Melanie Martin’s A Splendid Boy is a 2017 RONE Finalist
Newfoundland author Melanie Marin’s A Splendid Boy keeps accumulating honours. Already a regional bestseller and a finalist for the Scéal Book Awards, the 20th-century historical fiction has been named a finalist for the 2017 RONE Awards in the Victorian 20th-Century category. The RONE Awards are administered by InD’tale magazine and spotlight and reward excellence in the indie and small publishing industry. The winners will be announced at the annual RONE Awards gala in October.
A Splendid Boy begins In the summer of 1914, when Daniel Beresford’s innocent love affair with the merchant’s daughter is discovered, forcing him to make an impossible decision to save his family from financial ruin. When news of the First World War reaches Middle Tickle, Daniel, who is torn between his love for Emma Tavenor and his responsibility to his family, enlists in the Newfoundland Regiment and departs for training. When Emma learns her father is to blame for Daniel’s unexplained departure, she follows him to England, hoping they’ll be reunited. Yet on the voyage, she discovers the regiment has been called up and is already engaged in battle. She realizes her only hope of finding Daniel is to join the Voluntary Aid Detachment and make her way to the Western Front.
Author Melanie Martin was born on the west coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. She has a master’s degree in Newfoundland history from Memorial University and has contributed to historical journals, websites, anthologies, and educational textbooks on significant events in Newfoundland and Labrador’s turbulent social and political history. Her interest in Newfoundland and Labrador’s role in the First World War has been ongoing since her first visit to Newfoundland Memorial Park at Beaumont-Hamel, France, in 2006. Since then she has visited all the sites significant to the Royal Newfoundland Regiment in France, Belgium, and Turkey. Melanie works for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.
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