Cosmo's Tale

Volume 2 of The Murphy-Arcadelt Chronicles

In Maggie's Tale we found Maggie Murphy and Lucy Wibberley, two maids-of-all-work, linking up with The Salvation Army, when it started work in the town of Erlingford, and of how Lucy became an officer, organising a children's home in Jamaica, while Maggie made a disastrous marriage. The story ended with the death of Maggie in childbirth, and how Lucy resigned her officership in order to foster her four children.

Now we read of how Lucy, in contrast, made a firm, happy, successful marriage with fellow salvationist Cosmo Beresford Arcadelt; of how Cosmo himself left behind a life of privilege when he joined the movement; of how he became headmaster of Greycotes School. We learn too of how life proves disappointing for the first of Maggie's children, Bridie Murphy; and of how the youngest, 'Little Lucy', deals with the anger she feels inside herself following the discovery of the truth behind Maggie's sham of a marriage.

Much of the story unfolds against the background of the First World War; how rich and poor, high and low, were affected by it, and the pandemic known as Spanish 'flu which carried off more victims than the War did.