Chalkhill Blue

Chalkhill Blue is an award-winning novel of the First World War, and of so much else besides.



A grand romance in the English narrative tradition, it spans more than two decades, from the Edwardian heyday through the cataclysm of the ‘war to end wars' to the uncertain new world of the nineteen twenties. As a study of deception and self-deception, it traces the lives of two women who have dared to flout the rules of their society, and those of the men who love them; the double strands of a remarkable love story, which concludes with a heart-stopping double-twist that makes it literally unforgettable.

But far more than a romance, this is also a descriptive novel of tremendous scope, transporting the reader from the parched drove-trails of Queensland to the horse-drawn congestion of Edwardian London; from the snow-capped cordilleras of the Andes to a truly astonishing underground city deep in the chalk of Artois. The timeless downland landscapes of Sussex and the little blue butterfly that haunts them are horrifyingly contrasted with the man-made desolation of their notorious counterparts across the Channel at Arras and on the Somme.



Based on a true story, Chalkhill Blue is compulsory reading for anyone with a taste for the authentic and the unusual.

About the Author

Richard Masefield comes from a family of writers – John Masefield was his cousin – and with a love of animals and the outdoors he decided at a young age that he would farm and write, if necessary both at once.

It took years of hard work before Richard could realise his dream and in fact his first published novel was written while milking his herd of Friesians – fulfilling his early decision to do both at once if necessary.

He still lives on his farm in Sussex, with his wife Lee and together they spend as much time as possible with their large family of children and grandchildren.