Books with title The Toy Trumpet

Tod is a shy tortoise who hides away, especially when it’s time to tidy up! But what will happen when Tod is forced out of the comfort of his own shell? This sweet story is written and illustrated by acclaimed author Charlotte Middleton.• Blue/Band 4 books offer longer, repeated patterns with sequential events and integrated literary and natural language.• Children can follow the important stages of the story in the flow chart on pages 14–15.• Text type: A story with a familiar setting• Curriculum links: Citizenship: Animals and us

War threatens the rich, green fields of Wessex in Hardy's historical novel, The Trumpet-Major. The Napoleonic Wars are at their height, and upheaval and uncertainty plague British soil. In the midst of it all the impoverished beauty Anne Garland finds herself at the center of a love quadrangle. She is torn between the persistent and annoying Festus Derryman, her womanizing childhood sweetheart Bob Loveday, and the reliable and thoughtful John Loveday, the eponymous Trumpet-Major. Who will she choose? Hardy's eighth published novel is a gentle and humorous tale about the confusion and conflict of life.

Hardy distrusted the software of nineteenth-century empiricism to history due to the fact he felt it marginalized essential human factors. In The Trumpet Major, the tale of a lady courted by means of three competing suitors all through the Napoleonic wars, he explores the subversive results of everyday human choice and conflicting loyalties on systematized variations of history.

Set against the larger-than-life backdrop of the Napoleonic wars, Hardy's only historical novel tells of the loves and sorrows of ordinary people caught in extraordinary times. When an anticipated invasion brings several regiments to her small rural community, young country maid Anne Garland is courted by three men in uniform: the loyal trumpet-major John Loveday, his sailor-brother Bob, and cowardly Festus Derriman of the yeomanry cavalry. Founded largely on testimony from elders known to Hardy in his childhood, The Trumpet-Major offers a complex weave of historical fact and fiction that explores the subversive effects of ordinary human desires on systematized versions of history.

The Trumpet-Major is a novel by Thomas Hardy published in 1880, and his only historical novel. It concerns the heroine, Anne Garland, being pursued by three suitors: John Loveday, the eponymous trumpet major in a British regiment, honest and loyal; his brother Bob, a flighty sailor; and Festus Derriman, the cowardly nephew of the local squire. Unusually for a Hardy novel, the ending is not entirely tragic; however, there remains an ominous element in the probable fate of one of the main characters. The novel is set in Weymouth during the Napoleonic wars;[1] the town was then anxious about the possibility of invasion by Napoleon.[2] Of the two brothers, John fights with Wellington in the Peninsular War, and Bob serves with Nelson at Trafalgar. The Napoleonic Wars was a setting that Hardy would use again in his play, The Dynasts, and it borrows from the same source material. Edward Neill has called the novel an attempt to repeat the success of his earlier work Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), after the limited success of his intervening works. It’s 1804 and England expects an invasion attempt by Napoleon Bonaparte’s armies. Near Budmouth (Weymouth) Anne Garland lives with her widowed mother in part of a flour mill, next to their landlord and friend miller William Loveday. Thousands of soldiers pitch camp on the downs nearby, ready to meet the invasion. Anne attracts the admiration of two of them, both with local connections: Trumpet Major John Loveday, the decent and thoughtful son of the miller, and Yeomanry officer Festus Derriman, the boastful and aggressive nephew of the skinflint local squire. Anne favours John and loathes Festus, but Festus pesters her, a situation not helped by her mother’s desire for her to marry him on account of his rank and (assumed) wealth. However when her mother changes her view (partly due to the miller’s courting of her) and favours marriage to John, Anne changes her mind and favours Festus, thinking herself too ‘high’ for a miller’s son. Into all this walks Bob Loveday, the miller’s younger son, home from a life in the merchant navy. Anne has a secret passion for him (they were childhood sweethearts), but he has brought home Matilda, a prospective bride whom he met just two weeks earlier in Southampton. John and Matilda recognise each other, and after a private conversation about her past she does a midnight flit. John tells Bob what’s happened, and although Bob understands, he can’t help resenting John’s intervention. Miller Loveday and Mrs Garland marry, John’s regiment moves away (with neither Anne, Bob nor Festus sorry to see him go), and Anne turns her focus to Bob. Anne plays hard to get with Bob, while Festus continues to pester her. She discovers that John sent Matilda away for honourable reasons (she'd previously thought he'd done it to elope with her), and writes him an apologetic letter, which he misinterprets as encouragement. Festus's uncle insists on telling Anne where he's hidden his will and other documents, but she drops the (cryptic) details in a field, where they're found by a mysterious woman. The invasion beacons are lit, although it's a false alarm. In the chaos Festus almost has Anne at his mercy in an isolated cottage. She escapes and is found by John. He finds Festus and beats him, but drunken Festus thinks he's Bob. John thinks he has a chance with Anne but discovers she's with Bob, so to cover his embarrassment he pretends to be in love with an unnamed actress at the Budmouth theatre. Pressed to show Anne and Bob his sweetheart, John buys them tickets for the play, which is also attended by the King and Queen, who are staying in Budmouth. Matilda appears on stage, and John’s shocked expression is mistaken for passion.