Giveaway + A Look Inside Ross Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall

"My girls #Poldark" Tweet from Ruby Bentall!

I am so excited to be participating in the Ross Poldark Blog Tour, which features an amazing giveaway contest including copies of the books and a stunning Anglophile-themed prize package! Details on the giveaway are below.




But first, I would like to introduce Miss Verity Poldark!

In the Masterpiece Classic PBS series, Poldark, Verity is brilliantly played by the talented Ruby Bentall. You may remember Ruby from Lark Rise to Candleford or The Paradise. She is fantastic as Verity and I look forward to seeing more of her as the season continues. You can follow Ruby on twitter!

The lovely Ruby Bentall as Verity Poldark

Verity is the dutiful daughter of Ross's uncle, Charles Poldark. She is described as "small and dark and sallow" with fluffy brown hair, on course to becoming a spinster.  When Ross Poldark returns from the American Revolutionary War, alive and well, Verity seemed to be the only one genuinely thrilled to see him.

Only Verity came often. She was his [Ross'] contact with the rest of the family, bringing him gossip and companionship. They walked miles together...He would stride on, sometimes listening to her, more seldom talking himself, while she walked swiftly beside him and her hair blew about her face and the wind stung color into her cheeks.

She is kind and generous and spends her time helping to run her father's household.  At her brother's wedding banquet she barely had time to sit down and eat because she was so attentive to guests and helping the household staff out.  Naturally, I was surprised and happy when she attends an assembly with her cousin Ross and fumbles over her words when the quiet and weathered Captain Andrew Blamey notices her.

Verity learns some new words such as Mizzenmast, gaff and spanker boom.

Clearly struck with butterflies, she giggles over nautical terms and blushes prettily when Blamey asks to see her again.  But the mysterious Captain has some skeletons in his closet (think season 3 Mr. Bates from Downton Abbey).  Her family disapprove, so she asks her dear cousin Ross if he could help, and she isn't messing around when she asks...

All is going so well for Verity and her sea Captain until her father, Charles, and brother, Francis, find out that they are secretly meeting.  When her father and brother arrive at Ross' house to confront the couple, things quickly escalate.  Read what happens in this Verity excerpt from the book.

Ross Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall

From Chapter 13

When he reached the house Francis was already in the parlor. He could hear the raised voices as Charles slid laboriously from his horse.

When they got inside, Captain Blamey was standing beside the fireplace, one hand on Verity’s sleeve, as if to stop her from coming between him and Francis. He was in his captain’s laced coat of fine blue cloth with a white wing collar and black cravat. He wore his most self-contained look, as if all unruly passion were locked away, bolted and unreachable, guarded by all the controls of his own choosing and testing. He looked sturdy and middle-aged against the flushed handsome arrogance of Francis’s youth. Ross noticed that Charles was carrying his riding whip.

“…no way to speak to your sister,” Blamey was saying. “Any hard words you’ve a mind to speak can come to me.”

“Dirty skunk!” Charles said. “Sneaking behind our backs. My only daughter.”

“Sneaking,” said Blamey, “because you would not meet to talk over the matter. Do you think—”

“Talk it over!” said Charles. “There’s nothing to talk over wi’ wife murderers. We don’t like ’em in this district. They leave a nasty stink in the nostrils. Verity, get your horse and go home.”

She said quietly, “I have a right to choose my own life.”

“Go, dear,” said Blamey. “It’s no place for you now.”

She shook off his hand. “I stay.”

“Then stay and be damned!” said Francis. “There’s only one way of treating your sort, Blamey. Words and honor don’t count. Perhaps a thrashing will.” He began to take off his coat.

“Not on my land,” said Ross. “Begin any brawl here and I’ll throw you off it myself.”

There was a moment’s nonplussed silence.

“God’s name!” exploded Charles. “You have the impu-dence to take his side!”

“I take no one’s side, but you won’t change the issue with horseplay.”

“One skunk and another,” said Francis. “You’re small matter better than he is.”

“You heard what your sister said,” Captain Blamey interposed quietly. “She has the right to choose her own life. I have no wish to quarrel, but she is coming away with me.”

“I’ll see you in hell first,” Francis said. “There’ll be no cleaning of your boots on our family.”

Captain Blamey suddenly went very white. “You insolent puppy!”

“Puppy, is it now!” Francis leaned forward and smacked Captain Blamey with an open hand across his cheek.

The red mark showed, and then Blamey hit Francis in the face and Francis went to the floor.

There was a brief pause. Verity had backed away from them both, her face small and sick.

Francis sat up and with the back of his hand wiped a streak of blood from his nose. He got to his feet.

“When will it be convenient for you to meet me, Captain Blamey?”

Having found outlet, the seaman’s anger had ebbed. But somehow his composure was not the same. If only for a moment, the controls had been broken.

