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Retallick Saga #2
Chase the Wind
Josh Retallick, hardy son of a respected Cornish family, and his love Miriam, daughter of a drunken copper miner, explore together the secret places and wild creatures of Bodmin Moor, unaware that fate will soon sweep them apart. Yet destiny brings them together again, through hard and bitter years, when powerful forces threaten to crush the sturdy mining folk.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
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104 people want to read
About the author
E.V. Thompson
66 books41 followersaka James Munro (Not this James Munro).
E V Thompson was born in London and spent nine years in the Navy before joining Bristol police. He moved to Hong Kong, then Rhodesia and had over 200 stories published before returning to England to become a full-time award-winning writer.
E V Thompson was born in London and spent nine years in the Navy before joining Bristol police. He moved to Hong Kong, then Rhodesia and had over 200 stories published before returning to England to become a full-time award-winning writer.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 27, 2019
This book was not quite a 7/10 (3.4 stars). It took a good 100 pages to hold my interest. At first it seemed to much like the "Camerons" (a Scottish coal mining family). Then it picked up when it became apparent the main character (Josh Retallic) had two women in his life. However the plot developments were predictable.
It was not the calibre of the previous E. V. Thompson read: "Cassia". However I will give the next in the series a follow up as it take place in southern Africa.
It was not the calibre of the previous E. V. Thompson read: "Cassia". However I will give the next in the series a follow up as it take place in southern Africa.
January 8, 2014
This book was the first book of this author that I ever read and boy was it good.An emotive book with strong characters make you re-live the hard times lived by the miners of Cornwall.It's a love story between Josh and Miriam but the novel lends itself to the strong historical background of which Mr.Thompson is a master.One of my faves and definitely worth a read .This book got me hooked and I've read most all of his books .He will be sadly missed
June 25, 2013
Chase the Wind by E. V Thompson
This is as far I can tell the only book of his I have read. I now know why. Years ago, OK eons ago, I was a Catherine Cookson fan. If you ever read her you know her books are strong emotional reads. Usually she wrote about depressing times and the struggles people had to endure to survive physically as well as socially.
E.V. Thompson’s Chase the Wind took me back to those times. The times when every moment of someone’s day was about survival. There is no way to understand what people had to live through as a poor miner working in deplorable conditions to feed their families. The forced choices those who wanted a different outcome for their own lives than those of their parent or grandparents.
E.V. Thompson will take you there is a gentler way, but make not mistake you will smile, you will cringe, and your eyes will mist over.
This is as far I can tell the only book of his I have read. I now know why. Years ago, OK eons ago, I was a Catherine Cookson fan. If you ever read her you know her books are strong emotional reads. Usually she wrote about depressing times and the struggles people had to endure to survive physically as well as socially.
E.V. Thompson’s Chase the Wind took me back to those times. The times when every moment of someone’s day was about survival. There is no way to understand what people had to live through as a poor miner working in deplorable conditions to feed their families. The forced choices those who wanted a different outcome for their own lives than those of their parent or grandparents.
E.V. Thompson will take you there is a gentler way, but make not mistake you will smile, you will cringe, and your eyes will mist over.
August 1, 2014
C1978. FWFB: 1846, South West Africa, Bushmen, Boers, ivory. The author had a Rhodesian connection and I read this at the time when I had an overwhelming passion for all family saga type books – a legacy of reading too much Wilbur Smith. I devoured this book in a very short time. `A vigorous and fascinating piece of storytelling from the pen of a first class professional' according to the SUNDAY TIMES and I couldn’t agree more.
August 26, 2014
I loved this book from start to finish.
It picked up from 'Ben Retallick', the first in the saga.
This book moves away from the Mevagissey area and moves to the west of Cornwall.
Joshua is the central character, so this moves the story on by one generation. As in my last review, of the first book in the saga, I appreciated the social history and geographical setting of the novel.
There were a couple of 'continuity' errors, from the first book, but I will forgive these, hence still a 5*rating. It did not spoil the overall story.
This book takes the embryonic years of the trades union movement and the period of social and political unrest leading caused by the 'Corn Laws'. These are placed in the setting of the mining community of west Cornwall. The story is set in the period up to 1845.
I liked the interaction between the working families and the land owning/mine owning families.
I look forward to reading the third book in the series.
It picked up from 'Ben Retallick', the first in the saga.
This book moves away from the Mevagissey area and moves to the west of Cornwall.
Joshua is the central character, so this moves the story on by one generation. As in my last review, of the first book in the saga, I appreciated the social history and geographical setting of the novel.
There were a couple of 'continuity' errors, from the first book, but I will forgive these, hence still a 5*rating. It did not spoil the overall story.
This book takes the embryonic years of the trades union movement and the period of social and political unrest leading caused by the 'Corn Laws'. These are placed in the setting of the mining community of west Cornwall. The story is set in the period up to 1845.
I liked the interaction between the working families and the land owning/mine owning families.
I look forward to reading the third book in the series.
March 4, 2019
Still a brilliant read but to me not as gripping as the first book. But still 5 stars
October 19, 2025
E.V. Thompson’s second book in his Retallick saga, Chase the Wind, was published in 1977 and won the Best Historical Novelist Award. In the chronological story sense it’s the sequel to Ben Retallick (1980) though clearly the first book in the series was published three years later!
The story is written in the omniscient viewpoint in order to provide the thoughts and actions of assorted characters, and works well, pulling the reader into the saga.
Set mainly in 1840s Cornwall, it begins with young Josh Retallick down the copper mine of Wheal Sharptor – the same mine his father worked in. Ben, aged 35, was reckoned an “old man” by mining standards. ‘It was an era when a miner who had seen his fortieth birthday below ground was something of a rarity’ (p8). They worked hard, digging ‘deep into the bowels of the earth, raising mountains of rubble around their shafts’ (p65).
