Time of Trial

by Hester Burton, Victor G. Ambrus (Illustrator)

The setting is 1801, in a small dark bookshop on Holly Lane, in the shadow of St Paul's Cathedral. It is the home of Margaret Pargeter and smells of old leather bindings, parchment and ink. Her father's books and his bookselling are her life - or so they were until one day disaster strikes Holly Lane. A tide of anger against social conditions is unleashed, which means trouble for the Pargeter family.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens, 19th Century

275 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Hester Wood-Hill was born on the 6th December, 1913 at Beccles in Suffolk.. She attended Headington School Oxford between 1925 and 1931 and then Oxford University between 1932 and 1936 when she received a honours degree in English. In 1937 she married Reginad W.B. Burton and had three daughters. For a while she was a part-time grammar school teacher and the Assistant Editor of the Oxford Junior Encyclopaedia.

Between 1960 and 1981 she produced eighteen books for children, most of them for the Oxford University Press and many of them illustrated by the incomparable Victor Ambrus. In 1963 she was awarded the Carnegie Medal for Children’s Literature for her story “Time of Trial”. Hester Burton died in 2000.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Time of Trial (late middle grade to young adult historical fiction which won Hester Burton the 1963 Carnegie Medal) takes place in England (both in London and later in Herringsby, Suffolk, with many presented adventures and misadventures for the Pargeter family until at the end of Time of Trial a general happy ending is reached, that has main protagonist Margaret Pargeter marrying her lover, the medical student Robert Kerridge, and with her erstwhile political prisoner father setting up a new bookshop and a school for promoting universal literacy), in the very early 19th century, in a Great Britain at war (or rather still a war) with France (with Napoleon, of course). The long conflict has been causing much poverty and starvation amongst the lower classes in England, and the governing echelons of British society, the powers that be, they are (because of the recent late 18th century French Revolution) increasingly anxious about social unrest and thus see almost everything novel and even a wee bit revolutionary as potentially traitorous and threatening their clout and control (with Margaret Pargeter's bookselling father therefore being arrested and jailed simply for distributing some political leaflets regarding poverty and what might be done to mitigate this).

But yes, because Time of Trial is a third person and not a first person narrative, and because Hester Burton does present to her readers a huge plethora of historical facts and details upon detail, while I am finding Burton's very overtly and accurate sense of specific time and geographic place (namely early 19th century England) interesting and delightfully academic, and as such also really quite wonderfully enlightening and educational, I equally do feel as though Margaret Pargeter and her family's lives and their tribulations are not really examined in depth and remain pretty much on the surface throughout Time of Trial, so that for example, we find out that Margaret's father's Weltanschauung is a bit radical, read forward thinking and that he stocks and sells books deemed unacceptable and seditious, but that we also do not in Time of Trial really ever get to know any of the characters (including the main protagonist, including Margaret Pargeter herself) on a deep and personal level, with Hester Burton's text for Time of Trial generally reading for and to me more like a history textbook than an in any way truly engaging piece of historical fiction. And while of course and naturally, I am definitely enjoying learning a whole lot regarding the early 19th century in England, on Great Britain, sorry, but Hester Burton's featured characters do not really every come sufficiently textually alive for me to consider more than a low three star rating for Time of Trial.

[Farah Mendlesohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

They do tend to get samey plot wise, but when it comes to writing dense historical fiction that goes down like ice cream, Hester Burton is one of the best. In this one the daughter of a bookseller has to cope when he is imprisoned under the draconian and repressive libel laws of the early 1900s. We learn a lot about those laws, and about the changing class structure at the beginning of century; about smugglers, and doctors and the book trade. I had never known there was a Jewish quarter in the Poultry Compter (gaol).

One small point: all her heroines marry veery young. We now know this just wasn't normal, but I do wonder if this bit of mythmaking emerged because many of the writers of the mid 20th century boom in historical fiction, had themselves/had friends who married quite young in both post war periods, and they assumed it was normal?

I've handed a list of these to my beloved as "welcome Xmas gifts" with the stipulation that they have the Victor Ambrus covers. If I ever have serious money to blow, then I want some Ambrus prints.

