NOVELS, NOVELTIES & MORE
Read on & see where these tales will take you
The Song Of The Skylark
by Liz Shakespeare
Focussed on the lives of two pauper apprentices, brother and sister, Th omas and Mary Mitchell, the story is told through children’s eyes. On reading it, facts that we may have long known about, from a family history research perspective, take on an entirely new poignancy. The understanding of how very much families were at the mercy of the authorities; split up, with children sent to live and work away from home for years at a time, often until the age of 21. Imagine hearing that was your future when you were aged just nine years old, say. Although Th omas and Mary’s existence is intolerably brutal, the is phenomenal: from her understanding of the religious values of the time; her knowledge of the clothing, bedding and furniture; and her insights to just how long, cold and tiring the day must have seemed to a young child, sent out to the field to scare the birds from sun up to sun down. Throughout the book, I kept asking myself ‘Just how does she know these things’, and I suspect that it is a combination of the art of a good novelist and a lot of dedicated research.
