If you'd rather place an order by talking to one of our cheerful order desk clerks, please call 1-888-232-4444 (USA and Canada only) or 250-383-6864. From Europe, ring our UK order desk clerk at local rate number 0845 230 9601 (UK only) or 44 (0)1865 722 113.

Cast in Paradise

by Howard Chadwick

280 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #04-0468; ISBN 1-4120-2640-7; US$24.00, C$27.25, EUR19.50, £14.00

Drink and trade union problems paled in significance compared to the question of Home Rule, brought over to the nineteenth-century village by the two distinct groups of Fenians and Orangemen.

Read more!

About the Book      About the Author      Excerpts      Catalogue Information

About the Book

Cast in Paradise is an historic novel that follows the fortunes of working families in Witton Park, a small village in County Durham, from the opening of the iron works in the mid-1800s, during its zenith in the 1860s to its decline and closure in the 1880s. Through the eyes and lives of migrants from other parts of Britain, the times and tribulations of this tough, down to earth and sometimes bitterly divided community are brought to life. Witton Park in the late nineteenth century was a bonanza to capital investors and attracted workers in droves—numbers that far outstripped the more famous gold rushes of California and the Klondike. Wages erupted so that men labouring in the iron works or mining coal from the local pits earned three or four times what an agricultural worker did. Employment at Witton Park brought unparalleled wealth to many ordinary people but for others it brought misery. Bouts of excessive drinking and addiction to gambling resulted in domestic violence and ruin to some. And life in such close proximity also brought to a head ingrained religious differences that festered just below the surface. Paradise attracted hard men; good and bad. It became home to thousands who lived, loved and laboured for a better life. They built a village and set down roots in the iron-hard ground—roots that hold together still.

---

About the Author

Generations of my family were raised in Witton Park and educated at the village school.

I took up a keen interest in genealogy and created a database of the available [1841 - 1891] village censeii. From this grew the idea of telling the villages colourful life through those people who lived there.

I was forced to move out of the village when local planners plotted it's destruction. Thankfully they never fully succeeded and Witton Park is now famous as 'the village that refused to die.'

---

Excerpts

Pg 8:
For the second time that night, distribution of the family baggage restarted. Richard carried only a long cylindrical canvas bag, so favoured by mariners. Drawn closed by a cord, it was carried over one shoulder. As he took up the rough canvas bag the rubbing of coarse material against the stubble on his face sounded like a file on iron.
"Let me help you," he said flashing a smile at Jane that brought a look of disdain from Patrick. But he quickly moved onto Patrick's good side when he grasped the largest trunk by the handle. He swung it effortlessly onto his other shoulder as though empty, or full of feathers and strode away. Very soon he was almost fifty paces ahead.

Pg 151:
From the day he was born, Seamus was a surly child. Whether he followed trouble or trouble followed him was debatable but always he was in among it. Beatings from his grandfather were to no avail. Blinded by hate towards the English, the old man could not reconcile having an illegitimate grandson of a hated English landowner beneath his roof.
"Don't be so hard on the boy," his doting grandmother pleaded. "And remember that a tanned hide lasts for life so it does."

Pg 230:
The young doctor, pulse racing, suffered shivering, vomiting and terrible headaches. Within twenty-four hours of the fever commencing, the distinct red rash of scarlet fever appeared, looking like a scald. The rash first appeared on his neck but quickly spread over his entire body. It was at its height after two days, only his nose and lips unmarked. With scant regard for their own health, Dr. McKechnie and the nurse attended Beddington around the clock.
"Is there nothing else we can do, Doctor?" the concerned nurse asked.
"Nothing medically I'm afraid. He is in the hands of a higher authority than I."

---

Catalogue Information

---