You can not consider yourself a proper bookworm unless you have, at one point, got totally lost in a series. So, if you are looking for your next historical fiction series then why not check out Shire's Union Trilogy by Richard Buxton. It is set during the American Civil War and one of the books has been shortlisted for Rubery International Book Award.

Scroll down to find out more!

Whirligig (Book 1)

Shire leaves his home and his life in Victorian England for the sake of a childhood promise, a promise that pulls him into the bleeding heart of the American Civil War. Lost in the bloody battlefields of the West, he discovers a second home for his loyalty.

Clara believes she has escaped from a predictable future of obligation and privilege, but her new life in the Appalachian Hills of Tennessee is decaying around her. In the mansion of Comrie, long hidden secrets are being slowly exhumed by a war that creeps ever closer.

The Shire’s Union trilogy is at once an outsider’s odyssey through the battle for Tennessee, a touching story of impossible love, and a portrait of America at war with itself. Self-interest and conflict, betrayal and passion, all fuse into a fateful climax.

Written by award-winning author Richard Buxton, the Shire’s Union trilogy begins with Whirligig, is continued in The Copper Road, and concludes with Tigers in Blue.

The Copper Road (Book #2)

Shire is far, far from home, his old life in Victorian England a fading memory. He’s battled through war-torn America to keep a cherished promise to his childhood companion. Now she’s pushing him away, while the war won’t let him go. Fighting for the Union, Shire must survive the brutal campaign for Atlanta and try to imagine a future without her.

Clara is free from her husband but not from his ghost. After a violent end to an abusive marriage, she struggles to keep her home in the Tennessee hills as the war steals away its treasures and its people.

Tod, a captured Rebel, escapes in Pennsylvania. His encounters on the long road back to his regiment cast the Civil War in a different light. He begins to question his will to fight. Three young lives become wrapped in the Rebels’ desperate need for copper. Friendships, loyalty and love will be tested beyond breaking point. Shire has new promises to keep.

The Copper Road is the second novel from award winning writer Richard Buxton. Book one of Shire’s Union, Whirligig, was shortlisted for the Rubery International Book Award.

Tigers in Blue (Book #3)

Two brutal years in America’s civil war have made a veteran of Shire; his younger English self buried beneath scars and unwanted memories. Unable to help, he watches as Tuck – his Union brother-in-arms – retreats from reality. Both the war and Shire’s heart relentlessly circle him back to Clara, his childhood love. He needs to believe they can share a life beyond the war.

Clara’s home is in ashes. Shire has left her once again to rejoin the fighting further south. She moves west in search of a new start and a past love.

Captain Tod Carter rides with the Confederate Army. He’s obliged to watch over a young lieutenant, fresh to the war and with too many questions; questions that loom large as the army crosses into Tennessee, marching ever closer to Tod’s family.

The western war sweeps towards its climax. The Rebels must risk all in one final campaign. Armies, lives and loves collide to decide who will find their home, and who will find a shallow grave.

Doesn't this series sound amazing?! If like me, you are in the UK then you can purchase your copy of the series on Amazon UK. If you live across the pond then head over to Amazon US

Richard Buxton

Richard lives with his family in the South Downs, Sussex, England. He completed an MA in Creative Writing at Chichester University in 2014. He has an abiding relationship with America, having studied at Syracuse University, New York State, in the late eighties. He travels extensively for research, especially in Tennessee, Georgia and Ohio, and is rarely happier than when setting off from a motel to spend the day wandering a battlefield or imagining the past close beside the churning wheel of a paddle steamer.

Richard’s short stories have won the Exeter Story Prize, the Bedford International Writing Competition and the Nivalis Short Story Award. His first novel, Whirligig (2017) was shortlisted for the Rubery International Book Award. It was followed by The Copper Road (2020) and the Shire’s Union trilogy was completed by Tigers in Blue (2023).

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