by Lindsey Davis
(2009)
Publisher: Arrow
Rebels and Traitors is a groundbreaking departure for this most admired of British authors, returning to Lindsey Davis’ first love in historical fiction, the English Civil War. Sweeping in scope and fraught with the same drama and passion, her epic novel does the same for this conflict as Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind did for the American Civil War.
The book tells with startling realism what it was like to have fought on the front line of the battles and politics of the era. Through the story of a man and a woman, Gideon Jukes and Juliana Lovell, caught on opposite sides of the Parliamentarian/Royalist divide but fated to be brought together by adversity, loss and mutual attraction.
But before this can happen, the terrible events of the seven years that King Charles waged war on his own people must be endured, culminating the day in January 1649 when the world was turned upside down and the King was executed. It is in this crucible that Gideon’s and Juliana’s love will be forged.