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Bold Venture: A Victorian novel for the New Elizabethan Age
Poor boy meets rich girl on a Yorkshire beach in Victorian England.
As slowly but as inevitably as the tide is drawn to the shore, a bond between the young pair forms – and is sealed with a kiss. But Jennifer Sinclair’s clandestine meetings on the beach inadvertently unearth hidden talents in Adam Walton while teaching him to read and write.
However, iron magnate James Sinclair has big plans for Jennifer. And in Victorian England a father’s wishes for his daughter are law. He also has a new, well-connected wife who is the power behind the throne. A romantic attachment between Jennifer and the illiterate son of a Redcar fisherman is not an appropriate option.
Jennifer is told she must end the relationship and move to London to continue her education. She reluctantly consents – but there’s a condition. Her father must give Adam Walton, whose father and brother had failed to return one day from a fishing trip in their boat True Vine, a job in the ironmaster’s new mine Bold Venture so that the lad can support his widowed mother and young sister.
The young lovers become resigned to life without each other; their fates beyond their own control… Will either find contentment without the other?
Ian Bullock ’s considerable achievement in Bold Venture , a mix of history and fiction, is to write a Victorian novel for the New Elizabethan Age. Ian beautifully blends the elegance of a Jane Austen when describing both manners and place with the social realism of a Charles Dickens to create a recognisable world that has relevance for modern readers without being mawkish or nostalgic. Above all it is about the age-old struggle of youth for independence and respect – a truly bold venture.
Ian Bullock lives in Northumberland with his wife, but he was born and grew up in Redcar, where this novel is largely set. Bold Venture has had a long gestation, he says, and his hope is that readers find it as compelling as he found the writing of it to be.
As slowly but as inevitably as the tide is drawn to the shore, a bond between the young pair forms – and is sealed with a kiss. But Jennifer Sinclair’s clandestine meetings on the beach inadvertently unearth hidden talents in Adam Walton while teaching him to read and write.
However, iron magnate James Sinclair has big plans for Jennifer. And in Victorian England a father’s wishes for his daughter are law. He also has a new, well-connected wife who is the power behind the throne. A romantic attachment between Jennifer and the illiterate son of a Redcar fisherman is not an appropriate option.
Jennifer is told she must end the relationship and move to London to continue her education. She reluctantly consents – but there’s a condition. Her father must give Adam Walton, whose father and brother had failed to return one day from a fishing trip in their boat True Vine, a job in the ironmaster’s new mine Bold Venture so that the lad can support his widowed mother and young sister.
The young lovers become resigned to life without each other; their fates beyond their own control… Will either find contentment without the other?
Ian Bullock ’s considerable achievement in Bold Venture , a mix of history and fiction, is to write a Victorian novel for the New Elizabethan Age. Ian beautifully blends the elegance of a Jane Austen when describing both manners and place with the social realism of a Charles Dickens to create a recognisable world that has relevance for modern readers without being mawkish or nostalgic. Above all it is about the age-old struggle of youth for independence and respect – a truly bold venture.
Ian Bullock lives in Northumberland with his wife, but he was born and grew up in Redcar, where this novel is largely set. Bold Venture has had a long gestation, he says, and his hope is that readers find it as compelling as he found the writing of it to be.
164 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 23, 2017
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 8, 2021
Easy reading!
What a wonderful read. I couldn’t put it down—stayed up all night enjoying the characters and their enduring love story.
What a wonderful read. I couldn’t put it down—stayed up all night enjoying the characters and their enduring love story.
Displaying 1 of 1 review