“I leave for Lisbon by tomorrow’s tide.”

Francis’s expression was contemptuous. “That, of course, is what I would have expected.”

“Well, there is still today.”

Charles stepped forward. “Nay, there’s no call for these damned Frenchie methods, Francis. Let’s thrash the beggar and then go.”

“There’ll be none of that, neither,” said Ross.

Francis licked his lips. “I demand satisfaction. You can’t deny that. The fellow once laid claims to be a gentleman. Let him come outside and meet me—if he’s got the guts.”

“Andrew,” Verity said. “Don’t agree to anything—”

The sailor glanced at the girl distantly, as if her brother’s hostility had already separated them.

“Fight it out with fists,” said Charles stertorously. “The skunk’s not worth the risk of a pistol ball, Francis.”

“Nothing else will discourage him,” said Francis. “I’ll trouble you for weapons, Ross. If you refuse them I’ll send over to Trenwith for my own.”

“Send over, then,” snapped Ross. “I’ll be no party to your bloodletting.”

“They’re on the wall behind you, man,” said Blamey, between his teeth.

Francis turned and took down the silver dueling pistols with which Ross had threatened Demelza’s father. “Will they still fire?” he said coldly, addressing Ross. Ross did not speak.

“Come outside, Blamey,” Francis said.

“Look, boy,” said Charles. “This is stuff and nonsense. It’s my quarrel and—”

“Nothing of the sort. He knocked me down—”

“Come away and have no truck with the varmint. Verity will come with us, won’t you, Verity?”

“Yes, Father.”

Francis looked at Ross. “Call your man and get him to see these pistols are properly primed.”

“Get him yourself.”

“There are no seconds,” said Charles. “There’s no suitable arrangements.”

“Formality! One needs no formality when stalking a crow.”

They went outside. It was easy to see that Francis was determined to have his satisfaction. Blamey, white about the nostrils, stood apart, as if the business didn’t concern him. Verity made a last appeal to her brother, but he snapped at her that some solution to her infatuation must be found and he had chosen that one.

Jud was outside so there was no need to call him. He was visibly interested and impressed by the responsibility thrust on him. He had only seen such a thing once before and that thirty years before. Francis told him to act as referee and to count out fifteen paces for them; Jud glanced at Ross, who shrugged.

“Yes, sur, fifteen, did ye say?”

They were in the open space of grass before the house. Verity had refused to go indoors. She held to the back of the garden seat.

The men stood back to back, Francis an inch or more the taller, his fair hair glinting in the sun.

“Ready, sur?”

“Aye.”

Ross made a movement forward but checked himself. The headstrong fool must have his way.

“Then go. One, two, three, fower, five, six—”

As Jud counted the two men paced away from each other, and a swallow dipped and swerved between them.

At the word fifteen they turned. Francis fired first and hit Blamey in the hand. Blamey dropped his pistol. He bent and picked it up with his left hand and fired back. Francis put up a hand to his neck and fell to the ground.

Title: Ross Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall, 1783-1787
Author: Winston Graham
Genre: Historical Fiction
Book 1 of The Poldark Saga
New tie-in edition to the Masterpiece Classic PBS series airing 6/21 – 8/2, 2015
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark (June 09, 2015) reprint of 1945
Length: 400 pages
Trade paperback & eBook ISBN: 9781492622079

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Giveaway!

Win One of Three Fabulous Prizes

In celebration of the re-release of Ross Poldark and Demelza, Sourcebooks Landmark is offering three chances to win copies of the books or a grand prize, an Anglophile-themed gift package. Two lucky winners will each receive one trade paperback copy of Ross Poldark and Demelza, and one grand prize winner will receive a prize package containing the following items:

• (1) DVD of season one of Poldark
• (2 ) Old Britain Castles Pink Pottery Mugs by Johnson Brothers
• (1) Twelve-inch Old Britain Castles Pink Pottery Plater by Johnson Brothers
• (1) London Telephone Box Tin of Ahmad English Breakfast Tea
• (1) Jar of Mrs. Bridges Marmalade
• (1) Package of Duchy Originals Organic Oaten Biscuits
• (2) Packets of Blue Boy Cornflower Seeds by Renee’s Garden Heirloom (1) Trade Paperback Copy of Ross Poldark & Demelza, by Winston Graham

To enter the giveaway contest simply leave a comment on any or all of the blog stops on the Ross Poldark Blog Tour starting July 06, 2015 through 11:59 pm PT, August 10, 2015. Winners will be drawn at random from all of the entrants and announced on the Buzz at Sourcebooks blog on August 13, 2015. Winners have until August 20, 2015 to claim their prize. The giveaway contest is open to US residents and the prizes will be shipped to US addresses. Good luck to all!

While we wait for the giveaway to end and the next episode of Poldark to air, check out the Poldark Original Soundtrack! 



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