Each novel follows a different generation of the same ordinary Cumberland family as national and international events intrude upon village life. The books stand alone, while together they trace the family and its village across centuries of upheaval.
William: A Cumberland Rebel
Ian P Loftus
1745 – 1746
Cumberland, 1745. William Birkett is a young labourer who understands sheep, stone walls and the value of a day’s work. He has no title, influence or desire to become part of history. But as rebellion reaches Caldbeck, loyalty becomes dangerous and neutrality increasingly impossible.
Drawn into the Jacobite rising, William follows the army north and witnesses the destruction of the cause at Culloden. Captured and carried back to England, he faces imprisonment, trial and a punishment that will take him far beyond the Cumberland fells.
A historical novel about loyalty, survival and the consequences of political events in ordinary lives.
Available in hardback, paperback and ebook
The Wider Series
The planned sequence ranges from the Children’s Crusade to the industrial age, following successive generations of the Birkett family as distant political decisions enter ordinary village life.