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Richard Buxton

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Whirligig – Keeping The Promise (Shire's Union Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Richard Buxton (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.1 94 ratings

Book 1 of 3: Shire's Union

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"Whirligig is a magnificent novel, epic in scale!"– Gill Thompson, Author of 'The Child on Platform One.' Shire leaves his home and his life in Victorian England for the sake of a childhood promise, a promise that pulls him into the bleeding heart of the American Civil War. Lost in the bloody battlefields of the West, he discovers a second home for his loyalty. Clara believes she has escaped from a predictable future of obligation and privilege, but her new life in the Appalachian Hills of Tennessee is decaying around her. In the mansion of Comrie, long hidden secrets are being slowly exhumed by a war that creeps ever closer. The first novel from multi-award winning short-story writer Richard Buxton, Whirligig is at once an outsider’s odyssey through the battle for Tennessee, a touching story of impossible love, and a portrait of America at war with itself. Self-interest and conflict, betrayal and passion, all fuse into a fateful climax.

Editorial Reviews

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'Whirligig is a magnificent novel, epic in scale' - Gill Thompson, Author of 'The Child on Platform One.'

'Highly recommended for readers who feel all the great war stories have already been written.' Historical Novel Society

'There is not a single unnecessary sentence in this engrossing novel' - Helen Hollick, author of the Saxon series

'An epic tale of adventure beset with extraordinary challenges' - Margaret Muir, author of the Oliver Quintrell series

'I was often moved to tears by the small tender moments of humanity' - Cathie Hartigan, author of 'Secret of the Song' 'Whirligig is a truly first class novel... At its heart, it's a quest, which naturally and increasingly draws the reader powerfully through the narrative.'

- Martin Shepard, Author of 'Too Fast a Life' 'I heartily recommend this book to the Civil War enthusiast' - Major Jeff Houston, 5th Ohio Volunteer Infantry

About the Author

Richard lives with his family in the South Downs, Sussex, England. He completed an MA in Creative Writing at Chichester University in 2014. He has an abiding relationship with America, having studied at Syracuse University, New York State, in the late eighties. His short stories have won the Exeter Story Prize, the Bedford International Writing Competition and the Nivalis Short Story Award. Whirligig is his first novel and the opening book of Shire's Union trilogy. Current projects include the second book, The Copper Road, as well as preparing to publish a collection of short stories. To learn more about Richard's writing visit https: //www.richardbuxton.net.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08BS4RCDH
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ocoee Publishing; 2nd edition (June 23, 2020)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 23, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3000 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 498 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,091,613 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #47 in History of American Civil War Regiments
- #2,910 in Historical British Fiction
- #5,307 in U.S. Historical Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.1 94 ratings

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Richard Buxton

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Richard lives with his family in the South Downs, Sussex, England. He completed an MA in Creative Writing at Chichester University in 2014 where he began developing his ideas for the Shire's Union trilogy. He has an abiding relationship with America, having studied at Syracuse University, New York State, in the late eighties. His short stories have won the Exeter Story Prize, the Bedford International Writing Competition and the Nivalis Short Story Award.

Richard’s first novel, Whirligig (book one of Shire's Union) was published in 2017 and shortlisted for the Rubery International Book Award.

The Copper Road (book two of Shire's Union) was a finalist in the 2020 Wishing Shelf Book Award.

Tigers in Blue (book three of Shire's Union) was published in December 2023.

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4.1 out of 5

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Jeff Singer

I really got a sense of what it may have been like amid all the chaos and noise of a battle

Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2017

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Shire and Clara are childhood friends in England. Clara is the Duke's daughter, and Shire is the son of a school teacher. Being of different classes, the Duke feels Shire is beneath their station in life. Clara marries Taylor, her cousin from Tennessee. Taylor takes her back to Tennessee, during the height of the Civil War. Taylor raises a regiment and becomes a colonel for the Confederate States Army.
While children, Clara and Shire make a promise to each other. In order to fulfill that promise, Shire must contact Clara in Tennessee. Shire travels from England to New York and eventually joins the 125th Regiment of Ohio, hoping to travel with the Union army to Tennessee and keep his promise to Clara.
I am very impressed with Mr. Buxton's writing and his depth of research. He has a certain way of turning a phrase that is sometimes poetic, especially in descriptions of the landscape, weather, and of course, the Civil War battles. I really got a sense of what it may have been like amid all the chaos and noise of a battle.
I am also impressed with his depth of research. I am familiar with Colonel Opdycke from the 125th Ohio, but I was surprised to learn that George Trenholm, the financier from South Carolina, was a real person, not fictional. I am amazed how Mr. Buxton combined fiction with fact so masterfully.
I hope all Civil War fiction fans read this book. It's also a terrific adventure story, and the plot twist at the end thoroughly surprised me. Overall, a very satisfactory read.

2 people found this helpful

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Cynthia Neale

... the heartbeats and thoughts of one man so in love that he leaves England to engage himself in the ...

