if the sky were as close as it looked. It was a day of brilliantly contrasted colours - the bitter white of the snow, the heraldic azure of the sky, glassy green holly, red holly-berries like fallen drops of blood in the snow. His mother wore a cloak of Kingfisher blue, and its folds hung vividly across the burnished copper of Banner's rump. She was laughing all the time as she exhorted them to greater efforts; Maurice found her a pheasant's tail-feather, and she stuck it into her hair as if she was wearing a hat, and Hugo remembered how it swung against the blue sky as she turned her head this way and that.

When they reached home the servants ran out with cups of hot spiced wine, and Clement brought the brand preserved from last year's Yule log, with which the new one must be fired if good luck was to come to the house. The log was dragged indoors in procession while everyone sang the Yule-log carol, and was put into the hearth in the great hall; Clement lit the brand and Father St Maur blessed it and Martin fired the new log. There was a breathless silence while everyone watched and waited, and as the first smoky crackling flames jumped up a great cheer rang around the hall and set all the dogs barking madly. The cups were refilled, and everyone stood around drinking and laughing and talking. Annunciata crouched down by the hearth like a child to rescue the little creatures driven out of the log by the heat, and Martin teased her gently for her tenderness.

It was a lovely Christmas, twelve days of freezing sunshine and the house filled with the smells of delicious cooking and the sounds of merriment. Great fires burned in every room, and at night there were enough candles to light the house as brightly as day. The house was full of people , too: Maurice and Karellie were home, of course, and Daisy and John Ailesbury came for the season - Daisy was pregnant again, as was Caroline, so they had plenty to talk about. Sabine and Crispian came too, and they joined in cheerfully with everything, although Hugo thought that Sabine looked rather wistfully at the two women whose bellies were full, and at the two babies, Arthur and James Matthias.


Hugo had never known his mother in such a mad mood, and when Martin named Karellie as Lord of Misrule, he and his mother seemed to conspire to make it the merriest Christmas ever. Each of Karellie's pranks was wilder than the last, and Annunciata urged him on to still more lunacy, until Martin protested that they would not reach Twelfth Night without some broken limbs. Karellie acquired a long, striped cat's tale from somewhere, and had it sewn to the seat of his breeches, and he wore odd-coloured hose, one leg white and one yellow, 'To shew my authority,' he said.

Then when everyone was exhausted with playing games and dancing and charades, there would be music and singing. Martin played to them, and Daisy and Maurice sang, and they all joined in the carols that everyone loved, 'In Dulci Jubilo', and 'Quem Pastores', and 'Green Groweth the Holly' and 'There is no Rose'. On Christmas Evening there was a special surprise for them all: Maurice had written a piece of music especially for Christmas night, and over the past week had taught Martin the second part, and they played it together on two cornetti for the assembled family. it was very beautiful: the cornetto was thought to be the instrument that most closely resembled the human voice in its range and flexibility, and Maurice played it exquisitely. Martin had never played a cornetto before, though he could play any reed instrument, but the second part was simple, and he managed it extremely well for his one week of tuition. When Hugo closed his eyes, it sounded like two voices, distant and pure, twining one around the other - it made him think of angels singing out in the clear dark night.

Christmas Quotes: A Very Morland Christmas Part 1

Today's Christmas Quote comes from pages 90-91 of The Long Shadow by Cynthia Harrod Eagles - Book 6 in the Morland Dynasty series. I will have another quote from the same book tomorrow.

Hugo had enjoyed Christmas at Morland Place more than any he remembered. At Martin's instigation Ralph had named Hugo Lord of Misrule for the twelve days, which meant that everyone had to obey him, whatever he told them to do and he and Martin had a great deal of fun thinking out absurd orders. He was also master of ceremonies in all the  games and festivities. Martin and George between them wrote a masque with music, and Hugo had the direction of it, which pleased him so much he even accepted it as reasonable that George should have the principal part. There was all the traditional feasting - the boar's head, the gilded peacock, the plum porrage, the mince-meat pies - with the poor at the gates coming in every day for the open table, and tenants and villagers bringing seasonal gifts for the master and staying for good ale and  good fare.

There were mummers and jugglers and travelling players and carol-singers forever at the door, and they too were brought in to the great hall, made festive with boughs of bay and rosemary and holly and ivy, to entertain the gentry. There was singing and dancing every night. At the Boxing-day hunt, Hugo was in at the kill and Ralph awarded him the antlers, and when the Twelfth-day Cake was cut, Hugo got the King's token and Daisy got the Queen's token, and he got to kiss her, which he did with a flourish that made everyone laugh. For the whole season everyone was kind to him and no-one slighted or despised him, and he was gloriously happy. His one regret was that his mother was not there to see what a fine and popular person he was.

The Black Pearl by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

I am not 100% sure why, but it has been more than 18 months since I read The Oak Apple, which is the fourth book in the sprawling Morland dynasty series. I can assure you that it will not be that long before I read the next one! I reviewed the first four books in the series here.

The previous book in the series, The Oak Apple, covers the events leading up to the removal of Charles I from the throne and the establishment of the English Commonwealth as headed by Oliver Cromwell. This book mostly skips the Commonwealth years, although it does deal with the tail end of that era, but then picks up speed as Charles II is called back from exile and ascends to the throne!

When the book opens the main focus is on Ralph Morland. He is head of the family, but the influence that once would have accompanied that position has been somewhat diminished as a result of having supported the Royalist side during the Civil War. Like other Royalists the Morlands were forced to pay huge fines, and large sections of Morland land has had to be sold off to meet these costs.

Ralph is married to Mary, who is quite a devout Catholic, which was still very dangerous during the end days of the Commonwealth. He has also drawn the enmity of the local magistrate who would love to see nothing more than himself becoming the owner of Morland.

As it seems is normal, in a Morland novel, some characters are introduced and others are killed off, and as always there are cousins falling love all over the place which is hard for us to necessarily understand but was seemingly normal at the time.

One character who was in little danger of being killed off, in this book at least, is cousin Annunciata. She is the daughter of Ruth, a wealthy spinster, but no one except Ruth knows exactly who her father was and Ruth isn't telling! Annunciata is headstrong and beautiful and captures the hearts of all the men around her at Morland with the utmost of ease. When Charles II returns to the throne she makes her way to London to join the Court. Given Charles' notorious reputation when it comes to women, it was something of a relief to see that Harrod-Eagles didn't take the most obvious route and make Annunciata one of his mistresses. That doesn't mean to say that Annunciata doesn't manage to stay out of trouble completely!

I have posted before about how much I enjoy reading about the Restoration court of Charles II and this book was no exception. I was also glad to see more of Charles' cousin Prince Rupert of the Rhine, a man that I would be just as happy to find out more about! The other major historical event that occurs in the pages of this volume of the saga is the onset of the plague, but I am not telling exactly how the plague affects all of our characters!

I really enjoyed this instalment of the Morland story! On to The Long Shadow now.

Rating 4.5./5

This book counts for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. Here is the synopsis from the large print version of the library book that I read:

The saga of the Morlands continues, with hope reborn as the monarchy is restored after Cromwell's Commonwealth. For Ralph Morland, the return of the King is a chance to rebuild the family estates and fortune, and for the beautiful and ambitious Annunciata, the Restoration brings a journey to London...

Emily's First Russian Christmas

Yesterday when I posted a quote from this book, I forgot to give any set up as to the setting of the quote. Emily is a young English who has just arrived in Russia to live with her aristocratic grandmother, just in time for the dramatic events of 1917.

This quote about Emily's first Russian Christmas comes from page 158-159.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Christmas dinner began at six that evening with the zakuski. The butler and the footman brought into the drawing-room a wheeled table on which were laid out salted cucumbers, stuffed mushrooms, green and black olives, marinaded tomatoes, stuffed eggs in their shells, two kinds of caviare – red and black – and open tartlets filled with creamy concoctions of smoked fish and spiced chicken. Flasks, of vodka sat in ice buckets, and as soon as the plates were filled, the glasses were charged and Natasha toasted the first toast – to Yenya and Yenchik, whose name-day it was.

