Flint and Roses

Barforth #2

by Brenda Jagger

The second novel in the Barforth trilogy, set in Yorkshire in the mid-19th century. The Barforths, wool-manufacturers and mill-owners, are in conflict with the old landed gentry. Their lives, full of love, hatred and struggle, interweave with Faith Aycliffe's adventurous spirit.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Victorian, British Literature, Romance

579 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Brenda Jagger was born on 1936 in Yorkshire, England, UK, which was the setting for many of her books including her famous ‘Barforth’ family saga. The recurring central themes of her work are marriage, womanhood, class, identity, and money in the Victorian Era. Her work has been praised for its compelling plots and moving storylines as well as its exacting emotional descriptions. Her later novel A Song Twice Over won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award in 1986.

Married, she had three daughters. Worked in Paris and as a probation officer in the north of England. She passed away in 1986.

Reviews

[Kate Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Two in Brenda Jagger's splendid Barforth trilogy, covering her usual themes of marriage, womanhood, class, identity, and money in the Victorian Era. Book 1 followed Verity Barforth through her girlhood and marriage, and "The Barforth Women" follows Verity's niece Faith as she explores the same territory in her own way. Faith is in love with her cousin Nicholas, but he falls in love with a madcap aristocratic girl instead, and Faith has to follow her future elsewhere. Her love for the explosive, tormented Nicholas continues through her first marriage to a crusading doctor and her second marriage to a subtle and sophisticated baronet, but where that love takes her by the end will surprise you. Faith is at times an exasperating heroine: "I am a woman in love with Nicholas Barforth," she says at one point. "That is all there is to me." But this is deliberate - the story's arc not really about who Faith will finally end up with, and more about how she learns to give and receive love as an independent woman, without losing her own identity in the process. A moving story of a woman's emotional growth, with a lot of incisive things to say about the Victorian class system as well, with the rich "millocracy" contrasted to the poor but proud aristocracy. And it's nice to see the characters we first met in "Verity," now middle-aged and still pursuing their various dreams.

[Debee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flint and Roses follows on from The clouded Hills - it is 12 years later and it is told through the eyes of Faith, the middle of Elinor's 3 daughters and a niece to Joel and Verity Barforth. Although this book still deals with encompassing changes that the industrial revolution brought to all over Britain in the 1800's, time has moved on from The Clouded Hills and therefore it catalogues not so much the initial changes, but the outcome of those changes and how peoples life are now lived because of them. Faith - a young woman at the start of the book, who has recently lost her father, knows that she soon has to make a decision to how to live her life, and also realises that really the only avenue open to her, and indeed expected, is to make a good marriage. Faith is more pragmatic about this than her younger sister Celia, who also realises this but thinks that life and marriage will not disappoint her as she has followed all the rules set down by her strict, unemotional father and the morals of society at this time, and therefore will be rewarded. Faith is also not as rebellious as her elder sister Prudence, who smarts against these rules and wants very much to make her own way in the world. This book tells the story of these 3 sisters and their lives, loves and ambitions. Also featured strongly in the book are their cousins, Blaise, Nicolas and Caroline Barforth and their parents Verity and Joel and their aunt Hannah, Ira and Jonas Agbrigg and all of their aspirations, love, betrayals and intrigues. Through the story we see Faith grow from a young woman, very much in love with a man who does not love her back, and how she has to move on with her own life, although she never really loses her feelings for him, and when at last he does return those feelings, how she then has to deal with the consequences of his love, and how it effects not only her life but the lives of all the other characters within the book. This book was totally engrossing and although The Clouded Hills lingered more with me, I still thoroughly enjoyed Faith's story and look forward to reading the third in the Barforth trilogy The Sleeping Sword.

[Lesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5* This is quite the epic and I must admit I found the first quarter to a third of the book rather boring but I managed to get into the story after that. Though this is a sequel I didn't feel 'at sea' with the story and the depictions of historical events of National significance, the explanations of the viewpoints of the different classes gave the story some depth.
However I don't think I will be reading any more of this author's works.

[Patricia Lloyd-Jones]

The Best trilogy

Excellent trilogy. My third time of reading. This trilogy is well researched and beautifully written. It sometimes makes you feel like you are in the same room as the characters. I wish every book I read had such an in depth story. This trilogy has become the standard by which I judge other works of fiction.

[Sherry King · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will for sure be reading more of Ms Jagger's books! I felt complete and yet the story lingered in my mind for a couple of days after finishing. I liked it!!

[Wynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

a continuation of Verity. I can't remember when I read these, but I am guessing late 80's

[Carobe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flinta och rosor.