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The Best Postboy In England
The shadow of war looms large over the rural English village of Eagley as Freddie the postboy is tasked with delivering news from the battlefields of France. They call him the angel of death.
Freddie is befriended by Suhani Harkness, an Indian woman living in an isolated manor house where she tends to wounded soldiers from the trenches. Persuading Freddie to become the scribe to a soldier who cannot write, he finds new purpose in his work.
But the grim reality of his job weighs down ever more heavily, until the telegram he has most feared arrives from the front – news of the death of one of Suhani’s sons.
Set against the backdrop of one of the deadliest conflicts in history, this novel is a poignant and powerful exploration of the human cost of war for those left behind, and the enduring impact of grief and guilt.
Freddie is befriended by Suhani Harkness, an Indian woman living in an isolated manor house where she tends to wounded soldiers from the trenches. Persuading Freddie to become the scribe to a soldier who cannot write, he finds new purpose in his work.
But the grim reality of his job weighs down ever more heavily, until the telegram he has most feared arrives from the front – news of the death of one of Suhani’s sons.
Set against the backdrop of one of the deadliest conflicts in history, this novel is a poignant and powerful exploration of the human cost of war for those left behind, and the enduring impact of grief and guilt.
441 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 1, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 25, 2024
The novel is mostly set in Kent during 1916 and 1917, but there is a prologue – and epilogue – which take place in 1940. The title character is a fourteen year old lad called Freddie Lovegrove. He is, for someone living in a rural village, well educated, but he lives with his nearly blind mother and, with no father and no money coming into the house, he gets the job of village postboy.
The grandest property in Eagley is Tendring, a house occupied by Suhina and Stephen Harkness. Suhina is Indian, and Stephen is manager of a local munitions factory. He was badly wounded in the Boer War, and lives in constant pain. They had three sons, but the elder, Arthur was killed in 1915 in the Batlle of Aubers Ridge. The two other boys – Edward and Tristan – are both fighting in France. Tendring has two housemaids, Harriet and Phoebe. We soon learn that Phoebe is pregnant, but the deeper significance of this is not revealed until near the end of the book.
Tendring becomes a temporary convalescent home for wounded soldiers, and the first three arrive. Jack merely has an injured foot and is a possible malingerer. Gabriel is physically sound, but has extreme shell shock. Christopher Ellis, the third man, is hideously wounded. He has lost both his hands, and has a terrible facial wound.
Suhina Harkness has befriended Freddie and he, in turn, is fascinated by her. The attraction is not sexual, but he finds her exotic and is drawn to her deep emotional intelligence, and spends as much time as he can at Tendring.
There are pivotal points in the book, and the first is when Freddie agrees to be amanuensis to Christopher. He writes a letter addressed to Christopher’s wife Anne in their Nova Scotia home. The letter is loving, but makes no mention of Christopher’s injuries. Freddie takes the letter back to the post office, fully intending to post it later. Next, Freddie is working late, and he intercepts a motorcycle despatch rider who has a telegram addressed to Major and Mrs Harkness. When he takes it to Tendring and hands it to Suhani, she learns that Edward Harkness was killed in the fighting for High Wood, on the Somme.
Freddie’s fortunes have become inextricably mingled with those who live at Tendring. While on a woodland path to the house Freddie discovers the horrifying sight of Christoper Ellis’s body, hanging from a tree. After the dreadful discovery, Freddie is in the depths of depression, but is dramatically brought out of his reverie:
“First his face filled with hot blood when he suddenly remembered he hadn’t posted Christopher’s original letter; it was still under the blotter, waiting. Second, it had not occurred to him until now that it was impossible for a man with no hands to hang himself.”
The police have already reached that conclusion and, after a witness at Tendring said they saw a man with a limp out in the dark on the night Christopher died, Stephen Harkness is arrested on suspicion of murder, but is released when Suhani lies that he was with her, in her bed, all night.
Freddie is ever more conscious that his job has transformed him into The Angel of Death, and when another letter from the military arrives for Tendring, he takes it home with him. When, after much agonising, he steams it open, his worst fears are confirmed. The private memorial in Eagley churchyard to Arthur Harkness must now be altered to include the names of his two brothers. He makes the fateful decision not to deliver the letter, and the consequences are immense.
This book bears the hallmarks of tragedy, whether believe that what happens Is the result of personal flaws, or intervention from ‘The President of The Immortals, in Aeschylean phrase’ that Hardy referred to at the end of Tess of The D’Urbervilles. For Suhani comes redemption and – although much later, and only partly – Freddie too, but for Stephen Harkness the downfall is absolute, and Stephen Frost leaves the truth of the death of Christopher Ellis as an enigma.