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2017

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A Civil War saga that will gather you into the heartbeats and thoughts of one man so in love that he leaves England to engage himself in the bloody battlefields of a war not his own, but one raging within himself for one woman and justice. Shire has made a promise to Clara who has married a tormented rebel in Tennessee, a marriage that is a lie and dangerous. The novel is meticulously detailed and soon you'll be sitting around the campfires with Shire as he finds new courage and loyalty with his fellow Union soldiers. And be ready for some realistic and heartbreaking scenes, as well. Take your time with this one, for it is woven with complexity and meaning.

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M. Muir

Whirligig is a powerful story masterfully told.

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2017

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An epic tale of adventure beset with extraordinary challenges and pitfalls in the face of the brutal civil war raging across the southern states of America.
In his first novel, Richard Buxton confronts the reader with raw and often uncomfortable scenes of conflict whilst eloquently bombarding the senses with the sights, sounds,and even the gritty taste of battle.
From the story’s meandering beginning, it slowly rises to a nail-biting and unforgettable climax.
Highly recommended.

One person found this helpful

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D. Burke

Great piece of historical fiction.

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2017

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author puts you back in time, you feel like you are in the civil war. It is a wonderful historical fiction, factual and evidence based. The author did his homework. Besides the historical part there is a beautiful story of dedication to a friend and an old promise. I look forward to the next book in this series.

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Kindle Customer

Great read from and English perspective!

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2017

Whirligig" is a great view into what life was like during American Civil War. Buxton very colorfully crafts details about this time period that made me feel like I knew what life was like in Tennessee during this time period. I personally, enjoyed that the main character was an Englishman! It gave a very different perspective to the time period. Clara- the love interest for Shire- is also an Englishwoman. Just like Shire, she struggles with the differences of her upbringing and that of life in America. Slavery and war are big factors in the storyline when it comes to how Shire and Clara view their new life. As I was reading, I felt that Buxton never cheated the reader! He really developed his characters so we could gain insight into what drove them. I also felt sorry for Shire as his desire to help and protect Clara soon become at odds with is new purpose. I'm so glad that this is just the first book of what promises to be a fun and engaging series.

One person found this helpful

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LuAnn Braley

Shire is a Keeper!

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2017

The 1860s in the US. Not the best time, perhaps, to immigrate to Tennessee, but Clara's marriage is meant to cement together the relationship between two families who have business dealings with each other. (Hmmm...maybe that's why my mother was never thrilled with my choice of husband. LOL).

There is a young man who basically grew up with Clara, but who was from a lower social rank, Shire, who follows her to America, hoping to improve his chances of winning her heart and hand. (Unbeknownst to Shire, Clara is already married by the time he gets to her.)

In the meantime, Shire has quite a remarkable journey and it's really kind of a miracle that he finally gets to Clara. He winds up enlisting in the Union Army, and endures some terrible battles within miles of Clara's new home.

Clara's husband is a fairly obnoxious piece of work. He marries Clara, not for love, but for business and to improve his chances for a higher commission from the Confederate Army. He respects only himself and expects his social, financial and military rank to afford him privileges not available to anyone he considers beneath him.

Richard Buxton's story set during the US Civil War portrays all the horrors and despair that crop up with brother turns against brother and a country implodes on itself. I wondered how good a historical fiction novel set in one country by a citizen of another country could be and am happy to report a resounding 'pretty dang good'.

There are a number of Civil War historical sites near where I live and the (figurative) ghosts still haunt the land. On more than one occasion, I have heard this conflict referred to as "The War of Northern Aggression".

If the events of and surrounding the US Civil War is one of your interests, you should already have or move to put this book on your stacks.

One person found this helpful

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Sheldon W.

Small print.

Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2018

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The novel might be good but I’ll never know because the print is too small to read more than a page or two at a time. The page advertising a book should alert the reader about the print size.

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Mishkem

As satisfying as a fine wine. Terrific.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 8, 2017

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Whirligig is a truly first class novel – it does nearly everything perfectly. At its heart, it’s a quest, which naturally and increasingly draws the reader powerfully through the narrative. It’s a diligent study – and I suspect a faithful representation - of one period and one area of the American Civil War, about which I knew almost nothing (and now feel quite enlightened), plus it’s a literary delight.
It’s a very satisfying read, as it combines action with atmosphere, intricate plotting without ever losing the reader, rich and original description without hindering the pace, and a couple of excellent twists and blind alleys.
Particularly well handled was the alternation from the description of the main protagonist to that of his love interest; moving the reader abruptly from, say, the fear and squalor of hand-to-hand fighting to a cossetted, affluent life, pandered to by slaves.
Many of the key characters are amply fleshed-out, often subtly drip-fed, rather than being concentrated into several paragraphs. Moreover, Buxton gives us many diverse characters showing his breadth of human understanding.
This short extract, I think, well illustrates Buxton’s typical prose: ‘The air was cold and still, and the smoke from the day was free to settle into the forest. With no prospect of a hot meal, Shire dug in his pack for hardtack. The biscuit had little flavour at the best of times, now it had none at all. But he found some unconscious bovine comfort in the simple act of eating.’ What a brilliant last sentence to encompass that scene.
If I search for any criticism, all I can offer are three personal observations: I found the book slightly hard to get into (and wonder if that was because there wasn’t enough description of scene, place or period… ‘a tad rootless?); maybe the pace generally could have been tightened up a touch by the loss of some repetitive description and the odd simile (though most were sublime, and I know most readers like similes more than I) and, for me - the big one – the font on my hardback copy was too small!! Or am I now too old?
If Whirligig was a fine wine, I believe Parker would give it over 90 points. It deserves to be a classic. Hugely recommended.