Everyone drained their glasses in unison, and then tasted the zasuski while the servants went round refilling for the next toast. Emily has been in Russia almost six weeks now, and knew the procedure. She had found the vodka rather startling at first, but there was no doubt that it warmed up the atmosphere of any gathering very quickly, as toast after toast was drunk, and the delicious hors d’oeuvres were consumed.

It was seven o’clock before they moved into the dining-room, where the servants brought in the soup and the hot pirozhkis – small pastries filled variously with minced meat, onions and cabbage, and mushrooms – which went with it. The vodka was exchanged for wine now, but the toasts went on, and the laughter and conversation rose a notch. Emily’s whole body seemed to be filled with a warm astonishment: it was different as it could be from those stiff Christmas dinners at Bratton. She was seated between Adishka and Tolya, and the former kept her entertained with stories about Petersburg society, while she had never seen the latter so animated and unselfconscious.

After the soup there was kulebiaka, a noble pie made in millefeuille layers of crisp pastry filled with salmon, sturgeon, mushrooms, chopped eggs, and rice flavoured with onions and dill. Then, for the main course, there was the Christmas goose stuffed with cinnamon apples, and partridges cooked in sour cream. When it came to the dessert, the cook, Borya – a large Georgian with huge moustaches of which he was intensely proud – brought it up before him on an enormous silver platter: a traditional English plum pudding, flickering bravely with blue flames of ignited brandy and crowned with a sprig of holly.

Gilded Walnuts (from Emily by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles)

In honour of this year's Virtual Advent tour (which kicked off today) I have been collecting quotes about Christmas all through the year. I am sharing them at the Virtual Advent site, but I am also going to post them here as well.

If you might be interested in joining in the tour, it's not too late. Head on over and sign up and join in the fun. We are only on the first day, but already I have teared up reading one of the posts, and I am now desperately wanting a Star Wars Advent calendar, and wishing it was cool enough here to need a Christmas quilt!


Gilding walnuts – page 156-157 Emily by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

One evening, after Yenchik and Zansha were in bed, Mamka brought a basket of walnuts and a bowl of milk into the drawing room and put them down on the table.

‘These are the best, barina,” she said to Natasha. “I’ve sorted them out myself. All the shells are nice and clean and smooth.”

“Ah, good. Stay and help us, Mamka – you have the best touch. Yenya, Emilia, come and sit at the table.”

Yenya brought a lighted candle, a stick of sealing wax, and some green wool cut into lengths, and Natasha fetched from her bureau some little paper booklets about two inches square.

“What’s going on?” Emily asked, taking her place beside Tolya.

“We’re going to gild the nuts,” he answered, surprised. “Haven’t you ever done it before? I’ll show you, then.”

Each booklet contained twenty thin leaves of pure gold with cigarette paper between them, each leaf so delicate it made the cigarette paper look thick and coarse by comparison.

“To get it out you have to blow on it, like this. Look,” Tolya said. He blew gently, and the almost weightless leaf lifted free of the paper with a faint rustling sound. “Your hands have to be clean, and dry, or the gold comes off on your fingers.”

“Like the bloom on a butterfly’s wings,” Emily said, trying it for herself.

Each nut had to be dipped in the milk, then carefully wrapped in the gold leaf. When they were dry, the two ends of a strand of wool were placed on top of the nut and sealed down with a drop of molten wax to make a loop.

“They’re so beautiful,” Emily said. Gold paint would have been nothing to it, a dull meagre imitation. These nuts shone with all the lustre of pure gold, like little suns, like tiny church cupolas. “What are they for?”

“For hanging on the Christmas tree,” Tolya said, all amazement at her ignorance. You must have seen a Christmas tree before.”

And then from page 160

Before her was the first Christmas tree she had ever seen, stretching right up to the ceiling, ablaze with light, a beautiful, glorious thing against the darkness of the room. It was decorated with the gilded nuts she had helped to make, which shone with the soft brilliance of true gold; with small, polished bell-shaped Christmas apples; with little nets of sweets wrapped in shining foil; with crystal icicles and snowflakes, and silver bells. On the top was a fairy dressed in silver tinsel with a diamond crown: and everything seemed to shimmer in the light from the candles which trembled on the ends of the branches, making a cascade of light, layer upon layer of quivering flames, each surround with its own golden halo.

