The History: in 1846 the famous novelist, Charles Dickens, and his friend, Angela Burdett-Coutts, determined to found an asylum for rehabilitating fallen women. An application leaflet was distributed to jails, workhouses and hospitals. Urania Cottage in Shepherd’s Bush was purchased and furnished. Food, clothes and shelter would be provided. A strict daily timetable would be planned to include lessons with slate and chalk, all household tasks, gardening, needlework and music. Burdett-Coutts, the heiress of Coutts bank, footed the bill and in November 1847 Urania Cottage opened its doors to the first inmates.
The Household: Mrs Holdsworth is responsible for the well-being, education and retention of her charges at Urania Cottage. If the young women - former prostitutes and petty thieves, the broken, the homeless and the vulnerable - obey the rules they will be given a second chance - but how badly do they want it? A few miles away in a Piccadilly mansion, millionairess Angela Burdett-Coutts receives shocking news. Her stalker of ten years has been released from prison early and she knows it’s only a matter of time before he shows his hand again. As the women’s worlds collide in ways they could never have dreamt of, they quickly discover that freedom always comes at a price.
I loved the way the lives, thoughts and actions of Mrs Holdsworth and Angela Burdett-Coutts were reimagined and interwoven with the sadness, anxiety and traumas suffered by the fictional characters, sisters Martha and Emily and soul sisters Josephine and Annie.
I read The Household in two sittings. The detailed descriptions of open sewers and hooves clattering over cobblestones, guttering candles and porcelain bedpans, squalid living conditions and sumptuous, glazed swan feasts transported me back in time to Victorian London, vividly picturing the fashions and furnishings, people and places. The growing tension and suspense as the multiple plots thickened kept the pages turning.
Beautifully written, extensively researched and brilliantly tied together, day-to-day life in Urania Cottage and the stories of these very different yet equally determined women fighting to survive in the face of adversity had me gripped from beginning to end.
The Household: Mrs Holdsworth is responsible for the well-being, education and retention of her charges at Urania Cottage. If the young women - former prostitutes and petty thieves, the broken, the homeless and the vulnerable - obey the rules they will be given a second chance - but how badly do they want it? A few miles away in a Piccadilly mansion, millionairess Angela Burdett-Coutts receives shocking news. Her stalker of ten years has been released from prison early and she knows it’s only a matter of time before he shows his hand again. As the women’s worlds collide in ways they could never have dreamt of, they quickly discover that freedom always comes at a price.
I loved the way the lives, thoughts and actions of Mrs Holdsworth and Angela Burdett-Coutts were reimagined and interwoven with the sadness, anxiety and traumas suffered by the fictional characters, sisters Martha and Emily and soul sisters Josephine and Annie.
I read The Household in two sittings. The detailed descriptions of open sewers and hooves clattering over cobblestones, guttering candles and porcelain bedpans, squalid living conditions and sumptuous, glazed swan feasts transported me back in time to Victorian London, vividly picturing the fashions and furnishings, people and places. The growing tension and suspense as the multiple plots thickened kept the pages turning.
Beautifully written, extensively researched and brilliantly tied together, day-to-day life in Urania Cottage and the stories of these very different yet equally determined women fighting to survive in the face of adversity had me gripped from beginning to end.