The bestselling, classic Swann Family Saga series has recently been reissued by Sourcebooks and the first in the series is currently on sale for 72% off its usual retail price, so it’s a great time to dig into this historical drama epic.
God Is An Englishman (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $4.99) From Amazon:
The first novel in the epic God Is an Englishman series, this book is a stirring saga of England in the 19th century, as the Industrial Revolution takes hold, forever changing the landscape of England and her people.
Adam Swann, scion of an army family, returns home in 1858 after service with Her Majesty’s army in the Crimea and India, determined to build his fortune in the dog-eat-dog world of Victorian commerce. Swann is soon captivated by Henrietta, the high-spirited daughter of a local mill owner. As Swann works to build his name, he and Henrietta share adventures, reversal, and fortune.
A beloved novel by a beloved author, God Is an Englishman is a treasure both for Delderfield fans and the growing legion of fans of historical fiction.
“R. F. Delderfield is a born storyteller.” – Sunday Mirror
“A book to get lost in… An epic historical novel artfully contructed.” – New York Times Book Review
“A novel in the grand tradition of Thackery and Dickens.” – Milwaukee Journal
“A delightful bounty of characters fairly jumps from the pages of God Is an Englishman.” – Columbus Dispatch
Theirs Was The Kingdom (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $9.99) From Amazon:
Theirs Was the Kingdom is a stirring saga of England in the late 19th century, as the Industrial Revolution takes hold, forever changing the landscape of England and her people.
The 1880s in England were a laissez-faire decade of national optimism and prosperity, of rampant colonialism, typhoid epidemics, and a Diamond Jubilee.
This follow-up novel to God Is an Englishman continues the saga of the Victorian giant of commerce Adam Swann, his tough-minded wife Henrietta, and their five children. This prolific tale records the triumphs and tragedies of a memorable family and a nation at the height of its imperial power.
A beloved novel by a beloved author, Theirs Was the Kingdom is a luminous historical novel of a family’s fortune and a nation’s destiny.
Give Us This Day (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $10.59)
“A heroic finale to the author’s cavalcade of middle-class life.”
-W. B. Hill, Best Sellers
Sweeping Adam Swann and three generations of his family into the tide of events that followed Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, this stirring novel confronts them, and England, with the social upheaval of a rapidly changing world. The same revolutionary ferment that stirs up labor unrest also births the English suffragette movement, taking the family idealist, Giles, to Parliament. With conflicting interests, two of his brothers usher the family’s firm into the twentieth century and another Swann brother, Alex, a professional soldier, attempts to introduce an outmoded army to modern tactics. Like their aging father, these Swanns strive energetically to wed personal dreams to national values-even as the rumble of the guns of August 1914 signals the end of the world as they and their country have known it.
Give Us This Day is a stirring saga of England in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, as the social upheaval begins and the Great War looms, forever changing the landscape of England and her people.
“Mr. Delderfield’s vast public will find here…his undimmed facility as a storyteller.” – The New Yorker
“Rich and rewarding, the sort of thing to read at leisure and peacefully. Moreover, it is authentic…It has the spirit of the times.” – Library Journal