Kirjailijakuva

Ronald Welch (1909–1982)

Teoksen Knight Crusader tekijä

17+ teosta 717 jäsentä 32 arvostelua

Tietoja tekijästä

Sarjat

Tekijän teokset

Knight Crusader (1954) 142 kappaletta
The Gauntlet (1951) 95 kappaletta
Bowman of Crécy (1966) 56 kappaletta
Escape from France (1960) 47 kappaletta
Captain of Dragoons (1956) 47 kappaletta
Tank Commander (1976) 38 kappaletta
Sun of York (1970) 37 kappaletta
The Hawk (1967) 35 kappaletta
Mohawk Valley (1958) 35 kappaletta
Captain of Foot (1959) 35 kappaletta
For the King (1962) 34 kappaletta
The Galleon (1971) 27 kappaletta
Nicholas Carey (1963) 26 kappaletta
Ensign Carey (1963) 23 kappaletta
Ferdinand Magellan (1956) 21 kappaletta
The Road to Waterloo (2018) 13 kappaletta
Zulu Warrior (1974) 6 kappaletta

Associated Works

The Illustrated Treasury of Modern Literature for Children (1985) — Avustaja — 64 kappaletta
Escape Stories (1980) — Avustaja — 9 kappaletta
Chosen for Children (1957) — Avustaja — 5 kappaletta
Thrilling Adventure Stories (1988) — Avustaja — 5 kappaletta
Thrilling Stories from the Past for Boys (1970) — Avustaja — 2 kappaletta

Merkitty avainsanalla

Yleistieto

Jäseniä

Kirja-arvosteluja

Thrown back in time from the mid-twentieth to the fourteenth centuries, English schoolboy Peter Staunton becomes Peter de Blois, eldest son and heir of Sir Roger de Blois, the lord of Carreg Cennan Castle, and one of the South Wales Marcher Lords who occupied that country after the Norman conquest. Soon deeply enmeshed in the life around him, Peter learns many things about medieval life, from the duties expected of him as a page to the art of falconry, the life of the Cistercian monks at nearby Valle Crucis Abbey to the finer points of jousting. When the native Welsh rise up in rebellion, he is in the thick of things, and his acts of bravery turn the tide of the battle...

Originally published in 1951, The Gauntlet was one of Ronald Welch's first books for children, written before he began his marvelous Carey Family series, which chronicles the adventures of members of the same landed Welsh family through many centuries of history. In many ways, I think it shows the author finding his feet, in terms of writing historical fiction for children. I enjoyed the story immensely, and think I would have really loved the book as a child reader, although the author's didactic purpose, when it comes to teaching young readers about various aspects of medieval life, does come through. This is natural of course, as Welch was also a history teacher, and the headmaster of a boys' school, and it didn't particularly bother me, as I took the "infodump" aspect of the narrative as a natural outgrowth of Peter's own unfamiliarity with the information in question.

My main critique of the book would be that I thought there was a missed opportunity to give the narrative a deeper emotional resonance, by creating a relationship between Peter and Glyndwr Llewellyn, the son of the local Welsh lord, and an unwilling page at Carreg Cennan. I was rather surprised that this didn't happen, as I was expecting something of the sort: a friendship that must be cut off when the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. But then, perhaps doing this would have distracted from Welch's purpose in writing the story: namely, informing young readers about medieval life. I did find Glyndwr's name interesting, as it immediately reminded me of Owain Glyndŵr, the great Welsh prince who led a revolt against the Norman/English during this same period. It's hard not to think that that choice was deliberate, on the author's part.

In any case, despite not being the equal of Welch's later books, this is one I would recommend to young readers who enjoy historical fiction and/or time-slip stories.
… (lisätietoja)
½
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
AbigailAdams26 | 2 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Jun 24, 2023 |
Seventeen-year-old James Carey, son of Richard Carey, the 8th Earl of Aubigny, and a Cornet in D Troop of the 30th Light Dragoons, experiences the lead-up to the famous Battle of Waterloo in this historical novella from British children's author Ronald Welch. Briefly taken prisoner, James falls in for a time with Wellington's spymaster, Colonel Colquhoun Grant,, before joining his father on Wellington's staff. Observing the fighting at Quatre Bras, he retreats, along with the rest of the British army, to a little village called Waterloo...

