The historical novel THE HOUSE OF CAVENDISH~OUTROADS ISBN 978-1-60860-307-7 is a romantic tale of seduction, love, murder and intrigue when the Cavendish family live through the Black Death and escape the Fire of London. The plot covers a period in English history (1560-1720) when civil war had waged on English soil.
The story begins in the 16th century when Henry Cavendish; the eldest son of Bess of Hardwick, allegedly fathered numerous illegitimate sons around the shires. His procreations were particularly active in Derbyshire when he seduces a vicars daughter on one of his excursions into Derby. The vicar’s daughter Sylvia becomes his life long mistress and he provides a small manor house for her and their son; Robert Cavendish.
The family and England survive the civil war and the Cromwell years of parliamentary rule to be followed by the restoration of the monarchy. With Charles II on the throne and Robert Cavendish reaching maturity he sets off to seek his fortune in London. In a coffee house he makes the acquaintance of Samuel Pepys who becomes a life long friend of the family. With introductions from Samuel Pepys’, Robert invests in the fashionable import trade of tobacco from Virginia and soon he becomes a wealthy man.
Robert marries and raises a family only to have to flee London as the Black Death or plague takes a grip and the grim reaper harvests his dead as far a Eyam in Derbyshire. Eventually the plague is brought under control and eliminated by the great Fire of London which started in Pudding Lane.
Robert Cavendish and his family return to CAVENDISH HOUSE their family home in Newington green London and begin to rebuild their lives. The family fortunes ebb and flow through the Dutch Naval wars and Robert’s descendants eventually become anti-slave traders. They sell their tobacco investments and re-invest in the Hudson Bay fur trade and the birth if Canada as a nation.