Raineland: Paul Westmoreland

In 'Back to the Future' (2), one of an enormously successful trilogy of time travel films directed by Robert Zemeckis, Doc Brown tries to explain to Marty how the time continuum can be disrupted to create an alternative reality. He draws a line on a blackboard to represent time – present (then 1985), past and future – and a line going off at a tangent. "Somewhere in the past", the Doc says, " the timeline skewed into this tangent creating an alternate 1985."
Paul Westmoreland's "Raineland" is a novel that shows the (sometimes) devastating effects of a sudden 'swerve' in a character's life propelling them into a different reality to the one they presently enjoy.
It is also a novel in which several of the main protagonists each has a secret which, they fear, if revealed would have serious consequences for themselves and those they love.
Raineland is a story of several generations of the McHale/ Fleetwood family who have inhabited the old family house, Raineland Lodge for generations. It is bordered by a forest, at the heart of which is the 'Master Oak', a tree some hundreds of years old. Completing the picture is a ruined priory.
The book is not a historical novel, but history has a significant influence on the narrative and the main characters are all aware of how their own histories have been shaped and influenced by the history of the old house.
The author does not provide a lot of interior detail about the house's architecture and its 'brooding influence' as is often the case in historical fiction, but the description of one or two of its main features, for example, the grand central staircase and the drive leading up to the house gives the reader a minimal but suitable sense of its ancestry.
However, the novel is emphatically about the family and their inter-relationships and the old house merely serves as the backdrop to their aspirations and actions.
The author skilfully introduces us to four generations of the McHale/Fleetwood family. As the story progresses, we are reminded periodically of the main family connections- a useful ‘aide memoire’ when dealing with several generations!
Cameron McHale the patriarch of the family married Louisa (Gran Louisa):their children are Warwick, Susan and Helena. Susan marries Charles, although at the time the story begins they have been divorced for some years. Susan and Charles in their turn have three children, Joy, Matthew and James. Tragically, Matthew is killed in a helicopter crash and his son, Matthew (Matty) is living at Raineland following the death of his mother, Stella.
A recurring theme in the book is a reference to the foundation of the family dynasty in the seventeenth century. During the Civil War, Sir Thomas Hayle is discovered hiding in the ruins of the Priory and is shot dead by one of the Parliament soldiers whose commanding officer, Captain Foss marries Lady Alice, Sir Thomas' widow. The Hayle family name survives through the child born to her a few months before her husband is killed. At the same time, the silver from the local parish church, St. Emmanuel's, is also hidden from the enemy but subsequently fails to be discovered again.
The first sections of the narrative centre on the events that follow Joy Fleetwood’s return to England from Africa where she had followed her Uncle Warwick into missionary work. The imminent advance of mercenary troops under Julius Danima, a violent militia leader who had carried out a military coup in that part of Central Africa, sees Uncle Warwick insist on Joy’s taking a place on a light aircraft to flee the approaching danger. The book opens with Joy travelling back to her childhood home after staying in London with her Aunt Helena.
Two relationships dominate the story. Firstly, Joy rekindles her passion for Tim Wenlock, owner of the neighbouring Valley Head Farm, her first love from her teenage years whom she abandons for the mission field and secondly, that of Tim and his wife Anne-Marie who is about to give birth to their first child.
The story develops and the narrative gathers pace as Tim, in his turn, abandons the affair with Joy when his conscience dictates that he concentrate on looking after his wife and his new daughter, Eleanor.
We learn, eventually what happened to the missing silver and discover that others of the main characters have secrets of their own which impinge upon their relations with other family members. The author neatly, and with a pleasing symmetry, draws the threads of his tale together in a denouement which, satisfyingly, introduces us to Matty and Eleanor, the youngest generation of the two central families in the story and returns us to the seventeenth century and an unexpected ‘twist’.     
As Raineland Forest casts its spell on us and draws us, with Joy and Tim into the environs of the old lodge, we are eager to know more about the lives of the Fleetwood and Wenlock families and we are not disappointed.
The author seems to identify most with the female characters in the novel who are strongly drawn whilst the male characters are less so – with the possible exception of Tim Wenlock. 
Perhaps the one curious omission in the book is the lack of any residual or overt tension between those who live outside the boundaries of the Raineland estate and those living in the old house. Given the difference in status between the families, the obvious wealth the Lodge represents and its almost mystical history, was there no time when jealousy of those 'up at the House' rears its head? The author is at pains to stress, however, the long ties of friendship and respect between John and Louise Wickham, their daughter Sandra and the Fleetwoods given the generosity the former have received at the hands of the seigneurial family. 
Paul Westmoreland has written a long and satisfying novel in which his gift for story telling is to the forefront. One is drawn into the story by the skilful way in which he depicts the principal characters and develops their family relationships, vividly describing their hopes, fears and aspirations in a way that corresponds with the reality of a family life in which we can all recognise glimpses and reflections of our own experience. 
"The boughs, without becoming detached from the trunk, grow away from it." So wrote Victor Hugo in 'Les Miserables'. Raineland well illustrates the different and conflicting paths family relationships can take and the 'alternate reality' a swerve in the timeline can effect.