Post of Honour
4/5
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About this ebook
Through hard work and love of the land, Boer War vet Paul Craddock has transformed the sprawling West Country estate of Shallowford. With his wife and three children he enjoys a peaceful country life. But war has begun its inevitable march across England, and this remote corner of Devon cannot escape its cruel destruction. Young farmers of the village—barely men when they enlist—are dying in the field or coming home to a way of life that is rapidly disappearing. Yet as the Great War ends and another threatens to erupt, Craddock’s faith and the strength he derives from his family will sustain him and his beloved village through trying, tumultuous times.
Filled with vivid imagery and timeless emotion, this is the unforgettable story of a farming family and a vanishing way of life.
Post of Honour is the second novel in R. F. Delderfield’s A Horseman Riding By saga, which begins with Long Summer Day and continues with The Green Gauntlet.
R. F. Delderfield
R. F. Delderfield (1912–1972) was born in South London. On leaving school he joined the Exmouth Chronicle newspaper as a junior reporter and went on to become editor. He began to write stage plays and then became a highly successful novelist, renowned for brilliantly portraying slices of English life. With the publication of his first saga, A Horseman Riding By, he became one of Britain’s most popular authors, and his novels have been bestsellers ever since. Many of his works, including the Horseman Riding By series, To Serve Them All My Days, the Avenue novels, and Diana, were adapted for television.
Read more from R. F. Delderfield
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Post of Honour Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Long Summer Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Green Gauntlet Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Horseman Riding By: The Complete Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for Post of Honour
4 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is the kind of old fashioned family saga that used to be the staple of The Book of the Month Club. And, indeed, I first read this book back in the late 1960's when I pulled it from my parent's stack of book club books. This is book 1 of a trilogy that chronicles the Craddock family from 1906 until approximately 1960 (this book going from the Boer War to the coronation of George V)Paul Craddock has been invalided out of the army due to an injury to his knee. He has no desire to enter the scrap metal business that has made him a wealthy young man upon the death of his father, and instead uses his money to buy a derelict manor estate in Devonshire and set himself up as a gentleman farmer. The land comes with estate workers and six or seven tenant farmers who are all developeed with detailed back stories.I could quibble with how realistic the plot is or the broad caricatures of some of the characters, but that would be beside the point. The author has set out to tell a story set against the backdrop of the momentous changes that happened in the twentieth century and he does an admirable job. I kept turning the pages and finished a 500+ page book in record time.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An enjoyable book that went on too long, or at least could have been edited by about 100 pages or so. Still, the telling of Squire Craddock’s story from WW1 to the start of the Second World War captures the flavor of the times. Tired a bit of the wife and children who don’t share his value for the land and what he accomplished in keeping his holdings and his people together. After a reasonable time, I’ll tackle the final book of the trilogy, although to be honest, my interest is flagging somewhat.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book takes a look at the years of the Great War to the Second War. It is dense and with the previous book and perhaps as a show of the times in which it was written, Delderfield takes on a long journey.The faults of the first book, changing speakers in one paragraph of dialogue are here in the second. Changing points of view, and often undimensional characters as well. We see the world mostly through the eyes of the Squire, Paul Craddock, but the man seems to walk around in a stupor. He is unconnected to all his children and does not really seem to care about any. He cares more about farm prices then about anything else.Perhaps this is indicative of being British. His children are an afterthought, and they are an afterthought of the writer as well. A dynasty is here and it is ignored. We of course only see the world through our own eyes, but it would be nice to have tried to show how another generation does not see the world change so much as they see a place to participate. It is age that shows us that things have changed, and the lead character ends this book shortly after sixty. That he leads a bucolic life might allow us to believe that the entire roaring twenties did not take place. Since we go from the Armistice to the Crash in a blink of an eye.And then luckily for our hero, he is tipped off that Herr Hitler is more than a little foolish man. It seems like a terrible plot device to have our hero be the only one ready for the Second big show. Since of course the author knows it is coming. It would seem much nicer if he was caught up as all his tenants and friends were.In all, we get a glimpse of some of the world of Geroge V. Not much. There is a great deal of thought about sex and how good one looks, and can one still have sex when you are on the down side of the time line. Far too much repetition here, and in other thoughts that pad the book out to almost six hundred pages. In the God is an Englishman series, as I recall, we see the world through the eyes of the next generation as well, and that gives us a glimpse to how the Country changed over the course of the Victorian era.Here we hardly see that at all, and I think we would have had a much richer tale if we had.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I thoroughly enjoyed following the next phase of the life of Paul Craddock and English social history.