Teaser Tuesday: Emily by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

This week I am teasing from Emily by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, the third book in the Kirov Saga which is set predominantly in Russia. I have now teased from all three books in the trilogy. The first book, Anna, was set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars, the second, the title of which is Fleur, is set against the Crimean War, and now this one is building up to to the Russian Revolution.

I find the early 1900s to be such an interesting setting because so much was changing. In this book alone there has been talk about the suffragettes and the preposterous idea of having a telephone in the house amongst other things that today seem completely common place to us.

The teaser comes from page 31:

It's just like a fairy story, she thought. The Transformation Scene, from rags to spangles, Cinderella goes to the ball after all - except that Cinderella hadn't seemed to have any doubt that she would be able to handle the protocol of a full-dress Court function.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!

Weekend Cooking: A mid-life passion?

This week I found the following quote in Fleur by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, the second book of the Kirov Saga trilogy set in Russia and the novel was written in the early 1990s from memory.

Fleur yielded without struggle to his charm. Polotski told her at once that she reminded him of his dear wife, and as she translated this correctly as the highest compliment he could pay her, they hit it off splendidly.

Apart from his wife, his great passions seemed to be cooking, and jewellery. "Cooking is man's most truly creative art," he told Fleur in the course of their first long conversation. "It is the most aesthetic. All other art is contaminated by materialism. But with cooking, the end product is utterly ephemeral, and unique. It is an art which exists for its own sake alone."

"I hadn't quite thought of it like that," Fleur said.

"Of course not! What has a young lady like you to do with cooking? It is a passion for man's middle years, when other passions have cooled. You, so slender, so beautiful, may only sense it dimly. What can you know of the poetry of spices, of soured cream, of truffles? How can you appreciate the triumph of man over the forces of nature, as represented by the perfect souffle?"

I should probably give a bit of context to this quote. The book is set in England and Russia just before and during the Crimean War (so in the 1850s ) and the speaker is a mature Russian gentleman.

What I thought was interesting was the idea that cooking is a mid-life passion. I wouldn't necessarily say that is correct any more, at least in most first world countries, but it would be interesting to think about when exactly it was that cooking changed from a mostly functionary pastime to one that excites people across a variety of ages, incomes and cultures. Is it the onset of more leisure time that has been the overriding factor, or perhaps the fact that we are better off economically. Is the multi cultural nature of our society now? Is there some other factor that has contributed more to it? I should clarify in that I am not talking about people for whom cooking is just a vocation, but rather those for whom cooking is a passion as a hobby.

Over the last couple of years there appears to have been a significant upswing in the number of young people who are interested in cooking, with cooking shows such as Junior Masterchef being both a product of that change, and an instigator of continued change as more and more kids get interested in cooking. Last year, for example, my son was showing a lot of interest (you can read about his efforts here) and so one of his Christmas presents was the Junior Masterchef cook book.

When I look at my own experience, my mother is not interested in cooking at all, or in trying a lot of new things. She would be described, at best, as a functional cook. Personally, I have always liked the idea of finding a recipe, buying all the ingredients and then cooking it, but I really don't like Monday to Friday cooking.


What do you think? What about the notion that cooking is man's most truly creative art?

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

Teaser Tuesday: Fleur by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

A couple of months ago I read the first book in this trilogy, Anna, and I teased from it. In my Teaser Tuesday post I mentioned that the book was overdue but there was no way that I wasn't going to finish the book before returning it. Funnily enough, I can say exactly the same thing about this book! Maybe I will get the trifecta when I get around to reading the third book in the trilogy!

This book is set in England and Russia around the time of the Crimean War.

My teaser comes from page 232:

"But Kirov is the Emperor's man, through and through, and you mustn't believe everything he says. Oh, he believe it all right - and I dare say the Emperor even believes it himself. There's an honourable precedent for rulers not to let one half of themselves know what the other half is thinking."

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!

Don't forget to check out my current giveaway of the upcoming Geraldine Brook's release Caleb's Crossing.

