Return to the Soil

About the Book

It is April 1920 and 8 year old Henry Harvey is now the master of the Harvey Estates at ‘Long Halls’ and he is about to go off to school in the stead of his Father and Grandfather before him. When he is eighteen he elects to go to the University College at Nottingham to study Engineering as opposed to Oxford or Cambridge and there he meets Amy Watkinson who he eventually marries. This is not a successful marriage because Amy is rather a simple girl who has led a sheltered life and she cannot cope with the style of life that Henry leads. Henry joins the Royal Air Force as a volunteer and is immediately drawn into the world of politics and national affairs. In 1936 Amy dies giving birth to a son (Richard Henry Harvey) and once again the curse of the Harvey’s plays its part. In keeping with his families traditions Henry Harvey accepts his Monarchs Special Commission and travels into Europe on the kings business. He is rapidly promoted and decorated for his services to the Crown and when he returns to duty in the Air Force it is as a leader of young men in battle. He is shot down and wounded during one of his sorties and meets Laura Wakeham a nurse whom he marries. But this is short lived for she is killed attending a patient trapped in a bombed house. Henry is lost presumed dead on a mission into Vichy France but returns to survive the war as once of the Officers Planning the Normandy Landings only to be killed in a road accident at the end of the war. This is the second book in the Harvey Family History the following Titles are in preparation:- ‘Children of the Lonely Night’ ‘The Missing Years’ ‘Cutting the Ties’

About the Author

J. Rowlands Broughton was raised in Lincolnshire during the Second World War. He was educated at the Huntingdon School, Nottingham & District Technical College, Woolwich Polytechnic and the Royal College of Advanced Technology. Most of his working life has been spent in the design and development of Special Purpose Machines primarily for use in the Rubber, Plastics, and Pharmaceutical Industries. For the past twelve years he has been employed at the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre and during his time he has developed his love for writing novels, poetry, and that adaptation of Greek Tragedy. Over the years he has written books and manuals, and has developed programs on the use of Bills of Materials Systems, Systems Control and Engineering Control Systems. Jim is married with two adult children and enjoys music, poetry, painting watercolours and researching Medieval History. ‘Return to the Soil’ is the second book in a series of four books covering life of the imaginary Harvey Family who had an estate on the edge of the Lincolnshire Fens.