Thomas Gage

Thomas Gage

by JamesFleming (Author)

Synopsis

Thomas Gage is a happy man. He has a fine house in Norfolk, two delightful children, a wife who brought with her a nice income from her father's paint firm, a Waterloo medal, and a painting on show at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Then, a few months after Thomas Gage's fiftieth birthday, Julius Gooby enters his life. Mr Gooby is a man of the future, manager of the proposed North Norfolk Railway from Norwich to Cromer, and the route of the railway crosses Gage's land. With the railway comes tragedy, and Thomas Gage's life begins to unravel until, at the end, medal on his chest, he travels to London to watch the Duke of Wellington's funeral and to take his revenge. With Thomas Gage James Fleming has fashioned another historical fiction of the very first rank, a portrait of a good man undone by grief, by others' greed and, ultimately, by progress.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 304
Edition: New Ed
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 07 Oct 2004

ISBN 10: 009946098X
ISBN 13: 9780099460985
Book Overview: A brilliant historical novel about the downfall of a successful man set against the changing social landscape of pre-industrial England.

Media Reviews
So delightful [and] so skilful in its mixture of historical detail, mild social satire and Norwich School landscaping... Well fashioned, well characterised, wryly and suavely written - and very welcome * Sunday Times *
Well-researched and very readable, Thomas Gage bears comparison with the Victorian classics it ambitiously imitates * Times Literary Review *
There are fine set pieces... and the period is as well-painted as is possible in modern fiction * Independent *
Fleming's subtle characterisation and beguiling descriptions of pre-industrial England make the poignancy of subsequent events all the sharper. This sensitive exploration of a man's mind and how market forces impinge on it offers further proof that Fleming is engaged in challenging the conventions of [this] genre * Daily Telegraph *
A work of considerable power * Guardian *
Author Bio
James Fleming, the nephew of Ian Fleming, was born in London in 1944. He is the author of four previous novels, all of them good: The Temple of Optimism, White Blood, Cold Blood and Rising Blood. He writes in Scotland. Visit him online at www.jamesfleming.com