This is a book which dwells on physical pain caused by battle, but also the mental pain of a marriage disintegrating, the agonising dilemma of a teenager trying to be kind but, in doing so, inflicting cruelty. Sometimes it is unbearably poignant, but riven through with a deep vein of compassion.
The Best Postboy In England deserves to sit on the shelf alongside other epic accounts of The Great War and its consequences. Books such as as Covenant With Death (John Harris,1961), Regeneration (Pat Barker,1991) Birdsong ( Sebastian Faulkes,1993) and The Photographer of The Lost (Caroline Scott, 2019). It is published by Burnt Orchid Press and is available now.
The grandest property in Eagley is Tendring, a house occupied by Suhina and Stephen Harkness. Suhina is Indian, and Stephen is manager of a local munitions factory. He was badly wounded in the Boer War, and lives in constant pain. They had three sons, but the elder, Arthur was killed in 1915 in the Batlle of Aubers Ridge. The two other boys – Edward and Tristan – are both fighting in France. Tendring has two housemaids, Harriet and Phoebe. We soon learn that Phoebe is pregnant, but the deeper significance of this is not revealed until near the end of the book.
Tendring becomes a temporary convalescent home for wounded soldiers, and the first three arrive. Jack merely has an injured foot and is a possible malingerer. Gabriel is physically sound, but has extreme shell shock. Christopher Ellis, the third man, is hideously wounded. He has lost both his hands, and has a terrible facial wound.
Suhina Harkness has befriended Freddie and he, in turn, is fascinated by her. The attraction is not sexual, but he finds her exotic and is drawn to her deep emotional intelligence, and spends as much time as he can at Tendring.
There are pivotal points in the book, and the first is when Freddie agrees to be amanuensis to Christopher. He writes a letter addressed to Christopher’s wife Anne in their Nova Scotia home. The letter is loving, but makes no mention of Christopher’s injuries. Freddie takes the letter back to the post office, fully intending to post it later. Next, Freddie is working late, and he intercepts a motorcycle despatch rider who has a telegram addressed to Major and Mrs Harkness. When he takes it to Tendring and hands it to Suhani, she learns that Edward Harkness was killed in the fighting for High Wood, on the Somme.
Freddie’s fortunes have become inextricably mingled with those who live at Tendring. While on a woodland path to the house Freddie discovers the horrifying sight of Christoper Ellis’s body, hanging from a tree. After the dreadful discovery, Freddie is in the depths of depression, but is dramatically brought out of his reverie:
“First his face filled with hot blood when he suddenly remembered he hadn’t posted Christopher’s original letter; it was still under the blotter, waiting. Second, it had not occurred to him until now that it was impossible for a man with no hands to hang himself.”
The police have already reached that conclusion and, after a witness at Tendring said they saw a man with a limp out in the dark on the night Christopher died, Stephen Harkness is arrested on suspicion of murder, but is released when Suhani lies that he was with her, in her bed, all night.
Freddie is ever more conscious that his job has transformed him into The Angel of Death, and when another letter from the military arrives for Tendring, he takes it home with him. When, after much agonising, he steams it open, his worst fears are confirmed. The private memorial in Eagley churchyard to Arthur Harkness must now be altered to include the names of his two brothers. He makes the fateful decision not to deliver the letter, and the consequences are immense.
This book bears the hallmarks of tragedy, whether believe that what happens Is the result of personal flaws, or intervention from ‘The President of The Immortals, in Aeschylean phrase’ that Hardy referred to at the end of Tess of The D’Urbervilles. For Suhani comes redemption and – although much later, and only partly – Freddie too, but for Stephen Harkness the downfall is absolute, and Stephen Frost leaves the truth of the death of Christopher Ellis as an enigma.
This is a book which dwells on physical pain caused by battle, but also the mental pain of a marriage disintegrating, the agonising dilemma of a teenager trying to be kind but, in doing so, inflicting cruelty. Sometimes it is unbearably poignant, but riven through with a deep vein of compassion.
The Best Postboy In England deserves to sit on the shelf alongside other epic accounts of The Great War and its consequences. Books such as as Covenant With Death (John Harris,1961), Regeneration (Pat Barker,1991) Birdsong ( Sebastian Faulkes,1993) and The Photographer of The Lost (Caroline Scott, 2019). It is published by Burnt Orchid Press and is available now.
March 2, 2024
1916 during WW1 in the village of Eagley in Kent 14 year old Freddie Lovegrove is living with his mother who is blind. He gets a job as a postboy and his first delivery is to Mrs Suhani Harkness at the Manor House. Suhani and her husband married in India but following the Second Boer War he returned home injured and seemingly with what would now be called PTSD since when their marriage is one of convenience. They have agreed to take wounded soldiers into their home for recuperation with Suhani and two housemaids looking after the injured. A well written and clearly well researched novel with an interesting story.
