The Private Misadventures of Nell Nobody

The year is 1793, and France has declared war on Britain. Escaping a desperate situation, Eleanor Buccleuch (‘Nell’), a young Englishwoman, dons waistcoat and breeches. Calling herself ‘Ned Buckley’, she enlists in the British army, where she hopes no one will think to look for her. Traumatised and grieving her infant son, she disappears amongst the soldiers of the 69th Regiment of Foot, sent to the Mediterranean where the British hope to take the island of Corsica from the French. After the successful occupation of St Fiorenzo, Ned’s superiors assign him to work with a zealous naval captain by the name of Horatio Nelson, who is spearheading the campaign against Bastia. Ned is to be his ‘liaison’ to the army, which Ned is fairly sure means ‘dispatch runner.’ Recognising Ned’s uncertainty, Nelson makes a point of bolstering his confidence. Ned has one close friend in the army, another rifleman named Jack Mackay. Ned and Jack share a tent with the four other men in their six-man mess, and late one night during the siege of Bastia, an incident occurs that sets off Ned’s post-trauma response, threatening his stability and his disguise.