Acquired Book By: I was invited to join the Head of Zeus blog tour for the Time Shift Historical Drama “The Boy with Blue Trousers” which I felt an immediate connection too. I was overjoyed to have this opportunity to read this novel as there was something rather wickedly interesting about the premise and how it felt it was going to be told by the author. I haven’t been hosting for this publisher for very long and each blog tour I am able to host I feel blessed as I love celebrating authors from the UK and the stories they are telling through the different genres Head of Zeus is publishing which encourages my bookish and readerly wanderings into Crime Dramas, Historical Fiction and Historical Sagas as well as other genres I’ve keenly become intrigued by over the years as I’ve been blogging.
I received a complimentary copy of “The Boy with Blue Trousers” direct from the publisher Head of Zeus in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
How I came to be reading “The Boy with Blue Trousers”:
The story sounds convictingly emotional – especially as it has a duality perspective as two women try to change their stars and reclaim their lives. I also liked the multi-cultural aspects of it as well. I do not oft get to read a novel set in Australia and I love the cultural heritage and diverse population of the country whilst I enjoy finding Historical set in a country I’ve loved having friends from over the years as I’ve had the chance to get to know a bit about Australia in the process of our friendships.
This will mark my first Historical Time Shift read from a Head of Zeus novelist whilst at the same time it is the first time I’ve had the pleasure of reading and discovering the Historical styling of Carol Jones. I love disappearing into the historical past on quite the regular basis – this one felt alive in a different kind of place set during a portion of history I haven’t previously read and happily gave me an entry point into a new cornerstone of History to explore.
Whenever this happens it’s a bookish celebration as I love *Historical Fiction!* for giving me a time traveller’s glimpse into the past; especially as the writers themselves are not just deepening the experience we have within their stories through research but they are giving us compellingly realistic characters to tuck close to in order to better understand their section of ‘history’.
Happily part of my showcase for this beautiful blog tour is being able to ask a few pertinent questions on behalf of the story to coincide with my featured review today. I’m going to be sharing the first three questions ahead of my review and you can happily read the conclusion of our conversation after I share my ruminative thoughts on behalf of The Boy with Blue Trousers. I am truly blessed and thankful to Ms Tavella for scheduling this Q&A.
For my regular readers, visitors & followers alike – you’ll already know how much I appreciate interviewing the authors I am reading and reviewing here on Jorie Loves A Story. If this is a first time visit via this blog tour to my blog – you’ll quickly see how much I love discussing Historical Fiction and the elements of what make this particular story rather uniquely nuanced in the genre I am dearly passionate about reading!
A key part of your novel is about a woman who is trying to escape her circumstances by disguising herself as a ‘boy in blue trousers’ – how did you conceive of the disguise and how did hiding her gender have a greater effect on her, outside of attempting to keep her safe?
Jones responds: There is a long tradition in Chinese literature of female characters who disguise themselves as men. The story of Mulan is well known outside of China courtesy of Disney, but there are many other examples in plays, stories and opera.
In creating the character of Little Cat I was borrowing from a longstanding literary tradition. Besides, if I wanted to write an authentic story about a Chinese woman joining the rush for gold in Australia in the mid-nineteenth century, the only feasible way for her to arrive was dressed as a boy.
At least 16,000 Chinese immigrants landed on the shores of Robe, South Australia in 1856 and 1857 to make the trek to the goldfields, and only one was a woman. Chinese women rarely left China at this time. The disguise allowed her to make the journey, it helped keep her safe, but it also allowed her a greater freedom. And as the novel progresses, she begins to learn that with that greater freedom also comes greater responsibility. With more choice, she has more room for error. I think she also begins to appreciate the more feminine aspects of her character that she previously regretted.
Both Little Cat and Violet are women who are trying to re-direct their lives on their own terms – how important was it to focus on their determined spirit to not allow circumstances to be a determining factor in the path their future would hold?
Jones responds: Oh, it was essential. I think everybody faces limitations placed upon them by family and society, but both Little Cat and Violet have been totally hemmed in by their circumstances. Yet both characters are determined not to let those circumstances define them or dictate their lives, and consequently they get themselves into a great deal of trouble.