Teaser Tuesday: Anna by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

I actually teased from this book a few months ago, and even at that time it was overdue. I had a plan though. I would return the book first thing in the morning, request it as soon as it was checked in again, and then I would be able to pick up that night, and keep reading.

It didn't quite work out that way as when the book was checked in, the librarian put it into mending, and then they deleted it from the catalogue altogether along with the other two book in the trilogy, so then I had to request the book via inter library loan.

Now, the book was due back yesterday, but there is no way that I am returning it until I have finished it!

My teaser comes from page 231:

Papa thinks Napoleon is the enemy of civilisation, and that he must be defeated sooner or later. He thinks what happens in Europe does matter, and that we should resist it: and that the treaty solves nothing, only pushes the problem under the carpet.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!

Double Teaser Tuesday

Today, I am bringing you two teasers, just because!

The first teaser comes from page 206 of A Kiss At Midnight by Eloisa James. This is the first book in her newest series which is titled Happily Ever After series, and features fairy tale retellings. This story is a retelling of Cinderella.:

"We kiss as if the bloody room had burst on fire," he interrupted. "We kiss as if making love didn't exist and kissing was all there was."

The second teaser come from Anna by Cynthia Harrod Eagles. This was actually due back at the library yesterday and I really have quite a lot to go, but I am determined to finish it relatively quickly because I am really enjoying it. Cynthia Harrod Eagles is more well known for her Morland Dynasty series of novels. This one is set in Russia in the early 1800s. I d love books that are set in St Petersburg in particular, and so far there has been quite a lot set there. The author can be a bit heavy on the description, but I definitely want to know what happens next! The teaser comes from page 166.

"It does look very exciting," Anne said, "but I don't know if it is quite proper. Do ladies toboggan in public?"

"Now you have said the one thing that would persuade me," he grinned. "Proper? Is that my English Anna, two thousand miles from home, wondering about propriety?"

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!

By the way, check out my blogoversary giveaway! All the details are here, and if you are interested in sharing some of your favourite holiday memories, songs, recipes, books, traditions etc, then please sign up to the Virtual Advent Tour.

Alphabet in Historical Fiction: O is The Oak Apple by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Actually O is also for the Other books I have read in the Morland Dynasty, as I have read the first four books now, but haven't reviewed any of them. So here are some mini reviews for the series so far, ending with the latest book I read, The Oak Apple.

The Morland Dynasty is a series that is currently 32 books long, and follows one family through from the War of the Roses, until the 20th century. Along the way there is triumph and tragedy, war and peace, birth and death, and glimpses into major historical events through the eyes of the fictional Morlands.

1434: the Wars of the Roses are the backdrop for the founding of the MORLAND DYNASTY.

Power and prestige are the burning ambitions of the domineering, dour Yorkshireman Edward Morland. He sets out to secure his family's future by arranging a marriage between his son Robert, more poet than soldier, and Eleanor, a ward of the influential Beaufort family. Eleanor is appalled at having to marry a mere 'sheep-farmer', but despite her passion for Richard, Duke of York, she has to obey. Yet this apparently ill-matched union becomes both passionate and tender, and their life together promises prosperity and success - though all too often mangled with tragedy as they are embroiled in the civil strife which has divided families and set neighbour against neighbour.

This remarkable marriage truly lays the foundations for the MORLAND DYNASTY.

Eleanor Courtney may be an orphan with very little in the way of dowry, but that doesn't mean to say that she doesn't have high hopes for an excellent marriage. When she finds her husband is to be a sheep farmer, albeit a very large and prosperous sheep farmer,  from the North she isn't best pleased. Eleanor is nothing but pragmatic and she is determined that she and her husband are going to start a dynasty, and that their home, Morland Place, is going to become a show home, to be passed through the generations.

The only thing that threatens the stability of these ambitions is the unrequited romantic leanings that Eleanor has towards Richard, Duke of York. With the War of the Roses raging, the Yorkist Morland's must do their part, and struggle to hold onto their growing business interests, including their new found connections to the cloth industry.

Eleanor is a strong and dominating character both within her family, and in the pages of the book, but it is really the placement of the lesser characters within the well known events that provides the most interesting facets of the story.

