I finished The Familiars this morning, reading with the windows open to the sounds of birds, horses and church bells. It seemed fitting, for such an atmospheric novel to have the right background music.
Fleetwood Shuttleworth and Alice Gray will stay with me for a long time, that much is certain. Although the story is fictionalised, much of it is based on fact, with real people in real places - something that made the book even more enthralling. How Halls can make you relate so keenly to women in 1612 is testament to her writing - something that should be a world a way feels instead like glancing over your shoulder - you feel them with you. You ride through the woods, wander through Gawthorpe Hall, you smell the lavender.
The Foundling will be out at the beginning of February and I cannot wait to devour it with the same reverence that I read The Familiars.
Fleetwood Shuttleworth and Alice Gray will stay with me for a long time, that much is certain. Although the story is fictionalised, much of it is based on fact, with real people in real places - something that made the book even more enthralling. How Halls can make you relate so keenly to women in 1612 is testament to her writing - something that should be a world a way feels instead like glancing over your shoulder - you feel them with you. You ride through the woods, wander through Gawthorpe Hall, you smell the lavender.
The Foundling will be out at the beginning of February and I cannot wait to devour it with the same reverence that I read The Familiars.