[Margareth8537 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the characters in this and as I love books, was fascinated by the storyline

[CLM]

There was every reason for Margaret Pargeter, just seventeen, to be happy that unlucky day in the summer of 1801. The war with France seemed far away and even her uneasy fears for her bookseller father, who sometimes criticized too openly the desperate lot of London's poor, seemed secondary to her growing interest in handsome Robert Kerridge, a young medical student, who lived with them in Holly Lane. Then disaster struck...

(from the jacket flap)

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Salooooop.

Time of Trial goes in a bunch of different directions. There's the bookshop, the literary namedropping, the orphan, the social justice crusade, the actual trial, Margaret's metaphorical trial which is this part of her life as she is approaching womanhood in 1801 London, the fire, the sea, Herringsby, the smugglers and the soldiers, and the romance.

Time of Trial was written in 1963, when plots didn't have to be as tight.

My copy cost 35p in the UK, $1.05 in New Zealand, $1.50 in Canada, 90¢ in South Africa, and 86¢ in Rhodesia. One wonders about this novel advocating the spread of dissident pamphlets in 1963 Rhodesia, but people noticed YA even less back then, and England has an incredible skill at ignoring its own faults so that it can toot its own horn about the rights of man while maintaining colonies in South Africa and Rhodesia. This book has a few inaccuracies and anachronisms and a general feel that Burton is confusing 1801 England and post-Poor Laws Victorian England. Mrs. Neech says, "He'll not have to fear the workhouse," because workhouses were not much of a thing until after 1834. Margaret finds William Blake, no kids lit at all, when she needs a book to entertain Elijah. William Godwin was running a children's bookshop around that time. Also, William Blake is cancelled.

So, Margaret is 17 and her father owns a bookshop and is also letting out a room to Robert Kerridge, the grandson of a friend of his, because Margaret's father is so old. He is so old. A tenement building collapses on their street and the family pulls a squirrely orphan out of the rubble, so Margaret's father writes a pamphlet about how all property should belong to the parish, because landlords suck. And, he says, in a novel written in 1963, "If I write a second edition to my pamphlet, I will propose a universal healthcare system." His friend, of course, says, "That's a wacky idea! Next thing you will be saying that in the future, England will have a lady prime minister who is also a wilting head of lettuce. You and your crazy Utopian ideas." Margaret's father is imprisoned and his bookshop is burned down. Margaret has a moment of despair, until Mr. Stone tells her to start a dame school and have Mrs. Neech make meat pies for Elijah to sell in the street, which is a great idea, but Robert's crappy father insists that Margaret and friends lodge in his village on the bleak and windswept north coast. The town is having a bout of smuggler drama, but everything works out happily for Margaret and those she loves.

This was a pretty good book. As Josh Groban sings, "Life is a gradual series of revelations, that occur over a period of time." 1801 was a big year for Margaret and for England. I was along for the ride. Definitely not written in a contemporary style, but the characters were simple folk painted with a detailed brush, and that's okay. I like Mr. Stone. He got a Valentine in his pocket.

[Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars feels a bit mean, but four stars is a too generous.

This is a very interesting book that is let down by its second half.

The first half has a lot going on and interesting thoughts about poverty, land-ownership, revolutionary thought, and sedition. It was jam-packed with historical references and I forgave it the slow start and the dullness of some of the characters. The child Elijah doesn't feel like a real child at all - more like a stray dog that can talk.

In the second half, after a series of disasters, our young protagonist is sent to live by the sea, and suddenly its all SMUGGLERS!

But it's also like Hester Burton has run out of puff. She has very little to say about why people are smuggling. She goes whizzing towards the end, gets bored of smugglers, doesn't bother to finish up who the leader of the smuggling ring is, and quick smart pairs up all the main characters, and gives them a life tending to the poor of London even though that doesnt feel particular true to Robert's character.

[Dianeh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I felt the story was sappy and simplistic at times, I fully enjoyed it. I couldn’t put it down. It takes place in the time period I love. The author does a great job of describing the life in London and then the fisher folk in Herringsby. I think it’s worth reading.

[scarlettraces · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5)

[Carys · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable read, will look out for others by this author.