Taking Liberties
By Diana Norman

     I read a lot of historical fiction and nearly all of it--including what I don't actually read but am aware of--falls into four categories. There are whodunits, romance, military and literary. How wonderful, then, to discover a writer who falls into none of these camps, and whose work cannot be so tidily pigeonholed. Diana Norman started good and then got better, and her latest, the sequel to A Catch of Consequence (also reviewed on this site) is possibly the best yet. Over ten years after the events of the first book, Makepeace Hedley is still happily married to Andra and living in Newcastle with two young daughters, and runs a business that has made her into a very rich and fiercely independent woman. But a letter from America has her chasing down to Devon in search of her missing eldest daughter, Philippa, where she meets a woman who seems to be her opposite in every way. Diana, Dowager Countess Stacpoole, has just been released from a dreadful marriage to an abusive husband by his death and seems about to be relegated to the Dower House. But she has also had a letter from America and soon is looking for the son of an old friend. They are to find a common goal-to improve the appalling conditions in which the captured American prisoners of war are kept. But in doing this, both women are to find something much more worthwhile than even this.

     As ever, Diana Norman has the twin themes of female independence and high adventure. These two often seem to be mutually exclusive in most other novels, but be prepared for a rambunctious treat that has echoes of Frenchman's Creek. Norman even has the talent of making her goodies the most interesting characters and the villains villainous in a believable and wholly unglamorous manner that makes heroism interesting and desirable, as well as worthy. This is the 18th century in all its muck and glory, but there are many parallels with modern life too, and plenty to think about that echoes the current world crisis. This is not a book to read in a hurry, and with the well researched background and enjoyable characters there is plenty to praise and the whole is very likely to please people who don't normally read historical novels or any other genre fiction. A classy read that isn't literary, and a novel replete with feminism and politics wholly unlike other books of that type… Another one to be caught reading in public and highly (almost hugely) enjoyable.