Vachell, Horace Annesley — John Charity

Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd nd c 1905 reprint. Cloth, VG, 288pp, spine faded & lettering dulled, a solid reading copy. Historical fiction set in California in the late 1830s. Horace Annesley Vachell [ 1861 - 1955 ] prolific English writer of novels. In 1882 he moved to California & spent 18 years there. When it was suggested he write an historical novel, he read over 300 books on old California, but later said - 'Any historical novel is trash unless the author has the leisure and opportunity to soak himself in his chosen period. I had such leisure and I was bored to tears verifying fiction masquerading as fact'.