unsuitable wife for an ambitious doctor. However, despite his family's disapproval, Robert marries Margaret as soon as he is financially independent. Drama comes to Herringsby when a riding-officer (a customs official) is found murdered. A regiment descends on the village with the intention of routing the smugglers. One of the officers of the regiment is John Pargeter, who had left London after the arrest. He makes peace with his sister and father. Mr. Pargeter plans to open a new bookshop and start a school, now believing that only through literacy and education can his dreams be realized. Characters Margaret Pargeter (sometimes called Meg), a 17-year-old girl, a book-lover John Pargeter, her older brother, later an officer in the army Mr. Pargeter, their elderly father, an idealistic bookseller Mrs. Neech, the Pargeters' severe housekeeper Elijah, a survivor of the tenement collapse, taken in by the Pargeters Robert Kerridge, a medical student in love with Margaret Dr. Kerridge, Robert's father, Mr. Pargeter's godson, an aristocratic physician Mrs. Kerridge, Robert's mother Sir Maurice Kerridge, Robert's uncle, a Member of Parliament Mr. Stone, a bookdealer and friend of Mr. Pargeter Mrs. Dunnett, a widow, Margaret's landlady in Herringsby Lucy Moore, Margaret's friend in Herringsby Mr. and Mrs. Moore, their son Dick and Aunt Kitty, Lucy's family, farmers Dan Fiske, a fisherman and probably a smuggler Reception and literary significance For Time of Trial Hester Burton won the annual Carnegie Medal recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject. It was the fourth historical novel to appear on the winning list. In her New York Times review of the novel, Mary Stolz wrote: "When Hester Burton... writes a historical novel, it is not a modern romance with appliqués of research but a sound portrait of the period, presented with unobtrusive scholarship." Articles Hester Burton: "How I Came to Write Time of Trial" The Junior Bookshelf volume 28 (July 1964) pp 135–38. References External links Time of Trial at Fantastic Fiction Time of Trial, 1st American edition, 1964 at WorldCat 1963 British novels Children's historical novels British young adult novels Novels set in London Novels set in Suffolk Carnegie Medal in Literature winning works Novels set in the 19th century 1963 children's books Novels by Hester Burton Oxford University Press books