Whirligig: Keeping the Promise

by Richard Buxton

Overview

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 RUBERY INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD

The first novel from multi-award winning short-story writer Richard Buxton, Whirligig is at once an outsider's odyssey through the battle for Tennessee, a touching story of impossible love, and a portrait of America at war with itself. Self-interest and conflict, betrayal and passion, all fuse into a fateful climax.

Shire leaves his home and his life in Victorian England for the sake of a childhood promise, a promise that will pull him into the bleeding heart of the American Civil War and through the bloody battlefields of the West, where he will discover a second home for his loyalty.

Clara believes she has escaped from a predictable future of obligation and privilege, but her new life in the Appalachian Hills of Tennessee is decaying around her. In the mansion of Comrie, long hidden secrets are being slowly exhumed by a war that comes ever closer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780995769304
Publisher:	Ocoee Publishing
Publication date:	04/22/2017
Series:	Shire's Union Trilogy , #1
Pages:	498
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.11(d)

About the Author

Richard lives with his family in the South Downs, Sussex, England. He completed an MA in Creative Writing at Chichester University in 2014. He has an abiding relationship with America, having studied at Syracuse University, New York State, in the late eighties. His short stories have won the Exeter Story Prize, the Bedford International Writing Competition and the Nivalis Short Story Award. Whirligig is his first novel and the opening book of Shire's Union trilogy. Current projects include the second book, The Copper Road, as well as preparing to publish a collection of short stories. To learn more about Richard's writing visit https://www.richardbuxton.net.

Editorial Reviews

'Whirligig is a magnificent novel, epic in scale' - Gill Thompson, Author of 'The Child on Platform One.'

'Highly recommended for readers who feel all the great war stories have already been written.' Historical Novel Society

'There is not a single unnecessary sentence in this engrossing novel' - Helen Hollick, author of the Saxon series

'An epic tale of adventure beset with extraordinary challenges' - Margaret Muir, author of the Oliver Quintrell series

'I was often moved to tears by the small tender moments of humanity' - Cathie Hartigan, author of 'Secret of the Song'
'Whirligig is a truly first class novel... At its heart, it's a quest, which naturally and increasingly draws the reader powerfully through the narrative.'

- Martin Shepard, Author of 'Too Fast a Life'
'I heartily recommend this book to the Civil War enthusiast' - Major Jeff Houston, 5th Ohio Volunteer Infantry

From the Publisher