Briefly, Freddie soon finds that his job is not as easy as he expected. The postmaster drinks and soon Freddie finds he is doing all his work. And the telegrams! The Notice of Death telegrams with the small back crosses on the outside. He took his responsibilities very seriously but he found delivering bad news gradually began to affect him and he didn’t want to deliver it.
This is a rather sad story, in fact there isn’t a lot of happiness in the most part of the book. Freddie has to grow up quickly. I wanted to like Freddie but I found his treatment of his mother quite uncomfortable and some of his actions with letters and telegrams, even if with good intentions, immoral and unkind. I loved Suhani, she really was a good, kind, gentle woman and I was sad for her and her unhappy life. A book that brings to the fore the terrible impact of war on those left behind, the guilt of those who came home, the grief of those who lost someone and the heartbreak of shell shock/ PTSD.
Briefly, Freddie soon finds that his job is not as easy as he expected. The postmaster drinks and soon Freddie finds he is doing all his work. And the telegrams! The Notice of Death telegrams with the small back crosses on the outside. He took his responsibilities very seriously but he found delivering bad news gradually began to affect him and he didn’t want to deliver it.
This is a rather sad story, in fact there isn’t a lot of happiness in the most part of the book. Freddie has to grow up quickly. I wanted to like Freddie but I found his treatment of his mother quite uncomfortable and some of his actions with letters and telegrams, even if with good intentions, immoral and unkind. I loved Suhani, she really was a good, kind, gentle woman and I was sad for her and her unhappy life. A book that brings to the fore the terrible impact of war on those left behind, the guilt of those who came home, the grief of those who lost someone and the heartbreak of shell shock/ PTSD.
April 2, 2024
I have read a few novels now that concern the impact of either WW1 or WW2, from both the view of those involved in the war and those back home waiting for their loved ones to return. I have never read anything, or even thought about the role of the individual who had to deliver the news to that someone close to them would never be coming home.
I thought this novel would just be about Freddie. But there was also Suhani, the wonderful woman he befriended, her husband, Stephen, who suffered terribly during the Boer War, a badly injured soldier who was just one of many who they let into their home which had been turned into a hospital and his wife back home in Canada. All of their stories were mesmerising, heartbreaking but managing to be hopeful.
Freddie was struggling, wanting to do his bit for the war but unprepared and unsupported for the news he had to deliver. The impact on his mental and physical health was difficult to read but thoroughly believable. It made me wonder how many roles, like his, were ignored.
Even though Freddie was the main character it was Suhani who touched my heart. Her marriage destroyed by war and her three sons fighting in the trenches. The way she was with the nursed soldiers in her home, in many ways more understanding than the nurses because of how Stephen had changed due to what he experienced. Her strength, her determination and need for a better future made her one of the strongest characters I’ve ever seen.
One of the most chilling parts to this novel was the way the author showed how brief the time in between the two world wars was. How many lives were destroyed in WW1 and the apprehension that it would likely happen again.
I thought this novel was one of the strongest that I have read about the impact of war for a long time.
I thought this novel would just be about Freddie. But there was also Suhani, the wonderful woman he befriended, her husband, Stephen, who suffered terribly during the Boer War, a badly injured soldier who was just one of many who they let into their home which had been turned into a hospital and his wife back home in Canada. All of their stories were mesmerising, heartbreaking but managing to be hopeful.
Freddie was struggling, wanting to do his bit for the war but unprepared and unsupported for the news he had to deliver. The impact on his mental and physical health was difficult to read but thoroughly believable. It made me wonder how many roles, like his, were ignored.
Even though Freddie was the main character it was Suhani who touched my heart. Her marriage destroyed by war and her three sons fighting in the trenches. The way she was with the nursed soldiers in her home, in many ways more understanding than the nurses because of how Stephen had changed due to what he experienced. Her strength, her determination and need for a better future made her one of the strongest characters I’ve ever seen.
One of the most chilling parts to this novel was the way the author showed how brief the time in between the two world wars was. How many lives were destroyed in WW1 and the apprehension that it would likely happen again.
I thought this novel was one of the strongest that I have read about the impact of war for a long time.
February 4, 2024
This is a 'coming of age' story in which Freddie, a young postboy, learns to grow up quickly. England is at war, and he becomes aware of his responsibilities as he learns the significance of the 'Noddies', the much feared telegrams delivered during World War 1. The casual intimacies that develop during his daily rounds are sensitively and believably portrayed. It's a time of change, with class barriers beginning to break down. Everyone is waiting in hope - they draw comfort from confiding in the young. The lines between kindness and morality become blurred, leaving many with the embarrassment of ill-advised choices. But we keep faith with Freddie and, as if in return, we're given an extra delight at the end of the novel - an extended Epilogue. A time for Freddie to return to his old haunts and reflect upon the past, from the perspective of WWII. And from the perspective of a grown man.
