Malcolm MacDonald: Abigail

Victorian morality tale
This is the fourth and final novel in the classic Stevenson family saga by Malcolm Macdonald. While I loved the previous two books in the series I thought that Macdonald had run out of ideas about the family with this book which is very different to the others.

After SONS OF FORTUNE the three eldest Stevenson children have found their places in life, despite the plans of their rich and powerful parents. Winifred is running her own girl's school and will remain a spinster. John junior ("Boy") has found his niche in the Army fighting on the wild Indian frontier and Caspar ("Steamer") has successfully taken over half of the business, married well and built a huge family home to meet his lifestyle that would leave Downton Abbey in shade. The rift between their parents continues, but there is some hope of reconciliation.

Abigail has always been the difficult, sometimes tempestuous, younger daughter who John and Nora hope will take a more conventional line and marry well. This is not going to happen with a girl with such a indomitable spirit. Having been home tutored Abigail has been closeted from the real world. One day she tricks her maid Annie into telling her the facts of life which opens a new view of the world that starts her on a world of passion and exploration that will be the keynote of her life.

Abbie becomes a talented author, journalist and painter which leads her to the great capitals of Europe. She finds ways to live an independent life for herself away from her wealthy family at a time when single women from the upper classes are rarely ever able to become independent.

Abigail is more of a Victorian morality story than an extension of a family saga as Abbie experiences the vicissitudes of life and love and befriends both women and men of all classes and wealth who would not normally be part of her life. While she suffers a lot of pain as a result of her independence this helps her to build a life to help women everywhere.

I feel that Macdonald didn't really plan to write this story and had to find something different to continue the family saga and the story seemed to run out of steam towards the end. Despite this I enjoyed the book as Macdonald is a talented commentator on Victorian life. If you have read the earlier books you really should complete the series as it uncovers fascinating aspects of Victorian life through the eyes of a wealthy and intelligent woman seeking independence and equality for women everywhere.

Malcolm MacDonald: Sons of Fortune

Spellbinding Victorian Family Saga
I admit to being an addict for Victorian Family Sagas, and this is one of the best. IMHO Malcolm MacDonald's Stevenson family saga  (which started with "World from Rough Stones") vies with and has the edge over R F Delderfield's magnificent Swann Family Saga (which started with "God is an Englishman").

The Stevenson family is now mega- rich (current equivalent of billionaires) and John Stevenson has two objectives, one to make sure his sons get the best education and the other for the family to be accepted into Society. Despite their wealth Victorian Society is very cautious about accepting the nouveaux riche especially when they started in poverty. The only sure way into Society is to be given a peerage by the Queen, but that would have to withstand a lot of prying into the family background by the monarch's minders. How John overcomes these drawbacks is one of the surprises in the book.

The book spends a lot of time covering the education of the elder sons, John (Boy) who John Senior wants to be his business successor, and Caspar who is destined for the Army. The descriptions of the brutal and shallow education at a top school are vivid, and the biggest surprise is that the two boys not only survive but flourish from what happens to them. Winifred, the eldest child, wants the kind of independence that her father will do everything, and I mean everything, to prevent.

Nora is still a power in the business but is losing power in the family as John changes. When she is concerned about what is happening to her boys at school she decides to visit the school. In a fascinating insight into her wealth and power she telegraphs their railway company to send up a private train with their own special carriage and a flat-top rail wagon to carry her carriage which will be needed to get to the school (today's equivalent of using a private jet and a limousine). Nora's reaction to the constraints of Society are also fascinating as she makes herself one of the most sought after hostesses in Society.

While I was totally absorbed in this wonderful and evocative tale of Victorian life I was a bit disappointed that Malcolm MacDonald changed John's character into a tartar of a Victorian father who would not listen to anyone except himself, I guess to make the story line work. That was certainly not the character that I admired so much in the first two books in the series much of whose success was due to his understanding of others.

