Flash of Splendour

The quiet village of Rivington in Warwickshire is the setting for this absorbing novel of mystery and romance. It is 1848, a year of revolutions, when young Dr. Hugh Radlett returns to the scene of his boyhood and falls in love with Anne Torrance. But into their lives come two men - Godfrey Bullivant, a man obsessed, who invades the peaceful countryside with his hated railway, and Laszlo Bathory, an exotic, mysterious figure involved in revolution. Against an ever-changing canvas, surrounded by such fascinating characters as the Hungarian Countess Sophia, the prim Esther Wharton, the pathetic Toms, each comes to find his own destiny. 1848 — mystery and violent passion shatter the quiet of a Warwickshire village. Hugh put his hands on Anne’s waist and lifted her down from the stile. She was close to him, smelling of the freshness of the sun, her eyes mysterious in the shadow of her hat. He kissed her. He kissed her with a year’s longing and with no pretence of anything but loving her; loving her and no longer pretending he could overcome it. “Marry me,” he said. Anne looked up at him. “But I am marrying Laszlo Bathory,” she replied. Hugh released her, so suddenly she almost stumbled. “Find him, then,” he said abruptly, and walked away. Anne waited for him to return. But he did not. He did not even look back.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Romance, Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.