Two of the key characters of the book are Grandfather Trundle, an old Shakesperean actor (like Barbara Willard's father) who "spoke in a low and thrilling voice, rich with quotation" and Rafe, a growing boy caught between family loyalty and two dreams for his future. The relationship between the two is brilliantly done and they are both fascinating. Grandfather Trundle lives in perpetual hope for the return of the king and a chance to become a player again, a trade banned as immoral in puritan England. He lives both in the past and future but rarely in the present, he keenly feels the time lost and all the parts he will never be the right age for again. He is a brilliant study in passion and the stories we tell ourselves to keep our hopes up and raises questions as to how much we deceive ourselves when we do this. In an amazing scence, at a particularly low ebb, Rafe is unable to tell if his grandfather is talking as himself or as Lear. Rafe is also fascinating, torn between genuine love for what his grandfather teaches him and a yearning for a security and sense of place that is alien to that travelling life. This is mixed with a strong loyalty to his Grandfather and a fear of disapointing him for a delightfully complex character rich in contradiction.

I also really enjoyed thinking about the effect of the ban on acting and reading the descriptions of what made an actor. Particularly interesting was thinking about different ages needed for different characters, grandfather and his friends often worry at the lack of actors to play women as the boys grow older. This would be great to use with a year 6 class and to tie into some work on Shakespeare. I would love to see the Royal Shakespeare Company release a small imprint of children's books around the theatre, perhaps including Geoffrey Trease's brilliant historical fiction around the theatre.

The women are given much smaller parts but Gilia (Rafe's older sister) in particular faces her own dilemmas, again deciding between love and convenience. Her relationship with Rafe really develops later in the book as they take on more and more responsibility. An undercurrent to the book is the lack of agency society has given the women, particularly embodied in the children's mother who has been swept about by events since loosing her husband whose return she waits for, in parallel to Grandfather's wait for the return of the king. Despite this lack of agency Gilia and another later character are both presented as strong characters struggling for a say in their destiny within a constraining system.