Goddard’s research – he was trained as an historian – into such events as the Spanish Civil War and the 18th-century South Sea Bubble financial scandal, and developments like the invention of photography, was always impressive. If the protagonist sometimes seemed bland (Goddard commonly employed a first-person narrator), intricate plots and unusual settings provided more than enough interest. Later books did not quite have the depth and bite of the first three but, usually with an historical theme, they were always readable. Over the years I’ve read most of Goddard and owned a good many of his novels in hardback. It has a wicked twist at the end that any writer would be proud of. Loosely based on the famous Tichborne claimant case in which a person claims to be a long-lost, feared dead, aristocrat, the book sweeps across countries, class and historical events in masterly fashion. I’ve read it twice and will probably read it again.
Goddard’s third book, Painting the Darkness (1989) is the best popular historical novel I know. In Pale Battalions (1988) is an extraordinarily evocative story of honour and dishonour and identity confusion during and in the aftermath of World War I. I eagerly awaited Goddard’s next book and wasn’t disappointed. Set in the Edwardian era with the Boer War and the shifting politics of the time as its themes, it told a complicated story of deception, lost love and betrayal. Jean introduced me to the work of Robert Goddard when she was working as fiction editor for Transworld and Goddard’s first novel Past Caring (1986) was being heavily promoted by the company. Tags: John Thaw/ Robert Goddard/ South Sea Bubble/ Spanish Civil War/ The Empty Beach/ the Tichborne Affair The Godfather: Peter Corris on Robert Goddard
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