Ross Poldark – A Novel Of Cornwall

I sometimes go through periods where I am not reading a lot, where I either find it an effort to settle down with a book, or just don’t make the time to read.

When this happens, I often think it is me, but I am currently more inclined to think it is the book.

Most recently, I have started several books, all of which seem to be pretty good, and even enjoyable, but I just couldn’t get into them.

Abandoning them, I decided to resort to historical fiction. Having read all the Sharpe books, and most of the Aubrey–Maturin series, I decided to turn to something that piqued my interest recently.

Poldark.

Yes, you may laugh. I haven’t actually bothered to watch any of the new series – I am told it is excellent, but for me Ross will be forever Robin Ellis and Demelza, Angharad Rees.

But the moment I started the first novel (downloading a sample first), I was gripped. My previous reading has seen me progressing perhaps a dozen pages a day; with Poldark, I read the first novel in a weekend.

I’m kind of pleased to find it is historical fiction and not (as I feared) bodice-ripping romance. The characters are pretty much as I imagined/remembered them, and it feels comforting to read – I last watched the TV show sufficiently long ago, that it is not spoiling the story for me, although I have a general idea of the direction it goes.

However, there is one character that is different, and it kind of amused me to discover this. Demelza is described as having “dark untidy hair”, whereas Angharad Rees was a flaming redhead, as was her Demelza. What amuses me is that in casting the more recent TV adaptation, they cast another redhead in the part – i.e. it seems they were following the earlier series more than the book.

Little matter, but it made me chuckle.

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