Published posthumously in 2018, The Road to Waterloo is a brief four chapters, and was found in Ronald Welch's papers thirty years after his death. It was obviously intended as the start of a longer novel, one which describes the famous battle in the title. It's regrettable that Welch didn't manage to finish the book, as I think his depiction of that battle would have been top notch, and an interesting counterpart to Georgette Heyer's depiction, in her An Infamous Army, which is considered one of the best descriptions of Waterloo ever written. That being said, the four chapters here also work as a separate, stand-alone story, albeit a brief one, and the conclusion right before Waterloo closes the narrative on an intriguing note. I found James an appealing character, and was interested to see his interaction with his father, whose own youthful adventure was chronicled in Escape from France. Recommended to readers who have read and enjoyed earlier entries in the Carey Family Chronicles, as well as to young readers who enjoy historical fiction in general.
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
AbigailAdams26 | 1 muu arvostelu | May 27, 2023 |
Owen Lloyd, only son and heir of impoverished Welsh landowner Sir Thomas Lloyd, resented the hard times into which his family had fallen, thanks in no small part to the grasping Turberville familly—recent English newcomers in their area of the Welsh Marches. Riding out to fight on the Yorkist side of the Wars of the Roses, Owen and his father were at the Battle of Edgecote, where Owen distinguished himself in combat, despite being on the losing side. Returning to Kenfig Castle after surviving that defeat, only for Sir Thomas to be murdered by one of the Turbervilles, and then avenged by his son in a melee at Caerphilly Castle, the exiled Owen would eventually go on to fight for the Yorkist cause at Barnet and Tewkesbury, and to take service with the Duke of Gloucester (King Richard III), before eventually returning to his Welsh home in triumph...

Unsurprisingly, given the fact that I have enjoyed the twelve previous Ronald Welch novels I have read—all part of his Carey Family Chronicles, which follow the fortunes of another Welsh land-owning family through many centuries of British history—I found Sun of York quite engaging, and raced through it in two days. It is the first work of historical fiction, for children or adults, that I have read that is set during the Wars of the Roses, and was very interesting to me, on that score. In many ways, this felt like it could have been another volume in the Carey Family Chronicles, which never covered this particular episode of history. In any case, I enjoyed the story, and found Owen an appealing hero. I appreciated the thoroughly non-romantic look at the warfare of the time—the stiff but brutal combat of men in armor, the looting of bodies after battle—and I also found the depiction of a young Richard III quite fascinating. Given the poor reputation his character often has in the pages of history and literature, I thought Welch did an excellent job creating a more nuanced vision of him. As he observes in his historical afterword, "he was probably no worse than any of the other leading figures of his time."

Recommended to young readers who enjoy good historical fiction, and to anyone seeking children's fiction set during the Wars of the Roses.
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
AbigailAdams26 | Apr 28, 2023 |
Second Lieutenant John Carey experiences the horror of war for the first time on the battlefield of Mons in this gripping, vividly-realized work of historical fiction for young readers. As the narrative moves from one WWI battle to the next, John serves under commanders good and bad, and sees almost all of his fellows mowed down in the carnage around him. Eventually, he is recruited for a brand new, top secret unit, one that will introduce tank warfare into the conflict...

The twelfth entry in Ronald Welch's Carey Family Chronicles, which follows the fortunes of members of the same landed Welsh family through centuries of British history, Tank Commander was originally publisher in 1972, and is the last of the books, chronologically speaking. (The thirteenth entry in the series, The Road to Waterloo, was published posthumously from the author's notes in 2018, and is set far earlier in time, in the period leading up to that famous battle). Tank Commander offers a fascinating look at the mechanization of warfare during the First World War—a subject about which I hitherto knew nothing, but which proved quite engrossing. As always, Welch knows his history, and provides a wealth of technical detail, all worked into a story of a young man involved in the development of a new way of waging war. This is a different kind of WWI book, and I found, as I read it, that I was comparing it in my mind to another excellent work of children's fiction set during the period, namely, Michael Morpurgo's War Horse. While that book examined warfare from the perspective of an equine participant, harking back to older means of fighting, the Welch is focused on the development of technology, and its use in newer forms of fighting. Given that WWI is sometimes called "the first modern war," I think reading these two books together would offer some interesting insight, and spark good discussion amongst young people studying the subject.

In any case, I found this to be another excellent entry in Welch's series, and look forward (with a little bit of bittersweetness) to reading the final book featuring the Careys.
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
AbigailAdams26 | Mar 26, 2023 |

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Tilastot

Teokset
17
Also by
6
Jäseniä
717
Suosituimmuussija
#35,386
Arvio (tähdet)
½ 3.7
Kirja-arvosteluja
32
ISBN:t
52

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