Australia, or New Gold Mountain as the Chinese miners called it, represents an opportunity for both to remake their lives. And although they choose very different methods, neither woman will let little things like gossip, poverty, hardship or danger, stop them.
Of all the characters within this novel – who was the most challenging to bring forward into the scope of where you wanted readers to emotionally feel conflicted by their presence?
Jones responds: I anticipate that readers will feel conflicted, and indeed I intend them to feel conflicted about two characters. Violet, although quite charming at times, is also a very self-centred woman who is often careless of others. I know that some readers will dislike her, but I hope they will also appreciate that her actions are a survival mechanism at a time when a single woman, especially one from the ‘genteel’ classes, had few options for supporting herself. I also hope that they will admire her indomitable spirit in not accepting her society’s strictures about how a woman should behave.
Young Wu is the other character, who I am fairly sure will be disliked initially, as he espouses opinions that are probably an anathema to many readers, opinions that are a product of the era and his society. However, as the story progresses I think the reader’s view of him might change. I can’t say more without spoilers!
Notation on Cover Art: The art of embroidery has a reason of being highlighted on the cover for this novel and when you hold this UK edition up close and personal you get to see the finer details of how this art form was used in the design for the cover. I personally loved the choices the publisher made with designing this cover as it eluded towards key passages, sequences and scenes within the novel but without voicing to whom they belonged or why it was important to reference them. It is rather stunning seeing the hues combine in person and to see dimensionally how this fits into the story itself.
The Boy with Blue Trousers
by Carol Jones
Source: Direct from Publisher
On the goldfields of 19th Century Australia, two very different girls are trying to escape their past.
English governess Violet Hartley has fled from England after a scandalous liaison. Now she is angling for a rich husband and a new life. Little Cat is fleeing from her home in Southern China after killing the powerful old man who tried to abuse her. Disguised as a boy, she joins the huge Chinese workforce on the goldfields of Victoria. But the son of the murdered man is on her trail, intent on vengeance. Violet Hartley becomes first suspicious, then jealous of the delicate looking Chinese boy. Love, sexual desire, violence and financial ambition entwine in this mesmerising saga.
Places to find the book:
Published by Head of Zeus
Format: UK Edition Paperback
Published By: Head of Zeus (@HoZ_Books)
Converse via: #TheBoyWithBlueTrousers, #HistNov or #HistFic
Available Formats: Hardcover, Trade Paperback, Audiobook & Ebook
Read this in-depth interview with Carol Jones about her novel
About Carol Jones
Born in Brisbane, Australia, Carol Jones taught English and Drama at secondary schools before working as an editor of children’s magazines. She is the author of several young adult novels as well as children’s non-fiction.
My Review of the boy with blue trousers:
A rather sombering beginning to The Boy with Blue Trousers – as you feel eclipsed by the dramatic revelation within the scope of the prologue (although it isn’t titled as such) – one person has remorse and regret; the other appears to be unconscious. You question how they are in this medicament and what has caused the events that led-in to this scene to begin the novel and place us into where the cross-sections of the time shifting shall begin to cross-knit the story. If anything – this kind of start eludes to more questions than it provides answers and there is a certain kind of intrigue which stems from that kind of auspicious beginning.
As we shift into the life of Little Cat, we find a girl who has been raised next to her twin brother who felt they were equal rather than segregated through their different genders – as that is how the world viewed them and how he viewed his sister. To him, Little Cat represented a stiff problem – she was not willingly able to bend to the will of what was expected of women in her position, as he had more warrior in her than she had dutiful wife and obedient daughter. Her brother saw the world in black and white details; he saw the order of how traditionally everything was set before them – how he was expected to work whilst she was expected to do chores and focus on settling into marriage. The two of them couldn’t be further apart if you tried to place them on opposite sides of the river! Little Cat was a cunning girl but even she struggled to sort out how to allow the will of her independence to fight through the traditionalism of her home.
