The Granite Cliffs (Severn House Large Print) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Rosemary Aitken (Author)

Book Description

Series: Severn House Large Print | Publication Date: July 1, 2003

Victoria Flower, motherless and nearing womanhood, is beginning to chafe against the restrictions of her life as the vicar's only daughter in a remote Cornish mining town. Her honourable and well-meaning father, though disillusioned by the impossibility of his spiritual task, thinks he has found a suitable companion for her when he introduces a gentle, musical young curate into the parish. Indeed a friendship blossoms, as Victoria finds a fellow-sufferer in his rather gauche and awkward ways. All this is to change, however, when a accident at the granite-pit brings Victoria into close contact with stone-worker Daniel Olds, whose rugged muscularity she has already secretly admired, and finds the admiration mutual. However, there is no possibility of a match. Convention and society are against them, and Dan is already promised to local girl, Mollie Coombs, who is not likely to give up her beau without a struggle. The Curate, too, shows a determined side, though he proves to have a secret of his own. Set at a time when Edwardian convention was absolute and when the Penwith mining industry was in crisis and decline, this book offers a lively glimpse at the social and economic realities of love, life and loss in early twentieth-century Cornwall.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The denizens of this small Cornish mining town live close to the bone, given their difficult and dangerous work. Young Daniel Olds has a high-skilled job; he handles the blasting powder, but when disaster strikes, he's left with a mangled leg and few prospects. Victoria Flower, the vicar's daughter, is in an unusual position. The people from the village are below her station, but she's not gentry. She therefore lives a lonely life, being neither fish nor fowl, although she does deliver chicken jelly to those who are ailing, and she does know who Daniel is. Indeed, she's seen him with his girl, Mollie, and felt unreasonably jealous. When the accident occurs, Victoria suggests that he work as their gardener. Daniel and Victoria then become friends as she lends him books and helps him improve his grammar. They'd like to be more to each other, but circumstances keep them apart in Aitken's wonderfully evocative, socially sensitive tale, a romance full of interesting, well-rounded characters and realistic predicaments. Maria Hatton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

the grandaughter of a miner killed in the Levant mine disaster. She has had three novels published under her own names as well as various textbooks poems, stories, and plays.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Severn House Publishers (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0727873008
• ISBN-13: 978-0727873002
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,351,082 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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