Author:Ruth Hamilton
A gripping and heart-warming saga set in Lancashire from The Sunday Times bestseller Ruth Hamilton, perfect for fans of Catherine Cookson. Guaranteed to keep you turning the page...
"These are echoes of Cookson with its story of great homes where dark secrets lurk in the shadows." -- PETERBOROUGH EVENING TELEGRAPH
"A thoroughly enjoyable book, rich in gossip and events." -- LIVERPOOL DAILY POST
"Another compelling family saga lets you take Bolton with you to the beach!" -- BOLTON EVENING NEWS
"[My mother is] loving every minute of reading this enchanting and spellbinding story..." -- ***** Reader review.
"BRILLIANT BOOK AS ALWAYS READ ALL THE BOOK IN ONE GO" -- ***** Reader review.
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ALL SHE EVER WANTED WAS THE CHANCE TO MAKE A BETTER LIFE FOR HERSELF...
Jennifer Crawley, eighteen, leads a strange and lonely life - her days in the spinning room of the cotton mill, her nights with possessive - and slightly mad - Aunt Mavis. When she's offered the chance to work as a servant at Skipton Hall, she sees this as a chance to better herself.
Yet the household is as dangerous and weird as the one she left behind. Mrs Sloane, the terrifying housekeeper, takes pleasure in bullying and frightening the young maids; Henry Skipton is an embittered, solitary man who never takes the time to see his invalid wife, Eloise Skipton, who lays bed-ridden, feeding on hatred and plotting vengeance on the man she married.
When she first sets eyes on young Jenny, she realizes she has found the perfect weapon for revenge...
But Jenny and her friend, Maria Hesketh - her character as fiery as her hair - are determined that they will make something of their lives and succeed in spite of everything...
A woman’s lot was shocking in the 1850s as this Cooksonlike saga brilliantly describes... Have some tissues handy!
—— Peterborough Telegraph on A Shilling for a WifePraise for Daisy Styles
—— -This book brought home wonderfully the vivid camaraderie wartime women shared and their immense sacrifices on the Home Front. Well done Daisy for creating characters that are real women in the best sense. Funny, scheming, loyal and witty, but about all, hardworking and proud. An absolute joy to read
—— Kate Thompson, bestselling author of , Secrets of the Singer GirlsA great read that I think will appeal to fans of wartime sagas and authors like Donna Douglas . . . From dances to disasters, encounters with handsome Yanks, rationing and relationships, The Bomb Girls has all the ingredients of an excellent wartime drama and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
—— Onemorepage.comThe story is full of drama, love, heartbreak, friendship and in some parts comedy . . . It's full of twists and turns and is a real page turner
—— LaurahbookblogA devastatingly human story...savage, sordid and hauntingly believable
—— GuardianThe book has a controlled hushed quality, like that of a Morandi still life, which only serves to heighten the terror and pity of the tale
—— John BanvilleColm Tóibín turns Greek Myths into flesh and blood..The writing is characteristically elegant, spare and subtle. ..The scenes between Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus darkly sexy
—— The TimesAn extraordinarily sympathetic and intimate portrait
—— Literary ReviewIn Toibin's careful hands, the story of Clytemnestra, who avenges her daughter after her husband Agamemnon sacrifices her to secure safe passage from Troy, is told with such a vivid grasp of the emotional pulse that even those who know the story well will be transfixed.
—— Claire Allfree , Daily MailWhat is truly miraculous, though, is how Tóibín has made us sympathize with people who do terrible, unthinkable things
—— Boston GlobeA dramatic, intimate chronicle of a family implosion set in unsettling times
—— Publishers' WeeklyIf there is a more brilliant writer than Tóibín working today, I don't know who that would be
—— Karen Joy FowlerThis is a novel about the way the members of a family keep secrets from one another, tell lies and make mistakes.. .
—— Literary ReviewTóibín's retelling is governed by compassion and responsibility, and focuses on the horrors that led Clytemnestra to her terrible vengeance. Her sympathetic first-person narrative makes even murder, for a moment, seem reasonable (...) Tóibín's prose is precise and unadorned, the novel's moments of violence told with brutal simplicity. But its greatest achievement is as a page-turner. In a tale that has ended the same way for thousands of years, Tóibín makes us hope for a different outcome
—— The Economist[An] intense, thought-provoking and original novel . . . Toibin's book transforms this ancient story into a lyrical, melancholy meditation on closeted desire, which implicitly comments on the aftermath of the Irish Troubles'
—— Emily Wilson , TLSGraphic, vicious, beautiful retelling of ancient myths.... Ultimately the book is a stark, timeless and brilliantly rendered tale of power in a world, as ever, riven by conflict.
—— 'I' NewspaperIn a novel describing one of the Western world's oldest legends, in which the gods are conspicuous by their absence, Tóibín achieves a paradoxical richness of characterisation and a humanisation of the mythological, marking House Of Names as the superbly realised work of an author at the top of his game.
—— Daily ExpressA spellbinding adaptation of the Clytemnestra myth, House of Names considers the Mycenaen queen in all her guises: grieving mother, seductress, ruthless leader - and victim of the ultimate betrayal.
—— VogueA haunting story, largely because Tóibín tells it in spare, resonant prose...
—— Lucy Hughes-Hallett , New StatesmanA Greek House of Cards... Just like Heaney at the end of his Mycenae lookout, Toibin's novel augurs an era of renewal that comes directly from the cessation of hostilities.
—— Fiona Macintosh , Irish TimesThe book's mastery of pacing and tone affirm the writer as one of our finest at work today.
—— John Boland , Irish IndependentA daring, and triumphant return, to the Oresteia... bleakly beautiful twilight of the Gods.
—— Boyd Tonkin , The Arts DeskIt couldn't have been done better
—— ScotsmanA visceral reworking of Oresteia
—— ObserverThe escalation of violence and desire for revenge has deliberate echoes of the Irish Troubles
—— Observer Books of the Year