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The Island #1
Echoing Yesterday
In Ireland, Clemence is taken in by an Uncle when her family is drowned at sea. Grown-up, she falls in love with menacing Luke. When she finds herself pregnant, he becomes cold and distant until the night when he walks with her on the treacherous chasms.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
About the author
Alexandra Manners
11 books4 followersAnne Lamb Rundle
aka Anne Rundle, Joanne Marshall, Marianne Lamont, Alexandra Manners, Jeanne Sanders, Georgianna Bell
Anne Lamb was born on 1920 in Berwick-on-Tweed, Northumberland, England, UK, daughter of Annie Sanderson and George Manners Lamb, a soldier. She was educated at Army Schools, and attended Berwick High School for Girls. She worked as civil sevant on Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 1942 to 1950. On 1th October 1949, she married Edwin Charles Rundle, and had one daughter, Anne, and two sons, James and Iain. Anne Rundle died on 1989.
When she published her first novel in 1967, she won the Netta Muskett Award for new writers. She also won twice the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association for her novels Cat on a Broomstick (1970) and Flower of Silence (1971). In 1974, she was named Daughter of Mark Twain.
Author of over 40 gothic and romance novels, she wrote as Anne Rundle, her maiden namem and under the pseudonyms of Joanne Marshall, Marianne Lamont, Alexandra Manners, Jeanne Sanders, and Georgianna Bell.
aka Anne Rundle, Joanne Marshall, Marianne Lamont, Alexandra Manners, Jeanne Sanders, Georgianna Bell
Anne Lamb was born on 1920 in Berwick-on-Tweed, Northumberland, England, UK, daughter of Annie Sanderson and George Manners Lamb, a soldier. She was educated at Army Schools, and attended Berwick High School for Girls. She worked as civil sevant on Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 1942 to 1950. On 1th October 1949, she married Edwin Charles Rundle, and had one daughter, Anne, and two sons, James and Iain. Anne Rundle died on 1989.
When she published her first novel in 1967, she won the Netta Muskett Award for new writers. She also won twice the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association for her novels Cat on a Broomstick (1970) and Flower of Silence (1971). In 1974, she was named Daughter of Mark Twain.
Author of over 40 gothic and romance novels, she wrote as Anne Rundle, her maiden namem and under the pseudonyms of Joanne Marshall, Marianne Lamont, Alexandra Manners, Jeanne Sanders, and Georgianna Bell.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 27, 2026
Overlong, bleak, melodramatic historical saga that was published in 1983, but set in the 19th century, in an English seaside village, and touted as another Ross Poldark. The first in a trilogy comprised of Karran Kinrade and The Red Bird. It follows the cursed life of a destitute orphan, Clemence, who lost her entire family in a drowning at sea. She is raised by her uncle in humble but happy circumstances until he meets a trollop who he becomes completely enamored of and slowly grows distant from his niece.
Clemence meanwhile is torn between her infatuation with the bad boy next door, who only wants to pump and dump her, while the good boy next door courts her honorably, having loved her since they were children. The idjeet Clemence naturally chooses the bad boy, who takes her in the field like a farm animal and then dumps her for a rich fiancee. I couldn’t even be mad at him because he told her AGAIN AND AGAIN that was the plan. I was more mad at her for being such an idjeet and almost gave up at this point because I lost all respect for her. But I went on and guess what? It gets worse.
The idjeet Clemence becomes pregnant which the bad boy naturally denies any responsibility for. The good boy next door proposes again and this time, she accepts, not because she has realized her mistake, she wants to give a chance to the good boy, or because she wants to protect her child from being labeled a bastard, but because she wants to spite her ex-lover. She even hopes the news of her own engagement makes him jealous and somehow brings him back to her.
The bad boy does get enraged but he does not want to get back with her. Instead, the news of her impending marriage makes him want to murder her! Which he almost succeeds in doing but he trips and falls off a cliff to his death instead. She and her future husband decide to stay mum about the whole incident. No one knows where the bad boy disappeared to, the village figures he decamped somewhere because he was always an impulsive, aggressive, feckless sort of fellow. Clemence marries the good boy, gives birth to her child Karran, who she names after her former lover, and then has a couple of more children by her husband.
Years pass. When the skeleton of her former lover is discovered quite by accident stuck inside a cavernous crevice, no one can figure out if it was an accident or foul play. The bad boy’s mother knows though, because she has the Sight. She curses Clemence, her husband and their children, except for her oldest, Karran, to a life of misery and bad luck. As if Clemence had had such a hunky dory life until now! But yeah, it gets worse.
