I have thoroughly enjoyed Ms Hall’s three previous novels and was looking forward to reading this one. It is a fictionalised story of some of the women who end up at Urania Cottage , a group home set up by wealthy Victorian philanthropist, Angela Burdett- Coutts and writer Charles Dickens. Parallel to their stories is Angela’s own, her inheritance, her stalker Richard Dunn and her relationship with the Duke of Wellington. It’s a good story, very well written and I enjoyed it immensely, rattling through it in one session.Maybethat is where a problem lies. It was in some ways extremely unsatisfying. I think that the reason for this is that Angela’s story is infinitely more fascinating than the commonplace one of Martha and the other women. And yes, I am perfectly well aware of how dismissive and uncaring that sounds. The glimpses we have of her story were tantalising, and I think I probably did spend more time afterwards, researching Angela’s true history. There is, I think an intention to draw some equivalence between the difficulties faced by the women, but in reality, however difficult Angela’s situation is, she has far more choices than do the others. Nevertheless this author’s novels are infinitely better written that many of a similar genre and I shall look forward to reading the next one.