Axbridge Review: William Boyd’s ‘true’ story of Irish adventurer Cashel Greville Ross is one part fiction, one part fact and one part boy’s own adventure in this enjoyable 19th century yarn

Book Review: The Romantic, by William Boyd.

I hadn’t realised until 50 pages into William Boyd’s novel The Romantic that it was based on a true story. Boyd had in his possession the diaries, letters and anecdotes of the real 19^th century Irish adventurer Cashel Greville Ross, and rather than write his biography he decided to turn it into a novel with a few inventions of his own to add even more colour to the ‘whole life story’ of Ross (1799-1882).

There is no plot as such but there are reoccurring themes that include women, money, opportunity and Ross’s ability to misjudge people which land him in trouble. Contessa Rezzo may have been a society beauty and the non-love love of his life but practical Frannie Broome seemed a more suitable lover and business partner in America while Mrs Davenport was just another conquest on his journey to fame and not much of a fortune.

Starting in Ireland Cashel as a young boy has the good fortune to be moved by his two-timing father to Oxford when unusually for a teenager in the early 19^th century he is educated which enables him to write up his adventures as he goes along. Firstly, his stint in the army which sees him injured at Waterloo in 1815, invalided out before a chance to sign up in the army of the East India Company in India comes up. From being disgusted by a massacre of villagers ordered by his commanding officer he is ousted by the military and next embarks on a tour of Europe where he meets the aforementioned Contessa. Socialising with the poets Shelley and Byron are part of his stop over in Italy or rather Piedmont as it was then – and attending Shelley’s funeral are woven into the story. It’s at this point I remembered it was a novel – and despite Boyd’s footnotes to explain how many casualties the army suffered due to disease or the fate of Stillwell Court in Ireland, along with sketched maps and long and detailed letters, this is one part fiction, one part fact and one part boy’s own adventure.

And being a novel – Boyd ensures it is a page turner, by inserting sudden chances of fate and unexpected events which launch Cashel into a new adventure. An inheritance frees him from a debtor’s jail, a visionary inspires a trip to America in search of Utopia and conman Mason in France allows him to share the rent of his cottage but steals his pistol. Like many of us his own character and rashness leads to new chapters – marry in haste and repent at leisure – is a phrase that comes to mind when he gets hitched to devoutly religious Brid – and his misplaced trust in the publisher Yelverton lands him in debt. And of course his disgust at his mother’s double life leads to his leaving home in a fit of picque. His saving grace is his ability to make life-long friends – like Ignatz Vlac who turned his farm to profit with the production of beer from wild hops.

How much is true and how much is invention only William Boyd knows, but at 450 pages it’s a pretty long – if highly readable yarn. And along the way we learn all manner of detail about life in Victorian England, Zanzibar, the River Nile in Africa, Pisa, Venice, London, Boston and of course Ireland where the story begins.

Harry Mottram

NOTE: This novel was chosen to be read in June and July by the Axbridge Four Season’s Book Club. I got my copy from Cheddar Library – but it is available in all good bookshops or online. This is the second Boyd novel we have read – a few years ago we read The Blue Afternoon.

From Wikipedia: The Romantic is the seventeenth novel by British author William Boyd, published in 2022, by Viking Penguin. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Romantic_(Boyd_novel)

To hear William Boyd in conversation visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOiN5vhTBVM

Fun fact: former TV journalist turned chef Annabel Hackney who lived in Axbridge at Bank House once told me she nearly dated William Boyd before hitching up with Geoff Dunlop. But that is top secret so I never told you.

Axbridge Review is edited by Harry Mottram for his own interest and the interests of fellow residents.

For more visit www.harrymottram.co.uk

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