Despite this I really enjoyed this book and think that overall it is as good, if not even slightly better, than its predecessors. Highly recommended to discerning readers who enjoy an adventurous and different picture of Victorian life.

Malcolm Macdonald: Rich Are with You Always

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Great sequel to World from Rough Stones
This is the second book in the magnificent Stevenson family saga set in the exciting times of railway building and the first Industrial Revolution in the UK the first half of the 19th Century. In "World from Rough Stones" Macdonald introduced us to John Stevenson, whose charismatic organisational and management skills took him from being a lowly navvy to a major constructor of railways. "Lord John" (as his workmates call him) meets destitute Nora Telling and is immediately attracted to her, not only physically but also for her financial skills and strategic thinking. Thus starts an amazing fictional rags to riches story set in an accurate historical background.

With skill, luck and a bit of skulduggery, over 10 years John and Nora have built one of the largest construction businesses in the UK. In "Rich Are with You Always" we follow the Stevensons (and their rapidly growing family) up to the 1851 Great Exhibition in London that showcases England's industrial achievements. Although they are starting to become mega-rich, the Stevenson business only flourishes because of Nora's financial skills, and again some skulduggery, in a business world caught up in the excesses of the railway bubble. While frequently sailing close to the wind, they survive the bubble and become one of the richest families in England (and the world) at that time. We would probably call them one of the first billionaires.

Macdonald also follows the life of sex-obsessed railway engineer, Walter Thornton, who is married to pious sexually cold Arabella. While they surprisingly produce a similarly rapidly growing family, Walter addresses his sexual needs widely, but eventually meets his sexual soulmate from an unexpected quarter. This is an interesting interlude about the hypocrisies of Victorian life.

It is great to be able to revisit this series that I read back in the 1970's now they are being released in e-book format (as is the similar God is an Englishman saga by R F Delderfield). The characters are compelling and the story is page-turning as the Stevenson's business and marriage move from one challenge to another. The book covers an exciting period of economic development in the UK during which the country moved from a basically agricultural society to become the world's first industrialised country. I look forward to revisiting the rest of the series soon.

Malcolm Macdonald: World from Rough Stones

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From Rags to Riches with the Railways
Many years ago I read and enjoyed The Stevenson Family Saga by Malcolm Macdonald about the heady days of the early Victorian era when huge fortunes were made (and lost) during the first Industrial Revolution. "World from Rough Stones" is the first book in a series about the family of John and Nora Stephenson and their growing and increasingly profitable construction contracting business.

"World from Rough Stones" is the first book in a series about John Stevenson, a mountain of a man we meet first working as a Navvy digging a railway tunnel and his wife Nora, who came to him totally destitute but with a very sharp mind. Just after meeting Nora, with a bit of luck and some skulduggery, John takes over the contract to finish the longest railway tunnel in the world at that time. The contract has an almost impossible timetable and John has limited financial resources. John is a natural manager and gets the best out of the tough and wild men digging the tunnel. He soon finds that Nora has the most amazing financial and commercial skills which support him through the most difficult times.

The title of the next book in the series is "Rich are With You Always" which gives you some idea of the success of the Stevenson ventures. This series is similar to R Delderfield's better known Swann Family Saga (God is an Englishman and sequels) covering a similar era but the Swann's made their fortune by providing transport outside the railway and canal networks.

These were heady and exciting days when in a mere 50 years England transformed itself from an aristocratic and basically feudal society into the world's first industrial society. With the advent of the steam engine and locomotives, railways, factories and housing estates popped up like mushrooms, changing the face of the English countryside and society forever. The factional Stevenson family were an essential part of that revolution.

This book has been out of print for years and it was great to re-visit it now it is available on Kindle. I have a great interest the monumental social and economic changes in England in the first half of the 19th Century and this book was just as exciting to me as when I read it first. Some parts may now seem a bit ponderous but the insight into the period and some of the people involved in creating our modern world are just as gripping to me many years later.