Cat O'Nine Tails

The fourth in the Cat Royal sequence which has taken her through a series of Regency adventures from Drury Lane through to slavery, the French Revolution and now seafaring across to the Americas. The format is the trusty same and Cat’s indomitable mould-breaking character has to deal now with the tensions first of being the elegant lady at a Bath Ball, then the press-ganged cabin-boy on His Majesty’s ship Courageous, captained by the Ahab-like Captain Barton. It’s all the result of a dastardly plot of course, which brings her friends Frank, Syd and Pedro along with her. Told in the various acts and scenes of the series (which seemed to be just right for the first book and its setting, though anomalous now, even if part of the fabric) we have a desperate sequence of hardships where only the kindness of friends allows Cat to survive. Driven by a storm onto the American coast, Cat attempts escape and finds herself both helped and then taken in, with no chance of release, by the native Creek Indians. These scenes allow a whole new world to be explored and Cat again to find her way through the complexity of male and female roles and relationships, while asserting her sense of right. It’s a very successful format which still continues to develop the character and understanding of Cat as she gets older and confronts ever more complex codes of class and gender expectations within exciting plots.