She has the kind of life she doesn’t want and never feels the need to yield to the demands of what is expected of her as she would rather engage in a face-off with kung fu than to admit gender inequality was a keen issue in her life. You saw this in how she engaged with her peers and how other boys her age viewed her as someone to either a) control or b) tame. She was not meant to be placed in a box and yet, Jones showed how those round her would much prefer she were boxed because it would restore the order in their lives they felt she was erasing by being ‘a step outside her traditional role’ as a daughter with preset obligations to her family.
Viewing her life from the 21st Century and re-peering into it through a lens of where we are today with social justice and social reform – you can see how women were critically pegged into roles they did not chose for themselves whilst they also were against the ruling class (of men) who would never view them with the dignity they would deserve. It is through how she expresses herself and how she has this inherent fighting spirit you see how women had to strive harder to exert their own rights in moments of history where their rights were left unsaid, unheard and disregarded as nothing more than idle rumblings of ungenerous girls who fought their role within their own societies. It would take more centuries forward in time for women to organise and to realise their potential outside those confines of constriction and it gave more measure of that worthy cause when you re-examine where we were as women during the lifespan of Little Cat.
As we re-shift into Violet’s life in Southern Australia as Little Cat is residing in China – we see a plucky young woman of mid-twenties age working as a children’s governess in a region not known for sophistication nor convenience. You had to chuckle really – she was in the middle of nowhere and yet, if you asked her about it directly, she’d find a way to chat it up towards the positive. Especially considering the alternatives of what might have been true of her life back in England – as she definitely had the nature of a woman who wanted to make it in the world, irregardless of the odds against her and with a firmer belief if you chase after opportunity it shall reward your efforts!
Little Cat and her friends in the girls’ house pointedly bridge us into the emotional anguish of being an unwed singleton during the 19th Century in China. I hadn’t heard of this tradition previously reading stories set here during this century but it didn’t surprise me either. Not if you consider there were mail-order brides in the Wild West of America and arranged marriages have been generationally traditionalised in many cultures and countries world-wide for centuries on end. It would seem fitting then that Little Cat and her friends would feel a push-back to this cultural phenom of having their spouses picked for them and without any regard of their own feelings – it also showed how they were sequestered to a secured house and were not meant to live singularly ahead of marriage. I found that most interesting as it brokered another non-exit for them to conceive of a path outside of this traditional arc of maturity.
Even though she was employed, you could tell by how Jones was depositing us into her life, Violet held no more freedom of choice in her own future than Little Cat. If anything, they both had people round them whom might even wish them harm – those were secondary observations as Jones only loosely gave us the intrigue of finding people who might first consider harming the girls’ than providing a better solution of having them relocate elsewhere or tackle a different profession. The haunting bit of course is how their lives started to run parallel towards each other.
Little Cat, her brothers and her best friend were caught in a current of ill-fated circumstances – the passages involving their efforts to save one of themselves was guttingly realistic and it was the way in which Jones presented the desolate choice it took one of them to embrace to even bring that scene to such jarring reality was impressive enough – yet, she took it even further by psychologically exploring what motivated the action itself and what was leading into the despair of why one of Little Cat’s friends was not as strong as Little Cat herself. This brought back the difficulties of being a girl and of having little choice over your own future – it showed how desperate these girls’ could become and how incredible they could become blessed by having friends’ who not only cared for them but would consider a sacrifice higher in cost than the initial act of self-harm. They were a family and a found family at that as they might not be able to control their fates but they could control what they could do with the hours they had before those choices were shared.
When Little Cat’s circumstances plight her against the village itself – I found an unexpected compassionate reaction in her brother – as he had always seemed to hold things against her until this moment where you’d hoped he’d react as a brother might and finding that he had was a beautiful scene shared between them. They might have their differences and they might be living in a world where freedom was more fantasy than reality but with each other they held a sense of duty to uphold their self-preservation and to battle against the evils of the world. It was an interesting segue how they choose to fight and take flight after what befell Little Cat.
Counter to this, when Wu finds out the truth of what happened his reaction was far more predictable because he didn’t have his own voice. He was burdened by his sense of obligation and duty to his family – a generational constraint against his soul and with a belief system of loyalty that would be hard to break against the teachings of his family – I found his situation even harder than Little Cat’s because his actions were slowly evolving out of his own control and were guided more by his family’s sense of identity and reactive violence than of an logical response.
