What Buys a King’s Shilling?

Look out for this new novel by local author Terence Woolley.

Terry’s new novel  tells the story of an honest soldier who returns to Nottingham,  the town of his birth, after twenty years serving his country overseas. He arrives on the
11th of March 1811. It is the day that a rally of framework knitters in
the Nottingham Market Square leads to a civil uprising. His family are
framework knitters – some keen to riot. His duty is to uphold the law.

The story is set mainly in Nottingham and the shire during the first few weeks of the
Luddite uprising of 1811 and it  provides an insight into life in the
town and county at the turn of the nineteenth century. It highlights the stresses
that led to the Luddite uprising from the perspective of starving
framework knitters, political activists, criminal infiltrators, hosiers,
hapless workshop apprentices, and the authorities.

The book is priced at £7.99 and is available from Strays Bookshop in
Newark, The Bookcase in Lowdham or from the website www.terencewoolley.com.

Terence Woolley  was born in the Meadows of Nottingham a
few years after the end of the Second World War and now lives in the
village of Elston in Nottinghamshire.

In 2013 he published a short history titled “Oliver Hind and the 2nd
Nottingham Company of the Boys’ Brigade”, which records the achievements
of Oliver Watt Hind in establishing an inspirational youth club that
provided educational and recreational facilities for many hundreds of
the poorest boys in Nottingham at the outset of the twentieth century.

 

The Lowdham Bookcase local-interest description of the book is:

A fast-moving novel set in Nottingham during the time of the Napoleonic Wars, though the action starts in Madras, introducing us to honest soldier, Sergeant Joshua Kerry, and to some of the other, not so honest, major players.  Joshua is then sent back to England after twenty years service overseas, and arrives back in the town of his birth on a day that a framework knitters’ rally turns into a riot, marking the start of what comes to be known as the Luddite rebellion. As Joshua’s family are framework knitters, he is then torn between loyalty to them and his duty to uphold the law.

This is an engrossing story with a strong narrative and a likeable hero.  It has been well researched and gives a vivid picture of life in Nottingham and the surrounding villages in a time of social turmoil.