The Five Shilling Children by Lindsey Children
Genre: Historical fiction
Read: 25th September 2019
Purchase: Amazon
(release date: 19th September 2019)
★★★★★ 5 stars
When you pick up a Lindsey Hutchinson book, you just know you are going to be lost for hours in what will essentially be another good read. There is just something about historical fiction that pulls you in and keeps you there until the end. And THE FIVE SHILLING CHILDREN is no different.
Ten year old Adam Fitch and his nine year old sister Polly are sold for five shillings each to Reed's Orphanage by their bully father, Gerald, who leaves them there without a backward glance. Distraught and missing their mother, the children still have each other and soon discover that life for them is somewhat an improvement on the one they had scavenging and living hand to mouth with their parents and three brothers. Now they have their own beds, three generous meals a day, proper schooling and a new group of friends that treat them better than anyone else ever had.
But then Rodney Dukes arrives. Loud, brash and disruptive without any respect for authority, he doesn't care who he hurts and takes great pleasure in bullying everyone, especially young Polly. This prompts Adam to sneak out on a nightly basis to learn how to box after watching pugilist Billy Marshall win a fight. Billy agrees to teach Adam upon realising that he is the son of a woman he once new and secretly loved, Minnie Fitch. The lessons are successful and Adam becomes accomplished at defending his sister from bully, Rodney, who is humiliated and in turn bides his time to take Adam by surprise.
One Sunday when the children would usually walk to church, they are told to stay in their rooms. Adam and his roommate Joe are looking out the window to see what is happening outside. They see a horse and carriage come up the drive and stop at the orphanage's entrance, as a wealthy looking couple step out. Several minutes go by before they reappear holding the hand of a young girl, who is squirming and kicking out. Adam is aghast to discover it is Polly, who has been sold to the wealthy family as a companion for their spoilt daughter Cora. Adam runs downstairs and out the door screaming for his sister as they disappear, his heartbreaking howls of distress heard by everyone. But the one affected most by Adam's distress is his nemesis Rodney, who comes to his aid and comforts him. Everyone at the orphanage feels Adam's sorrow and their hearts break for him...all except the owner, Una Reed, who sees selling the children a profitable business to make way for new additions.
The remaining children band together to help Adam hatch a plan of escape so he can search for Polly. Despite them all coming to depend on each other, Adam knows he must leave if there was to be any chance of him reuniting with his sister again. But where were they to go from there? They couldn't go home...not as long as Gerald was there. And would they ever see their new friends again? The only ones they have come to depend on for companionship and love - what is to become of them?
Across town that is a far cry from where she had come, Polly finds herself in a new home with a new family. And she hates it. Cora is vindictive and spiteful, doing anything she an to get Polly into trouble just for her sheer pleasure. And their governess, Prudence, believes the little minx every time as she seems to take as much pleasure from doling out discipline to Polly at Cora's every whim. She yearns to go back to the orphanage, to Adam, to May and all her friends. She hates it here.
Meanwhile back on Banks Street in the Fitch household, Minnie has had it with her abusive husband Gerald. Out of work, he has taken to gambling every last penny on cock fights and then drinks his winnings at the public house, returning home drunk with not a farthing left for his starving family. Minnie kicks him out but Gerald is not going quietly. He continues to return, banging on the door and demanding Minnie let him in. But she refuses and he acquiesces. During the day when she goes out scavenging for some morsels for her family she has taken to locking the doors to prevent Gerald from gaining access. This, however, does nothing to dissuade him as she returns once again to find the window smashed or the door broken on its hinges, and Gerald sitting in his chair by the hearth demanding she get his dinner. But Minnie has hardened. This man who sold her two children, buried another and gambles and drinks away any penny that crosses his palm, she will not stand for his ways anymore. But as he raises his hand once again to punch her into submission, Minnie knows things will never change.
THE FIVE SHILLING CHILDREN is a heartbreaking tale of poverty and hardship surrounding the Fitch family. With no money for food or coal, the must scavenge on a daily basis for the dregs that others have rejected just to get through another day or night. With five children to feed, life is harsh. So when Gerald sells Adam and Polly for just five shillings each, against Minnie's wishes, he doesn't take the money home to feed and warm his family but rather drinks it all away...again.
You will fall in love with little Adam and Polly and the other children, and find yourself cheering them on throughout all the hardships they face. You will enjoy seeing them get the better of their elders as they seek a better life together.
THE FIVE SHILLING CHILDREN will definitely play with your emotions and you will laugh as well as cry along with the children. But it Minnie my heart mostly went out to. I felt her pain and cried when she cried. To feel so utterly trapped, destitute and hopeless. I so waited with baited breath to see if Gerald got comeuppance and cringed for Minnie every time he reappeared.
A wonderfully heartbreaking and yet heartwarming tale, THE FIVE SHILLING CHILDREN will make you laugh and cry in equal measure. I was wondering how it was all going to end happily for all and was not disappointed.
THE FIVE SHILLING CHILDREN is an enjoyable and quick read I thoroughly recommend for any historical fiction fans.
I would like to thank #LindseyHutchinson, #NetGalley and #Aria for an ARC of #TheFiveShillingChildren in exchange for an honest review.
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