Review Francine
Katherine Pym has taken the true-life story of Sara and David Kirke, (latterly Governor of Newfoundland) and presents a wonderful biography with all the fictional flare of the excellent historical novelist that she is. Set at a time when England was nearing the brink of Civil War (1642-1649) in which the opposing sides were King and Parliament, David is a sea-going merchant adventurer and a privateer in the crown’s name. He dutifully launches an assault on French Canadian Territory, and as in all land-grab fly-the-flag operations not all goes according to initial plans but he does finally revel in victory, and curses failures along the way. Whilst dogged individuals the like of Kirke will plough the rough waters of the Atlantic Ocean, will barter and deploy diplomacy in one quarter, and exert power and dominance in another, he does not take well to betrayal and treachery by his monarch. Thus “The Pillars of Avalon” is a harsh tale of struggle and determination against the odds when a king sees fit to cripple merchants with increased personal taxes and higher levies on imported goods. But when the king sequesters and reinstates occupied land to France and its French colonists, Kirke’s ire rises with ferocity, in the interim Kirke is knighted in the strangest of circumstance.
To say he’s confused by turn of events is understating the situation as he fights to retain some semblance of wealth, and once again sets out for the New World with Sara. Unfortunately what he covets most belongs to another in name, albeit the property is abandoned. Nonetheless, a Governor can sequester in the name of bettering a new colony’s fortunes, thus he exerts power of Governor and sets up home as intended. In the meanwhile, back in England war is raging, and ends in defeat for the king. With the king dead, a new republican era (The Interregnum) has begun, and those looked on as Royalists are forced to account for good fortune whether by hard won labour or by skulduggery. Sadly, his return to England is almost a rerun of his run-in with the king, with one caveat: he has a secondary enemy other than Cromwell’s administrators.
Hence a high price is subsequently paid by Kirke in his fight to survive financial ruin in the city (London) he has come to despise. He longs for the clear blue horizon and the place he calls home, and who can blame him whilst the city of London comes alive throughout the novel and stirs the senses with its putrid mire, rat infested streets, and corrupt politics. Sara is more than a mere wife. She is David’s leaning post partner from early on, and his pillar of strength. Sara is the one he looks for first when home from the sea, and what can one say, other than not only does this novel represent a slice of history, it’s a love story too.
