Molly & the Captain: 'A gripping mystery' Observer

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A celebrated artist of the Georgian era paints his two young daughters at the family home in Bath. The portrait, known as Molly &the Captain , becomes instantly famous, its fate destined to echo down the centuries, touching many lives. Brother Heywood ( Reginald VelJohnson) is the preacher at Carl and Rosetta's church. It is strongly hinted (and later openly revealed) that he and Rosetta are in a sexual relationship. He officiated at Mike and Molly's wedding, after Molly was too honest with the priest at Mike's Catholic church and the two were forced to look elsewhere. Better known to history as “the unsinkable Molly Brown,” Margaret Tobin Brown is arguably one of the most famous survivors of the RMS Titanic. On that fateful voyage, she helped others into lifeboats before boarding Lifeboat No. 6 herself, then encouraged fellow passengers on it to search for other survivors. Soldiers living at camp with Hays remembered her as a “22-year-old illiterate pregnant woman who smoked and chewed tobacco and swore as well as any of the male soldiers.”

And thus, individual women who fought during the Revolutionary War faded into legend. The myth of Molly Pitcher obscured the reality of how American women fought in the Revolution. Land, Robert H. “Margaret Cochran Corbin” in James, Edward T., Janet Wilson James, Paul S. Boyer, eds. Notable American Women: 1607-1950, A Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1971. Diamant, Lincoln, ed. Revolutionary Women: In the War For American Independence. Westport: Praeger, 1998. Molly & the Captain is Quinn’s most ambitious book to date and decidedly his best, knitting together three quite distinct eras and in doing so alerting us to that which endures: beauty, love and great art.

Yet despite their newfound wealth and the opportunities it afforded them, the marriage between Margaret and J.J. was fraught with disagreements. In 1898, J.J. suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed for a time; while he recovered, his health was never entirely the same and years later, a friend of Margaret’s claimed he experienced “peculiar delusions” and was “constantly pulling the family hearse as chief mourner.” Molly & the Captain is a story about time and art and love. Through the prism of a single painting it examines the mysteries of creativity, and the ambiguous nature of success. What weighs more, loyalty to one's talent or loyalty to one's blood? Does self-sacrifice ennoble the soul or degrade it? And what does it mean to speak of the past when its hold on the present is inescapable?

U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs. “Margaret Cochran Corbin: Revolutionary Heroine.” A ccessed on October 15, 2014. Years after the war, Hays applied for a pension from the state of Pennsylvania as the widow of a war veteran. Significantly, her pension was given “for services rendered.” Why not reserve a copy at your local Hastings or Bexhill library? Or buy a copy online, through The Hive, and support the local bookshop?

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A century later, in Kentish Town, a painter and her grown-up daughters receive news of an ancestor linking them to the long-vanished double portrait of Molly &the Captain . Meanwhile friendship with a young musician stirs unexpected passions and threatens to tear the family apart. In modern-day North London, artist Nell is preparing for an exhibition, a retrospective of her work which should bring long-overdue recognition. Her actress daughter Billie meets a young musician who she is to work with in a film. Horrified by the squat where Robbie lives, Billie suggests her mother take him into her house to replace the lodgers currently moving out of her loft. The consequences impact on all their lives. Victoria Flynn ( Katy Mixon) is Molly's dimwitted but kind, party girl sister who is often high on marijuana. (Policemen Mike and Carl take a "don't tell, we won't ask" attitude about her drug use.) She is employed as a beautician at a funeral home. She likes to have fun and sleeps around, frequently with married men, and her combination of not being particularly bright and being a pothead leads to her often losing or misplacing major items like her car. Harry has an almost obsessive crush on her, and she has on occasion gone on dates with him just to be nice. In Season 3, she starts to realize that Harry is the only man who's ever truly cared for her, and she finally kisses him. In an odd turn of events, he then announces he's gay. As of the end of Season 4, she is in a relationship with Carl, which lasts until the penultimate episode of Season 5 when they have a bitter break up. In the series finale, it's revealed that they're sleeping together, but it is hinted that there is the possibility of it becoming more serious.

Americans don’t need to rely on legends to tell the stories of women in the Revolution, however. There is much stronger evidence that another woman, Margaret Corbin (whom historians think also contributed to the Molly Pitcher legend) manned a canon at the Battle of Fort Washington in New York and lost the use of her left arm in the process. She was sent to the Corps of Invalids at West Point, where she was known in the records as “Captain Molly,” and became the first woman in American history to receive a lifelong pension for military service.

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Left to support herself alone, Corbin struggled financially. After she recovered, Corbin joined the Invalid Regiment at West Point, where she aided the wounded until she was formerly discharged in 1783. Then, on July 6, 1779, the Continental Congress, in recognition of her brave service, awarded her with a lifelong pension equivalent to half that of male combatants. Congress also gave her a suit of clothes to replace the ones ruined during the conflict. A century later, in Kentish Town, a painter and her grown-up daughters receive news of an ancestor linking them to the long-vanished double portrait of "Molly &the Captain". Meanwhile friendship with a young musician stirs unexpected passions and threatens to tear the family apart.

Less than two years later, in July 1889, their daughter, Catherine (known as Helen), was born. By then, the Browns had relocated to 322 West Seventh Street in Leadville, and by all accounts, the pair lived a comfortable, albeit modest, life—until 1893, when J.J. unearthed a new way of retrieving gold from the bottom of the Little Jonny Mine, which was owned by the Ibex Mining Company. Whilst this book could be described as historical fiction I felt the late 20th century sections were stronger and the story here more character than history lead .There is something for everyone in this novel and would be enjoyed by a range of readers from lovers of historical fiction to those who like women’s fiction

The final section in Kentish Town in the 1980s recounts artist Nell and her daughter Billie, the latter a film actress appearing in what sounds like a British version of Wim Wenders’ The Wings of Desire, as they both vie for the affections of a young pop star, Robbie. This is all very enjoyable, by turns comical and poignant. A secret about the titular painting emerges to bind all three sections tightly together. Curtis wrote that “Captain Molly”, seeing her husband fall, “threw down the pail of water, and crying to her dead consort, ‘lie there my darling while I avenge ye,’ grasped the ramrod” to fire the cannon.