Carolyn Hughes

A beautifully written historical novel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 30, 2018

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Whirligig is a beautifully written historical novel set in a period and location into which I don’t think I have ever ventured before: the American Civil War. What a great read it was! I’m not generally very keen on “battle” books, and I invariably skim battle descriptions. But definitely not this time…

The story is set partly in England, but mostly on the battlefields of the American Civil War, as we follow Shire, an English schoolteacher, in his determined quest to find his childhood friend, Clara, who has been taken away to the American South by her wealthy fiancé. Shire has discovered a secret that he believes means her marriage will be disastrous, and he feels he must somehow prevent it. In his journey to find Clara, Shire is caught up in the Civil War, and has to join the Union army. But this part of the story is by no means all “battle”, for the bonds Shire makes with some of his fellow soldiers provide some of the book’s most moving narrative.

I really did feel that the author understood the history of this period very well, both in its wider sweep and in the wonderful detail that he used to bring the characters and their world so very much alive.

After perhaps a slightly slow start, I became extremely invested in the character of Shire, and indeed in Clara, and was very eager to find out what happened to them. As the book progressed, and certainly once I’d got more than half way, it became very much a page turner, keeping me awake for “just one more chapter”!

But I do also want to mention the language in Whirligig: so much of it was eloquent and lyrical, some of it really beautiful, and, as a whole, the book was a delight to read. A really talented writer!

I recommend this book as a splendid read, and I am certainly looking forward to the next book in the Shire's Union series.

Phil

Deserves to be read outside the genre

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 19, 2017

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Whirligig is such a triumph in the dual aspects that make any historical fiction book stand out that it deserves to be read outside the genre. It’s both immersive in a believable way and offers a captivating and complex story with some surprising depths.

Richard Buxton clearly knows not just the history but the minutiae of details that go along with this time period – to such a degree that he’s created an authentic depiction of the American Civil War period – one that feels genuinely alive. Yet it’s done with restraint, with enough detail to convince you it’s real but not so much that it feels like a history lesson. For my money, getting taken away by such a story is as close as you’ll get to experiencing the real thing.

Of course it is still fiction though – and the classical tale of a hero’s journey into war to keep an honourable promise equals the standard of the world building. It merges with the history in some very interesting ways - and left me wondering as to where the story stopped and the history started (thankfully, there, the author’s also kindly included some notes about that at the end). Note, there is a slow start - but when soaking up the world’s this enjoyable, that’s a good thing.

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CG

Totally absorbing. A real treat of a read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 28, 2017

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I've just finished this wonderful book, having put aside all the other things I should have done this morning, because I couldn't wait to find out what happened. In no way does it disappoint. Huge congratulations to Mr Buxton for producing a marvellously, engaging, informative and moving read. As he won the inaugural Exeter Story Prize, I knew he could write small scale, but this is an epic. Set in England and the battlefields of the American Civil War, we follow the journey of Shire, in his struggle to reach his childhood love, Clara. He holds a secret that could change her life, and has made a promise to her that he is determined to honour. The book is full of richly drawn characters whose loves and hates run deep. The reader is kept on a knife-edge, not knowing who will help and who will hinder. I was never in doubt about the authenticity of the armed conflicts, and was often moved to tears by the small tender moments of humanity in the field. Rarely do I get so involved, as I did with this book. Highly recommended.

John P S Brinded

A powerful tale of devotion, duty and determination.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 27, 2020

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This is a lavish story, extraordinarily well crafted, a touch of Gone with the Wind with a whiff of Bernard Cornwall’s Starbucks chronicles but utterly original in its depiction of the social and commercial connection between Britain and the Southern states during the American Civil War. The unpleasantness of a society at war with itself and the horrors of the slave economy are thoroughly explored and are integral to the story. It is diligently researched and rich in descriptive language. Characterisation is excellent and all the protagonists are wonderfully drawn. Battle descriptions are visceral but there is warmth, humour and emotion there too. A+++++

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Whirligig – Keeping The Promise (Shire's Union Book 1) Kindle Edition

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