Kent to Kefalonia

Kent to Kefalonia is the second volume of LucyAnn Curling’s series Curling Wisps & Whispers of History. In Volume 1, Thanet to Tasmania, fortune did not smile on the Curling family in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania). At the beginning of Volume 2 they are back in England, struggling to find a financial foothold in society. Second son, Edward, has an unrewarding job in an attorney’s office when Charles James Napier offers him a golden opportunity on the island of Kefalonia. Follow the surprising twists of providence as Edward works on Napier’s unusual project. What is the Malta connection? Tensions between Napier and his line manager, Sir Frederick Adam, have repercussions for Edward. Greece at this time was fighting for independence from the Ottoman Empire, and that war touches Napier’s personal life obliquely but with lasting effect, while Edward’s too is permanently changed by a different encounter. Edward’s work journal and numerous letters in the Napier Papers at the British and Bodleian Libraries bear witness to the social pressures acting on all members of this extended clan, as their feelings come into conflict with accepted norms, and set the stage for further dramatic developments soon to appear in Volume 3.