When we first found out about Eleanor's feelings for Richard, I just assumed that it was the future Richard III that we were talking about. It was only a bit later that I realised that it was a generation earlier, and Richard's father, that had captured her heart. I guess that assumption shows more about me than it did about the book. The events in this book cover from the mid 1430's to around the 1480's, when Richard III lost his kingdom to the usurper who we know now as Henry VII.

One of the things that I have been glad of in all of the books in this series so far is that there is a family tree at the beginning of the book, as it is easy to occasionally get a lost as you try to keep track of all the children, grandchildren, and which cousin married which cousin.

I originally read this for the Chunkster Challenge of 2009. Whilst it did qualify for that challenge, at 527 pages it didn't feel like a chunkster, and I breezed through it in 2 days.

1501: the turbulence of Henry VIII's reign brings passion and pain to the Morlands as they achieve ever greater wealth and privilege.

Paul, great grandson of Eleanor Morland, has inherited the Morland estates, and his own Amyas is set to be his heir. But Paul fathers a beloved illegitimate son, and bitter jealousy causes a destructive rift between the two half-brothers which will lead to death. Paul's niece, Nanette becomes a maid-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn, and at the court of Henry VIII she becomes embroiled in the King's bitter feud with Rome.

Through birth and death, love and hatred, triumph and heartbreak, the Morlands continue proudly to claim their place amongst England's aristocracy.

As I am sure she will do more and more, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles places the characters from the Morland family right in the midst of the action. There is a gap between the end of the last book, and the beginning of this one, and so we skip from the end of the War of the Roses, until we are firmly in the Tudor court.

The major female character in this novel is Nanette, and it is she who gives us the greatest insight into life at the court of Henry VIII, when she is appointed as lady in waiting to Catherine of Aragon. She is also close friends with Anne Boleyn and Katherine Parr, and therefore we get to witness the rise and fall of the most infamous of Henry's queens, and the aftermath. The time at court is nicely balanced by the time that Nanette spends at home with her family, despite the fact that it features a highly unlikely and somewhat shocking relationship. In the end, love prevails, but that relationship, which I am not going to reveal, is probably the thing that I remember most from this whole book.

The religious struggle that Henry becomes embroiled in is well covered in this book, with the opinions of the family split. I would say that this does seem to be something that the author does very well, both in this and  and in the future novels that I have read in the series.

The head of the Morland family is Paul, and he does seem to be something of a cold fish. He is jealous of his brother, he is unable to show his own children affection, and in turn they become fierce rivals, with tragic consequences.

The Princeling is the third volume in the Dynasty series which follows the fortunes of the Morlands, a Yorkshire wool family, from the Wars of the Roses to World War II. A story which began in The Founding and continued in The Dark Rose.

The Princeling is set in the adventurous reign of Elizabeth I. The Catholic Morlands are threatened by the upsurge of Protestantism and are forced to seek new spheres of influence, through marriage.

John, heir to Morland Place, rides north to bring back the daughter of Black Will Percy, the Borderland cattle lord. But proud Mary will not have him, and John stays in Redesdale, to live the strange, savage life of the Borders, and learn through blood and battle how to win her heart.

Lettice, the second Morland, enters the court of Mary, Queen of Scots and weds the harsh, ambitious Lord Robert Hamilton. In a hostile world of treachery and tragedy, the wolfish lord teaches her how to survive and triumph.

In The Princeling, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, with her sweeping style and authoritatively researched background, has written another powerful chapter in the history of the mighty Morland Dynasty, which grows to encompass three great estates - in Yorkshire, Northumberland and Scotland.

Having survived the courts of Henry VIII our story moves forward into the Elizabethan era. Once again, love and marriage play a significant part in this novel. Paul and Nanette are back, with the latter once again taking her place at Court. This time it is the court of Elizabeth I, daughter of the woman who was once Nanette's close confidante and friend.

Paul is trying to expand the influence of the Morland family and so marriages are sought, with John trying to wed the daughter of Black Will Percy, and Lettice sent to the court of Mary, Queen of Scots. I have to say that Mary Percy was one of my favourite characters in this novel in that she was different from most female characters in the novel with her skills in fighting and hunting, possibly a little bit anachronistic, but oh so much fun.