Josh is being taught to read and write by the local preacher, William Thackeray, a good man who ‘was concerned for the souls of his people... he saw no reason why they should suffer unnecessary hardships in this life in order to enter the same heaven to which their far more comfortable employers were bound’ (p61).
It’s the time of the Corn Laws that created a cost-of-living crisis for the working men and women, a time when unionism was being advocated at great risk to those who espoused it. ‘The shortage of corn had been growing steadily worse throughout England. It had not been helped by the government laws which prevented corn being imported, in a misguided attempt to protect the interests of the farmers’ (p64).
For many years as youngsters, Josh had been a play friend of Miriam Trago, a wild child. But Josh had to put childish play aside as he was going away on an apprenticeship to become a mine-engineer. While on his apprenticeship he befriends Francis Trevithick and is not slow to grasp the nettle of new inventions, always seeking greater efficiency and increased safety.
Miriam is given some advice by the preacher: ‘You must find a man who recognises that a woman is capable of thinking for herself – a rarity in these parts, I’m afraid’ (p130). Before long Miriam was thinking for herself all right – vociferously saddened and angry at the lot of a miner’s wife. If her husband died in a mine, she was cast out of her cottage within a month. Her future might be the poor house or selling herself to drunken miners to feed her children. ‘That’s the system her husband gave his life for’ (p155).
Not all the mine owners are despots; some are considerate with a conscience, and it’s Josh’s fortunate lot that he works for such men. But the odds are still stacked against him and tragedy strikes more than once to contrive the separation of Josh and Miriam before they can truly be together. The preacher becomes a zealot for unionism, though ‘He’s the spoon as does the stirring, not the pot as sits on the fire’ (p349). Betrayal, conflict with the armed forces of the law, love and death, trial and retribution create tension for the reader. The pages fly by as the denouement closes in.
A very satisfying historical novel that puts you there, with believable characters, which impelled me to pick up the next book in the series to find out what happens – Harvest of the Sun.
The story is written in the omniscient viewpoint in order to provide the thoughts and actions of assorted characters, and works well, pulling the reader into the saga.
Set mainly in 1840s Cornwall, it begins with young Josh Retallick down the copper mine of Wheal Sharptor – the same mine his father worked in. Ben, aged 35, was reckoned an “old man” by mining standards. ‘It was an era when a miner who had seen his fortieth birthday below ground was something of a rarity’ (p8). They worked hard, digging ‘deep into the bowels of the earth, raising mountains of rubble around their shafts’ (p65).
Josh is being taught to read and write by the local preacher, William Thackeray, a good man who ‘was concerned for the souls of his people... he saw no reason why they should suffer unnecessary hardships in this life in order to enter the same heaven to which their far more comfortable employers were bound’ (p61).
It’s the time of the Corn Laws that created a cost-of-living crisis for the working men and women, a time when unionism was being advocated at great risk to those who espoused it. ‘The shortage of corn had been growing steadily worse throughout England. It had not been helped by the government laws which prevented corn being imported, in a misguided attempt to protect the interests of the farmers’ (p64).
For many years as youngsters, Josh had been a play friend of Miriam Trago, a wild child. But Josh had to put childish play aside as he was going away on an apprenticeship to become a mine-engineer. While on his apprenticeship he befriends Francis Trevithick and is not slow to grasp the nettle of new inventions, always seeking greater efficiency and increased safety.
Miriam is given some advice by the preacher: ‘You must find a man who recognises that a woman is capable of thinking for herself – a rarity in these parts, I’m afraid’ (p130). Before long Miriam was thinking for herself all right – vociferously saddened and angry at the lot of a miner’s wife. If her husband died in a mine, she was cast out of her cottage within a month. Her future might be the poor house or selling herself to drunken miners to feed her children. ‘That’s the system her husband gave his life for’ (p155).
Not all the mine owners are despots; some are considerate with a conscience, and it’s Josh’s fortunate lot that he works for such men. But the odds are still stacked against him and tragedy strikes more than once to contrive the separation of Josh and Miriam before they can truly be together. The preacher becomes a zealot for unionism, though ‘He’s the spoon as does the stirring, not the pot as sits on the fire’ (p349). Betrayal, conflict with the armed forces of the law, love and death, trial and retribution create tension for the reader. The pages fly by as the denouement closes in.
A very satisfying historical novel that puts you there, with believable characters, which impelled me to pick up the next book in the series to find out what happens – Harvest of the Sun.
July 11, 2017
will definitely be reading more of E.V.Thompson:s books.
May 10, 2020
Not quite the boy meets girl I feared it would be. Lots of detail on mining inventions and conditions, and a couple of unexpected changes to what seemed to be the outcome.
July 24, 2020
The First E V Thompson book I ever read, this is the 2nd in the Retallick story , I think there are 7 overall.
June 21, 2021
brilliant
June 8, 2022
slow boring uninteresting story
September 17, 2024
Another amazing book in this series.
January 23, 2025
Compelling reading
I enjoy historical fiction and when romance is added it made this a great read. Wish I'd read book 1 first but I wasn't aware of it.
I enjoy historical fiction and when romance is added it made this a great read. Wish I'd read book 1 first but I wasn't aware of it.
July 27, 2011
This is the second book in the saga, They are the best books i have read for a long time, along the lines of Jamie & Claire or The wilderness saga but better if u can get any better. Well worth the read.
January 8, 2012
It was a mistake for me to pick this one up, I'd read one other book by the author and just sort of assumed they would all be the same standard. Not so :(
May 3, 2015
One again a really good story. Though at the beginging I was was hoping for more Ben Retallick because I really enjoyed the first in the series I soon bonded with Josh. Great read.
September 23, 2014
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12918173
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12918173
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews