Orphans of the Storm: Celia Imrie

Product Information

A deeply poignant and heart wrenching tale based, not only on real life events but real people, too—albeit fictional versions. Though one of the lookouts spotted the iceberg and alerted the officer on duty, the ship was too large to turn and fully avoid the crash. From internationally bestselling author and celebrated actress Celia Imrie, an epic novel set against the backdrop of the sinking of the Titanic. Though the ship sank (and many of us still can’t get over it) and the boys’ father perished in the sinking (the elder Michel was the only passenger recovered with a weapon in his pocket), the boys experienced a happier ending than most of the survivors. I did not remember that the the "Orphans of the Storm" had a link to the Titanic, even though there is a picture of the shiip on the cover.

Orphans of the Storm: : Celia Imrie: Bloomsbury Publishing

The second is Michael himself, a Hungarian born dressmaker who evades the authorities in several ways. Orphans of the Storm was an enjoyable read based on the true story of two families affected by the Titanic disaster. Nevertheless, Imrie does make clear the shades of love from the early passion to the darker, more painful element.I’ve read Celia Imrie’ s books before and enjoyed them so, I was pleased to see she’d written another one but, this one disappointed me somewhat. However, I was disappointed tha the Titanic didn't make an appearance until almost the halfway point of the book. But while awaiting the judges' decision on the custody of their two small boys, Michael receives news that changes everything. As Marcela pursues divorce, bailiffs threaten Michel with property confiscation since Michel has driven the tailoring business into financial ruin. I suspect that this was an inkling of an idea, or a story she had heard (she is the descendant of a Titanic survivor so it may have been a family tale) which captured her imagination – the more she looked into it the more fascinated she became until it just had to be written.

Orphans of the Storm by Celia Imrie | Waterstones

Set aboard the fateful 1912 voyage of RMS Titanic, Imrie’s richly atmospheric period novel entwines the destinies of a group of sharply drawn characters with humanity, compassion and page-turning aplomb. I found Margaret's story a bit slow, but I think it was because of my level of excitement about the part onboard the ship. Despite the Titanic’s universality as well as its role in the Navratil brothers’ story, the ocean liner actually receives little attention in Imrie’s novel. She said while Marcella had been painted as 'a nightmare', divorce documents revealed Michael was controlling and narcassistic. This might be the reason why Orphans of the Storm manages to do what so many historical fiction don't manage, have the narrative shine through the spectre of the disaster of Titanic.Swinging back and forth between these two and then back around to Marcella, occasionally dipping back and forth in time. I didn’t particularly care about the adult characters and I felt that it took quite some time for the story to get anywhere.