All of this sets into motion a flight of disappearances and a turning tide of situations – Little Cat has to choose how to live without revealling a secret which gravelly would affect her present whilst the others involved were self-vowed to maintain that secret if they didn’t want to affect their own fated path. It was interesting how it all evolved – how we first were learning of the traditions of how to gather silk from silkworms (a process I learnt as a beginning knitter to where I wasn’t sure I could ever use the fibre due to the process of extraction!) and how important bullock drivers were to Australia’s gold country. The transitions between how we first arrived in Violet and Little Cat’s lives to where they start to intersect with each other in Australia is quite interesting as it shows that no matter how far you try to outrun your past, you still have to a reckoning of truth to sort through before you can truly be free of it.
Small fly in the ointment:
I was not quite prepared for what happens to Little Cat – though at first, I had a feeling this might take this course within the story-line as violence against women is rife within historical dramas and especially during certain stories of Historical Fiction which tap into the hard fought freedom women attempted to secure for themselves. What made it a bit easier to transition through this sequence though is how Jones pivoted the scene from the violent act to the thoughts of Little Cat – of how we focused more on how Little Cat chose to react than what was being done against her person. It is still difficult to read but Jones honoured the century in which it happened by showing how easily it would be to take a young woman off-guard like Little Cat and place them in a situation that had little recourse afterwards than what Little Cat elected to do.
Despite all of this – I could have had this even more glossed over a bit as these scenes are the hardest to read and to get through as a reader. They sometimes take you by surprise and I know this one did for me. If you have a sensitive heart as you read and are finding domestic violence against women the hardest to digest, due read this with caution. Although blessedly it was not as jarring and violently graphic as a recent novel had been written – which I was unable to finish as that one was on a different level of visual trigger points.
on the historical time shift narrative styling of carol jones:
Jones created a port of entry into Little Cat’s life which allows us the ability to see the issues she’s facing and the burdens of being the unwanted twin, the less desired gender within a sibling group and how expectations differed between men and women. Whereas she shifted us through Violet’s timeline where a woman could choose a different route of lifestyle if she were willing to answer adverts, take up residence in far-off countries from whence they were bourne and strike out on an adventure they would surely never forget – such as how Violet settled into Australia as a governess. It was an interesting juxtaposition because both women were not quite where they wanted to be and were equally fierce in believing they could change their path.
I did end up agreeing with Ms Jones’ assessment of Wu – he was classically representing the conditions and views against women of his generation rather than simply being a cad of a character to see in the background of Little Cat’s life. Not every character in a historical drama like this one is going to be your favourite discovery because of the disagreeable nature they might exhume about themselves and/or they might simply be disfavour for other reasons as well. In this instance, he is a hard character to warm towards due to his nature and the ways in which he elected to articulate himself. The hardest part I felt and the more challenging of his character to portray was his sense of honour, duty and vengeance of which he had been taught and trained.
She also inserted key cultural and religious beliefs of her characters – ebbing us close to the mystical elements you’d expect in a Chinese Historical novel whilst she also owned to the era in which her story is playing out. She took concern to show how women were not viewed as equals but they weren’t completely dismissed either – as she showed the transitions of Violet’s own path towards working with the Chinese who were immigrating to the same area of Australia she had herself to escape her own past. All of them came here to seek a better life and an attempt to out chase memories they did not wish to revisit.
In many ways it is a hard novel to read because you have moments of stilling narrative where you can only observe what is happening because of the starkly difficult moments being shared – others are emotionally convicting due to what is evolving through her characters’ lives. It is like seeing a reel of how these women fought to reshape their lives in an unforgiving and in-tamable landscape whilst for most of the story you’re afeared of what might get revealled and how secrets could revisit them in ways they might not be fully prepared to handle.
And, now the conclusion of my Q&A with Ms Jones on behalf of The Boy with Blue Trousers:
As portions of your novel are rooted in your family’s living histories, how have you enjoyed using those stories as a jumping point towards crafting the background of the story? What are your favourite discoveries in the research behind “The Boy with Blue Trousers”?
