Whirligig – Book 1 of Shire’s Union
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.
Whirligig gained a silver medal at the 2017 Wishing Shelf Book Awards and was shortlisted for the 2017 Rubery International Book Awards
“Whirligig’ is a magnificent novel, epic in scale but with the rich precision of detail that makes the characters compelling and the scene-setting highly realistic….a meticulously researched and powerful story”
Gill Thompson
Author of ‘The Orphans on the Train”
“Rarely do I get so involved, as I did with this book. I was often moved to tears by the small tender moments of humanity. Highly recommended.”
Cathie Hartigan
Author or “Secret of the Song”
Click here to see a review of Whirligig from author Helen Hollick
Review from Mary Anne Yarde at the Coffee Pot Book Club
Shire's Union 