The New Year (sometime in the nineteenth
century) starts for Cora Seaborne with the funeral of her husband. Her grief is
outweighed by relief and a sense of release from his oppression. Sill young,
responsible only for a son in tow, she now has freedom and the means to follow
her own interests.
But this Victorian heroine defies the
stereotype. She is robustly independent with an enquiring mind and an interest
in the natural world and, plain rather than pretty, she dresses for
practicality and comfort. Not that Cora is unattractive; she already has an
admirer in London surgeon Dr Luke Garret, and also a close relationship with
her companion (and boy’s nanny) Martha.
When Cora, out walking the Essex coast,
meets the Reverend William Ransome, Rector of Aldwinter parish, their
differences of philosophy, hers scientific, his spiritual, clash but there is
soon a respect, and then more, between them.
The attraction of Essex for Cora is not only
the sea air and Will Ransome; there are rumours of unnatural happenings and
possible sightings in the salt marshes of a creature that some think is
supernatural. Cora dismisses that theory and dreams of discovering a new
species; Will is also keen to rationalise the mystery which is starting to
undermine his parishioners’ faith in him and his religion.
The story moves through the months of the
year, centred on London, Colchester and Aldwinter, each atmospherically
depicted and populated with minor characters of relevance and interest. The
search for the eponymous reptile becomes less important than each character’s
search for their own truth. And what will that mean for Cora and Will (and
Will’s wife Stella and their children)?
The prose is well written and has an unusual
(in a good way) style; description of place is evocative; the complexities of
emotions and relationships are not overplayed but subtly put out there to be
inferred.
So while not your standard Victorian
melodrama it is a well written, insightful story featuring flawed but very
human characters.
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