Ippenbury – Graveyard of Ambition

HISTORICAL

Pages: 260 Ratings: 5.0

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What do we really know about the lives of others?

The villagers of rural Ippenbury in 1913 puzzle over their new schoolmistress, as Adele reveals very little about herself and almost nothing of her past. Telling her story, using her letters and journals, she recounts the enormous changes in the village during the Great War, including her responses to wounded soldiers recovering in the old mill hospital. She keeps her own life and loves private, but we can follow their twists and turns, even if it is only later that we begin to understand what has driven her reaction to these challenges and the tragic epidemic that followed.

Her life in Ippenbury may have been her graveyard of ambition, but her story could be true of many others during these turbulent years, or indeed now.

This provocative and compelling exploration of life, passion, love and ambition may leave you questioning how much we really understand about those around us.

Anthony Clifford’s fascination with locations, buildings and heritage have led him to write stories based on places he loves. Teaching and researching in Kent and Cornwall mean that his creative energies are rooted in knowledge, while his passion to explore lessons from history have inspired his writing.

Customer Reviews

5.0

1 reviews

Char

Tantalising story of a woman with secrets in an English village The book invites us to understand the motivations and actions of Adele, and her calculated approach to her amorous relationships; somehow she draws us into her plans, and we turn the pages to find out where her unconventional decisions will lead her. But she nonetheless keeps aspects of her past, and of her current motivations, secret. The period detail, such as a description of the process of hop drying, is engrossing. The sense of being affected by the War while not being in the front line is evoked in numerous ways. The evolving narrative triggers speculation about possible outcomes for Adele. The journey from a reserved lady in her thirties to what she becomes is very credible. Overall this was a very thought-provoking story which kept me interested and fascinated right until the final revelations.