The Imperialists

1914.

In Redditch, life goes on the same way it always has.

Much to young Josie Kitson’s despair, her life has already been planned for her by her mother.

Destined to be a dutiful Christian daughter, Josie rebels, striking up a secret affair with Clement Hulme, a middle-aged Methodist.

Despite that guilt that gnaws at her - he is a married man, after all - Hulme is the only one who can satisfy Rosie’s bodily cravings and fill the void in her otherwise unbearably mundane life.

Caleb Gurden, recently widowed, hopes for a new start in the town with his loving daughter Marie.

They face great difficulties - his sister's husband, with whom they are staying, is a violent man prone to drink, and Caleb has to work hard for a living.

But he is determined to do well by his daughter.

When he is felled by a horse, he is forced to suffer the greatest humiliation of the working classes: the workhouse.

Who will keep Marie from his brother-in-law's drunken outbursts now?

In a curious twist of fate, his accident brings together Josie and William Barton, the son of a powerful local Colonel.

The repercussions of their meeting run deep through Redditch society - and turns the two young lovers' lives upside down.

When Clement Hulme finds out, he is stirred by a jealousy bordering on madness. If he can't have Josie, no one can...

Peace, it seems, no longer resides in Redditch.

And as the spirit of rebellion begins to sweep through the British Empire, the tide of change it brings leaves nothing — or no one — untouched...

Sara Fraser is the pen-name of marine commando and foreign legionnaire Roy Clews. She is the author of ‘The Surgeon’s Apprentice’, ‘Til Death Do us Part’ and ‘The Healing Nightfall’, among many others.

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