Her beloved uncle is next to come to a bad end. His trollop of a wife is not only a big fat hoe, skank, and liar, she is lazy, slovenly, doesn’t look after her kids, and is only interested in collecting little gold trinkets like a magpie. She pushes her husband to smuggle to bring in enough money for her whims and he eventually gets arrested. While he is rotting away in prison, she moves into the mansion of the bigwig rich man of the town, who always had his eye on her. Her husband is so devastated by his wife’s betrayal that he loses any will to fight his charges. While he may have gotten a light sentence for the smuggling, since he was not the head of the operation just a lowly underling, he decides to falsely confesses to the murder of Clemence’s lover all those years ago. Sure enough, they put him out of his misery and hang him.
Clemence grows to resent her eldest daughter Karran, blaming her for all the tragedies and misery befallen upon her. Karran runs away from her home at 13 and meets a posh, elderly London couple who have decided for mysterious reasons to move to a grand estate near her small hovel. Since her family has rejected her, she moves in with them and becomes their quasi-adopted daughter. Clemence drops dead either from the curse upon her head or because of an ailment she has had since she was a child, who knows. Her husband and remaining kids move to America. We leave Karran wistfully waving goodbye to them on the ship that will take them across the ocean while she returns home with her adoptive father, vowing that she will put every effort, willpower and energy into bettering herself.
It was a lot of misery and melodrama with an uninspiring protagonist and it grew to be quite tedious by the conclusion. Doubtful if I muster the courage to go on with this series. At least I won’t have to put up with the idjeet Clemence anymore. It remains to be seen if Karran will be a better protagonist or if she is after all an apple fallen not too far from the tree. To be continued…
Clemence meanwhile is torn between her infatuation with the bad boy next door, who only wants to pump and dump her, while the good boy next door courts her honorably, having loved her since they were children. The idjeet Clemence naturally chooses the bad boy, who takes her in the field like a farm animal and then dumps her for a rich fiancee. I couldn’t even be mad at him because he told her AGAIN AND AGAIN that was the plan. I was more mad at her for being such an idjeet and almost gave up at this point because I lost all respect for her. But I went on and guess what? It gets worse.
The idjeet Clemence becomes pregnant which the bad boy naturally denies any responsibility for. The good boy next door proposes again and this time, she accepts, not because she has realized her mistake, she wants to give a chance to the good boy, or because she wants to protect her child from being labeled a bastard, but because she wants to spite her ex-lover. She even hopes the news of her own engagement makes him jealous and somehow brings him back to her.
The bad boy does get enraged but he does not want to get back with her. Instead, the news of her impending marriage makes him want to murder her! Which he almost succeeds in doing but he trips and falls off a cliff to his death instead. She and her future husband decide to stay mum about the whole incident. No one knows where the bad boy disappeared to, the village figures he decamped somewhere because he was always an impulsive, aggressive, feckless sort of fellow. Clemence marries the good boy, gives birth to her child Karran, who she names after her former lover, and then has a couple of more children by her husband.
Years pass. When the skeleton of her former lover is discovered quite by accident stuck inside a cavernous crevice, no one can figure out if it was an accident or foul play. The bad boy’s mother knows though, because she has the Sight. She curses Clemence, her husband and their children, except for her oldest, Karran, to a life of misery and bad luck. As if Clemence had had such a hunky dory life until now! But yeah, it gets worse.
Her beloved uncle is next to come to a bad end. His trollop of a wife is not only a big fat hoe, skank, and liar, she is lazy, slovenly, doesn’t look after her kids, and is only interested in collecting little gold trinkets like a magpie. She pushes her husband to smuggle to bring in enough money for her whims and he eventually gets arrested. While he is rotting away in prison, she moves into the mansion of the bigwig rich man of the town, who always had his eye on her. Her husband is so devastated by his wife’s betrayal that he loses any will to fight his charges. While he may have gotten a light sentence for the smuggling, since he was not the head of the operation just a lowly underling, he decides to falsely confesses to the murder of Clemence’s lover all those years ago. Sure enough, they put him out of his misery and hang him.
Clemence grows to resent her eldest daughter Karran, blaming her for all the tragedies and misery befallen upon her. Karran runs away from her home at 13 and meets a posh, elderly London couple who have decided for mysterious reasons to move to a grand estate near her small hovel. Since her family has rejected her, she moves in with them and becomes their quasi-adopted daughter. Clemence drops dead either from the curse upon her head or because of an ailment she has had since she was a child, who knows. Her husband and remaining kids move to America. We leave Karran wistfully waving goodbye to them on the ship that will take them across the ocean while she returns home with her adoptive father, vowing that she will put every effort, willpower and energy into bettering herself.
It was a lot of misery and melodrama with an uninspiring protagonist and it grew to be quite tedious by the conclusion. Doubtful if I muster the courage to go on with this series. At least I won’t have to put up with the idjeet Clemence anymore. It remains to be seen if Karran will be a better protagonist or if she is after all an apple fallen not too far from the tree. To be continued…
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews