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Blackberry and Wild Rose
On sale
10th January 2019
Price: £16.99
‘Sumptuous and moving. Velton weaves her tale with the threads of betrayal, thwarted dreams and good intentions gone awry‘ Laura Purcell
‘A richly imagined and brilliantly twisty tale’ Anna Mazzola
‘A plot as finely detailed as Spitalfields silk’ Stacey Halls
WHEN ESTHER THOREL, the wife of a Huguenot silk-weaver, rescues Sara Kemp from a brothel she thinks she is doing God’s will. Sara is not convinced being a maid is better than being a whore, but the chance to escape her grasping ‘madam’ is too good to refuse.
INSIDE THE THORELS’ tall house in Spitalfields, where the strange cadence of the looms fills the attic, the two women forge an uneasy relationship. The physical intimacies of washing and dressing belie the reality: Sara despises her mistress’s blindness to the hypocrisy of her household, while Esther is too wrapped up in her own secrets to see Sara as anything more than another charitable cause.
IT IS SILK that has Esther so distracted. For years she has painted her own designs, dreaming that one day her husband will weave them into reality. When he laughs at her ambition, she unwittingly sets in motion events that will change the fate of the whole Thorel household and set the scene for a devastating day of reckoning between her and Sara.
THE PRICE OF a piece of silk may prove more than either is able to pay.
‘A richly imagined and brilliantly twisty tale’ Anna Mazzola
‘A plot as finely detailed as Spitalfields silk’ Stacey Halls
WHEN ESTHER THOREL, the wife of a Huguenot silk-weaver, rescues Sara Kemp from a brothel she thinks she is doing God’s will. Sara is not convinced being a maid is better than being a whore, but the chance to escape her grasping ‘madam’ is too good to refuse.
INSIDE THE THORELS’ tall house in Spitalfields, where the strange cadence of the looms fills the attic, the two women forge an uneasy relationship. The physical intimacies of washing and dressing belie the reality: Sara despises her mistress’s blindness to the hypocrisy of her household, while Esther is too wrapped up in her own secrets to see Sara as anything more than another charitable cause.
IT IS SILK that has Esther so distracted. For years she has painted her own designs, dreaming that one day her husband will weave them into reality. When he laughs at her ambition, she unwittingly sets in motion events that will change the fate of the whole Thorel household and set the scene for a devastating day of reckoning between her and Sara.
THE PRICE OF a piece of silk may prove more than either is able to pay.
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Reviews
A sumptuous and moving debut. Velton weaves her tale with the threads of betrayal, thwarted dreams and good intentions gone awry
I absolutely loved it, and read it in one sitting, unable to put it down - the story was rich and compelling, the writing sensuous and sensitive. We were there with the silk weavers in Spitalfields, in the jacquard of their lives, their loves, their losses. Poignant and stunning
Richly immersive, with a plot as finely detailed as Spitalfields silk
An utterly absorbing novel that draws you into a fascinating and often sinister world. I loved it
Beautiful inside and out. A richly imagined and brilliantly twisty tale of secrets, silk weaving and betrayal based on the true story of master silk designer Anna Maria Garthwaite
This exquisitely evocative novel will appeal to fans of The Miniaturist
With a richly detailed evocation of the era, including the shockingly grim life of the poor and the repression of women, this assured and multi-layered historical novel weaves its own magical spell
A rich, rollicking read
Velton gives [her characters] genuine depth in a moving story of love, secrets and betrayal
Romance and revenge, hypocrisy and hardship play out against a vividly researched backdrop