He was fascinated by Napoleonic times and became intrigued by the tale of two St. Ives cousins who went to fight in the Napoleonic Wars and made an incredible 1200 mile walk to freedom after ten years as prisoners of war. The reports and diaries of John Tregerthen Short and James Williams are recounted in Series I of these volumes (Q’s Historical Legacy VI - Tales of Ardevora - I - Cornish Prisoners of War).

In this volume, Q recounts the lives and experiences of Devon residents who were forced to accommodate French prisoners of war and the daily routine and behaviour of the prisoners, many of whom were used to build Dartmoor prison. Although he places the story in the fictional town of Axcester, the setting is clearly Wincanton which had a large contingent of French prisoners of war imposed on the residents.

This volume contains an annotated edition of The Westcotes, a tale of daily life in Devon and Somerset in the times of the Napoleonic Wars and of potential romance between a prisoner and a wealthy gentlewoman as well as extracts of books written about prisoners of war and a summary of the actual lives of the parole towns’ prisoners of war in towns and villages in Devon and Cornwall as well as a brief history of Dartmoor Prison which was constructed to accommodate thousands of French prisoners and, of course, a history of Wincanton in the times of the Napoleonic Wars.

This volume concludes with the tale of one escapee, Louis Vanhille, who after his escape travelled a complicated route back and forth across England, perhaps to drum up support for a mass uprising of the detained men.

Typical of entertaining, late Victorian, historical and romantic fiction it is clear that the background to Q's tale, ‘The Westcotes’ is historically accurate and significantly adds value to the novel. The historical background is extremely accurate, breathing life into events of over two hundred years ago.