Not all of the characters that we meet are fun to read about, and there are a fair share of unlikeable characters, but the book is once again very readable.

The Oak Apple is the fourth volume in the Dynasty series which follows the fortunes of the Morlands, a Yorkshire wool family, from the Wars of the Rose to World War II.

The Oak Apple is set in the reign of Charles I, when England has prospered under long years of peace. But peace is suddenly and violently shattered by the advent of brutal civil war between King and Parliament.

Edmund Morland seeks to steer a middle course between the opposing factions, but the family is split when his eldest son Richard, brings home a Puritan bride, while his second son Kit, rides to join Prince Rupert and the dashing Royalist cavalry.

As bitterness and disillusionment replace the early fervour, the war grinds on, severing husband from wife, brother from brother, and Edmund struggles grimly to preserve the Morland fortune intact, estranged from his sons, alienated at last, even from his beloved wife Mary.

A blazing panorama of love and death, grief and triumph, The Oak Apple sees the Morlands at war, struggling for the survival of their loyalties, and their values.

I have written before about how much I enjoy reading about Charles II, particularly his return to the English throne, but I can't remember reading anything about the events that led up to his exile to Europe, and the battles that his father, Charles I had with Parliament that led to the English Civil War. This book covers many of those events.

Edmund Morland is a throwback to earlier generations. Once again a seemingly cold man is at the head of the family, and once again, it is rivalries between brothers, and other family members, that sets in motion a series of events that once started seem to gain momentum of their own.  His eldest son Richard feels like he has been deprived of the same opportunities as his young brother Kit. When it is time for him to take his chance to attend Oxford, the last thing that anyone expects is that Richard will come back to Morland Place with a strictly Puritan bride. With the high

Edmund is conscious that his main aim has to be to preserve Morland Place for future generations, and so he treads a fine line by trying to keep in good both with the Royalists and the Roundheads. Those decisions leave no one satisfied, especially not his children and their spouses,  and drive a wedge between him and one of the few people who understand him, his devout wife Mary Esther.

Like previous heads of the family, Edmund also has his eye firmly on the expansion of the Morland landholdings, and this time his eye is on the New World. Conscious that in order to provide all of his children with land he would have to break up the current holdings, he sends one of his younger sons, who has married one of his cousins, to the new colonies of America where life is much harder than they expected.


The most fascinating character for me was one that I only recall hearing about in passing - Prince Rupert of the Rhine. He was viewed as one of the most dashing and for a long time, the most successful, of the King's Cavaliers. It was at one of his first defeats that the Morland's toll was highest.


One of the more memorable Morland characters for me from this book will be Kit, who is the second son of Edmund. When he returns home from Oxford, he is a dashing young man, and he is quickly smitten with his beautiful cousin Hero, not at all concerned about the limp that so many others cannot see beyond. When the war starts he enlists with the Royalists, and finds himself in close proximity with Prince Rupert at battle after battle and skirmish after skirmish.

The portrayal of the initial enthusiasm, which in time changes to a battle weariness that infects his whole attitude was very moving, and left me hoping that some how he would find a way back to his young family.

One of the things about this book, as easily as Harrod-Eagles introduces new characters, she is equally not afraid to kill of minor and major characters. At times this is heart breaking to read, but also helps to give the books a grittiness and realism that is not necessarily always present in novels.

Just a quick note on the cover that I have used above. When I do a review I like to use the actual cover that I had, but I looked for ages online to find an image of this one, without success. In the end I had to scan it in to be able to use it. Probably shows how long this book has been in my library system more than anything!

So there we have it. Brief reviews of the first four books in the Morland series. Now I just have to keep up with them as I read each book. I have already requested The Black Pearl, the fifth book in the series, from my library. I am looking forward to reacquainting myself with the Morlands.

By the way, Sourcebooks is in the process of rereleasing the early books in the Morland series (and I hope that they will continue to do so). If you are looking for them, then here are the covers of the first three books that have already been reissued.