'Tom Fleck' - a review.

[Harry Nicholson]

The Eildon Tree is an arts magazine that covers the Scottish Borders. The latest edition contains a review of my novel - and I'm so thrilled. I wanted to share it:

'TOM FLECK'

A NOVEL OF CLEVELAND

AND FLODDEN

Harry Nicholson

Historical Novel

2011

261 pages

£7.99

ISBN: 978-1-908147-76-9

also an eBook.

 

With The Flodden 500 Project coming to fruition next year, there

will be a resurgence of interest in  one of the bloodiest battles ever

fought on English soil and this is likely to produce an outpouring of

academic opinion on the whys and wherefores of the conflict. There is

nothing wrong with that, but Harry Nicholson has anticipated the flood

of paper and got in ahead of the field—yes, it is a work of fiction, but

it has been thoroughly researched in terms of historical background and

it is set in a part of the country that the author knows intimately. These

aspects are apparent throughout the story and the book has real historical

and geographical credibility ahead of and beyond, 2013.

 

However, the story is not just about Flodden, although the battle

is an important part. Its setting is wider than this—north Yorkshire,

Durham and Northumberland, and the Scottish Borders and its subject

matter is also broad, covering agricultural life, class conflict, racial

tension, love, passion with quite a bit of lust, plenty of adventure

throughout and, of course, the battle scenes.

 

Tom Fleck is a poor, unread, farm hand, but with exceptional skills

as an archer, whose forebears were once yeomen and unfairly deprived

of ‘their own hide of land’ by the lord of the manor. Tom yearns to better

himself but, to do so, has to leave his home and family. He is inspired

by his dead father’s words, ‘Sharp as quivering hares are the Flecks. We’ve

eyes and ears for things other folk miss’.

Two objects that he has unearthed could be the key to his future, an

ancient gold torque and a Tudor seal ring that bring him into contact

with Rachel Coronel who longs to end her Jewish wanderings as an

outcast. Before getting very far, Tom makes an enemy of the lord’s son,

which bodes ill, but he is fortunate in being taken into the service of the

Norroy King of Arms whose task is to record men wearing coats of arms

in the north.

However, Tom is in the wrong place at the wrong time when men are

needed to fight against a Scottish army that is mustering in Edinburgh

and expected to move south. The reader’s attention is grabbed

and held by the very first words of the book:

Wings clattered through branches. Tom Fleck stayed his axe in mid-swing as

two wood pigeons flung themselves into the mist. He looked down at the dog as

her throat rumbled. She raised a paw,shot him a glance, then – ears cocked

– faced along the track. Metal clinked somewhere.

He whispered, ‘Whisht now. Come away.’

Harry Nicholson is good at this. Atmosphere abounds and pace and

good story telling are maintained throughout a book that is difficult

to put down; description is plentiful and often poetic, but is always

relevant to the story and never ‘contrived’. Readers will delight

in the descriptions of the land, the plants, the birds and the animals

and will enjoy the contribution of Tom’s dog, ‘Meg’. There are also

the dark sides of human nature and experience, poverty, drunkenness,

cruelty, conflict and death. It is for the reader to find out what

happens—the reviewer can certainly recommend it as a very good read

and hope that this first novel is followed by many more.

Antony Chessell