Novelist visits Matlock museum to talk Peak District miners in the civil war

Author Charles Cordell will be at the venue on South Parade on Tuesday, October 4, for a talk on the role of the Peak District freeminers as conflict raged in the mid-17th century.

He will be accompanied by a group of civil war re-enactors from the King’s Lifeguard of Foote – local members of the Sealed Knot, Europe’s largest living history organisation.

Charles said: “This story is not based on a single hero. It does not take sides. Its voices, ordinary men and women, face each other in the chaos of Britain in civil war.”

Some 400 miners joined the military unit which would become today’s Grenadier Guards – the regiment which recently provided pallbearers to the Queen’s funeral – but others sided with Parliament or became part of the radical democratic Leveller movement.

It is a story Charles knows well from research linked to his debut novel God’s Vindictive Wrath, as one of the key characters is a freeminer from Castleton.

He said: “Hardship, inequality, injustice, scar each character. Each faces the brutal reality and human emotions of war, the bloodiest in British history – a war fought in our towns, villages and fields, a war that forged the United Kingdom and many political divisions that persist today.”

God’s Vindictive Wrath, published by Myrmidon in July, is set in 1642, the beginning of a period which swirled with strong currents of tribalism, extremism and disputes akin to the ‘culture wars’ which demark current social faultlines.

It has received high praise from a range of literary, military and living history experts including best-selling historical fiction writer Ben Kane.

A career soldier and diplomat on the ground in the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa, Charles writing is informed by experience of humanity at its best, worst and its most desperate.

A second novel in the planned Divided Kingdom series will be out in 2023, continuing themes from the fraying margins of civilisation and the great political and religious crises of the day.

For more information on Charles’ works, go to www.charlescordell.com.

The talk begins at 7pm. Tickets £6 on the door or in advance from the museum. See facebook.com/PeakMines for updates.

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