The characters will stay with me. I shall read the book again, and again...
The characters will stay with me. I shall read the book again, and again...
May 27, 2025
This was an interesting story giving a different perspective on a World War 2 tale. I was attracted to it by reading how the writer thought of it after a visit to the National Trust site of Berrington Hall. That is somewhere I have visited often and my knowledge of it helped me to visualise the setting and the grounds of the house well. The story was sad in many ways and showed the raw reality of how people were forced to cope with every day life during wartime and the recovery of the soldiers being treated from injuries on the front line. The writer really got into the different mindsets and showed that the camaraderie amongst everyone took many forms. The responsibility put onto a young post boy at the time when everyone else was struggling around him was a thoughtful perspective, as was the insight of the widow from Nova Scotia who never learned the real truth of her husband's death. I found this book to be sympathetically written and thought-provoking.
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February 2, 2024This is a beautifully crafted and moving story with well-drawn and sympathetic characters.
The tragedy of WW1 and its devastating aftermath has been fictionalised many times but Stephen Frost has created an original and riveting plot by focusing on the everyday life experienced by the inhabitants of one village. The events are mostly described through the lens of sensitive Freddie whose employment gradually becomes an overwhelming burden for him (the story places the spotlight on a little-known yet essential role during the Great War). Fourteen year old Freddie is a tour de force and his journey - both physically and mentally - is heartbreaking.
Such gorgeous prose. Hearty congratulations to author.
The tragedy of WW1 and its devastating aftermath has been fictionalised many times but Stephen Frost has created an original and riveting plot by focusing on the everyday life experienced by the inhabitants of one village. The events are mostly described through the lens of sensitive Freddie whose employment gradually becomes an overwhelming burden for him (the story places the spotlight on a little-known yet essential role during the Great War). Fourteen year old Freddie is a tour de force and his journey - both physically and mentally - is heartbreaking.
Such gorgeous prose. Hearty congratulations to author.
March 16, 2024
Freddie is a postboy in 1916 and he is the one to deliver news from the Battlefields where many men are serving in the War. When he meets Suhani on one of his rounds he realises she is living alone, but she is a worker and she looks after the soldiers who have been injured. His job becomes increasingly difficult as he has to give a telegram to someone who means a lot to him. It is the most unbearable thing he has to do but it is his job after all. I thought the plot sounded unique and something I felt as though I didn't know much about before reading this book. It is a thought provoker as it makes you think what it was like in those days. It is a well put together and researched story that I will remember for a long time.
April 3, 2024
The Best Postboy In England is the story of 14 year old Freddie, from a small English village in his new job as Postboy, tasked with delivering news from the frontlines of WWI.
I'm a big fan of historical fiction and was looking forward to this read, and let me tell you, it certainly did not disappoint.
It's a beautifully written novel, packed full of detail that recreates those times brilliantly.
There are some quite heavy themes explored here, grief, sorrow and heartache. But it's also a novel of survival and hope.
It's a deeply touching, engrossing read with well developed characters and I read this in two sittings.
5 🌟 🌟🌟🌟🌟 's from me.
I'm a big fan of historical fiction and was looking forward to this read, and let me tell you, it certainly did not disappoint.
It's a beautifully written novel, packed full of detail that recreates those times brilliantly.
There are some quite heavy themes explored here, grief, sorrow and heartache. But it's also a novel of survival and hope.
It's a deeply touching, engrossing read with well developed characters and I read this in two sittings.
5 🌟 🌟🌟🌟🌟 's from me.
November 2, 2023
This is an original and beautifully written novel about the dilemma of a young postboy against the backdrop of the Great War. How does he live with being the bearer of the worst possible news? He is drawn into Suhani’s world and the lives of recovering soldiers under her care with devastating consequences. I found that the book’s momentum really carried me forward, the characters are sharply-drawn and engaging, and I really wanted to know what happened next until the final, glorious conclusion. Strongly recommended.
December 20, 2023
Perceptive, sympathetic and deeply emotional.
This is a superb book - beautifully and imaginatively written and it recreates the general ambiance of 1916 so well. A study in how people handle grief, sorrow and their emotions, and a stark reminder of the toll that war takes, not only on the soldiers themselves, but on those they have left behind.
JSS
This is a superb book - beautifully and imaginatively written and it recreates the general ambiance of 1916 so well. A study in how people handle grief, sorrow and their emotions, and a stark reminder of the toll that war takes, not only on the soldiers themselves, but on those they have left behind.
JSS
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews