This novel is ‘based on the true story of a Welsh woman’s journey from drover to the Crimea’. It is clearly the result of considerable historical research, but it also succeeds in being an exciting story with a most attractive and sympathetic heroine through whose eyes we see a very different time. The author not only tells Jane’s story entirely from her point of view but is successful in capturing the limitations of her experience and the importance of her faith.The shocking opening, ‘Jane Evans killed her Mam’, hooks us in and the line, ‘Born to be different’, sets the tone for the early chapters. Jane’s harsh and unjust treatment at the hands of her older brothers and father would be bleak indeed without the guiding presence of Aunt Anni – the mid-wife, healer, teacher and touchstone of Jane’s life. Like many girls, Jane was faced with the threat of a forced marriage, to a foul old neighbour. Unlike many, she escaped and (when it was too late to send her back) joined the drovers who had set out with cattle, sheep, pigs and geese to go to the English markets. The drove was managed by Aunt Anni’s son Isaac, an intelligent, responsible and deeply pious man, who is the only really sympathetic major male character in the novel. Although he was not happy to let Jane ride with them, he did his best to keep her from harm. At first he failed to trust her judgement, which he had cause to regret. The physical realities of the drove are well created and give readers a fascinating glimpse of the time – with many of the perils more familiar in the American Wild West.Fortunately for Jane, Isaac shared her conviction in God’s calling. He placed her in London with the Reverend and Lady Blackwood, who rapidly recognised her strength and usefulness and took her with them when they went, with some newly trained nurses, to the Crimean War. Jane’s first experience of Scutari – the horror, dirt and smell – is a vivid piece of writing with visceral power. In Jane’s subsequent career she met several well-known figures: the steely, genteel Miss Nightingale; the combative, pragmatic Betsi Davis (Cadwaladr) and, briefly, the warm, colourful Mrs Seacole. (The last encounter may be a little contrived but is a welcome respite from hospital horrors.)Jane’s strong character, her resilience and her innocence are well conveyed without her ever being too ‘pi’ or romanticised. Apart from Isaac and a few minor characters, the author is very critical of the male population as a whole, but the book does give one a sense of just how vulnerable to abuse any woman (except the most privileged) was at the time and how remarkable was Jane’s successful journey.Christine Purkis is already a popular writer of novels for young people and she inhabits the mind and emotions of the adolescent Jane very convincingly without ever making her too modern in her sensibility. This novel should be popular with young adult readers as well as older ones.