Jones responds: There is a handsome Welsh bullock driver in my novel. When I was crafting this character the bullocky idea suddenly leapt out me because one of my grandfathers worked for a time as a bullocky in southern Queensland during the 1920s. (Despite my family name he wasn’t Welsh; his ancestry was Irish. Although I do have a Welsh ancestor.)
This idea was fun for me but it also worked well with the history of the Chinese trek for gold, as large groups of Chinese miners were often guided overland by the bullockies who carted supplies and produce between the port and the settlements. And of course, my husband’s grandparents were born in southern China and we have travelled there to visit his ancestral village (which is now a city of 500,000 people!).
So it was fun using photographs of buildings we had explored as references for the novel and I even included a journey by raft in the book, inspired by a trip we took downriver on a bamboo raft. Luckily we had an experienced boatman to pole our raft!
I suspect my favourite research discoveries might not be very interesting to other people as I do get caught up in the detail. Through the State Library of South Australia I accessed various diaries and journals that very kind volunteers have transcribed. Some of the shipboard diaries and early settler diaries are full of little incidents and details that I found fascinating. I particularly enjoyed the observations of one of the young troopers posted to Robe. He mentions the Chinese immigrants who have begun arriving and talks about the shipwrecks that occurred at that time. And they all seem to talk about the weather! I was also excited to access from the SLSA an excerpt from the captain’s log of the Phaeton, which described its wrecking.
And of course, nothing beats going on location and experiencing the natural and built environments I am writing about, so I spent some time visiting the region around Robe and retracing the Chinese miners’ trek to the goldfields.
When you’re not researching and writing your stories what uplifts your spirit the most?
Jones responds: Travel, family and friends. Travel, because I love learning about the world and its people, but also because it’s a never-ending source of ideas. Family and friends because without them what is it all for?
I want to thank Ms Jones for her beautiful takeaways about The Boy with Blue Trousers as she gave keen insight into the emotional and historical depths she etched into her novel whilst grounding it a bit in her own family’s lore and living histories.
I love when writers find a way to anchour a story they’ve written in the historical past to personal data, living historical stories of their own family & other fascinating tidbits of insight only they can lend to a story – as it makes History feel more alive somehow – more personable and more intimately real. I truly am thankful to have been included on this blog tour and hope to work with Ms Tavella again in the New Year! Such a delight of joy all the way round!
A new sound discovered whilst #amreading The Boy with Blue Trousers:
As I was entreating into this historical narrative I queued a new Playlist via #Spotify in order to have a textural soundscape to accompany my literary journey – Contemporary Chinese Classical – fit the mood and atmosphere of the novel quite expertly. It had hauntingly lyrical prose etched into the classical arches of sound whilst it gave buoyancy to the pacing Ms Jones knitted into her novel. I love how the soundscape and the novel blended in brilliantly together and became its own song of joy.
This blog Tour is courtesy of:
head of Zeus
Sharing my tour stop today are the following book bloggers & bookstagrammers:
Read Along With Sue | sissireads (#bookstagram)
Whilst these lovely bookish readers preceded our stop:
What Cathy Read Next | paperheartsink (#bookstagram)
I happily spied a bookish friend on the blog tour as well:
Frankie @ Chicks, Rogues & Scandels
(as we share an affinity for similar authors, genres & publishers!)
Be sure to visit the Twitter feeds for Head of Zeus
to find the rest of the bloggers taking part on this lovely blog tour!
Reading this novel counted towards some of my 2019 reading challenges:
{SOURCES: Book cover for “The Boy with Blue Trousers”, book synopsis, author photograph of Carol Jones, author biography and the blog tour banners were all provided by Head of Zeus and used with permission. Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. 2019 New Release Challenge created by mylimabeandesigns.com for unconventionalbookworms.com and is used with permission. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Book Review Banner using Unsplash.com (Creative Commons Zero) Photography by Frank McKenna; 2019 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge banner and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2019.
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via @HoZ_Books by Carol Jones"A story about two women with fierce beliefs in how they could change their destiny & reset their own paths."
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
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