"Fleetwood Shuttleworth is 17 years old, married, and pregnant for the fourth time. But as the mistress at Gawthorpe Hall, she still has no living child, and her husband Richard is anxious for an heir. When Fleetwood finds a letter she isn’t supposed to read from the doctor who delivered her third stillbirth, she is dealt the crushing blow that she will not survive another pregnancy.
Then she crosses paths by chance with Alice Gray, a young midwife. Alice promises to help her give birth to a healthy baby, and to prove the physician wrong.
As Alice is drawn into the witchcraft accusations that are sweeping the north-west, Fleetwood risks everything by trying to help her. But is there more to Alice than meets the eye?
Soon the two women’s lives will become inextricably bound together as the legendary trial at Lancaster approaches, and Fleetwood’s stomach continues to grow. Time is running out, and both their lives are at stake."
We talked first about the cover of the book and all the things it contained that related to the story (how far through were you before you saw the noose?) We also discussed how even though the book itself wasn't about Autumn or Winter it nevertheless made a perfect autumn reading book.
We naturally talked about Gawthorpe Hall, the Pendle witch trials and the fact the characters were real, albeit the story was fiction. This posed us some problems with the mens names all beginning with R, two of the witches having similar names and there being two Catherines but we coped!
Nobody thought Alice was a witch, just a herb woman caught up in the scandle. We all thought Roger was simply using the witch trials to further his career and we discussed briefly how much of a hold religion had on everyone during that period. How it was so easy for a woman to be labelled - if you drown you are innocent if you float your a witch and will be hung for it.
Fleetwood was discussed at length, how alone she was, how nieve. We thought her constant galloping around unrealistic and I learned what a Turkey Carpet was! A few of us feared she was going to be accused of witchcraft and we thought a book about her children would make a brilliant follow on. We all thought Richard was a well written character - he wasn't a hero yet wasn't a total villain. He was just very much of his time and in his own way loved Fleetwood, giving her more freedom than some husbands would.
We all really enjoyed the book pretty much from the get go and found various points to talk about during the meeting which is always good. It was easy to read and scored a 7.75 with a few 9s scattered about.
Next book will be A Gift For Dying by M J Arlidge.
Then she crosses paths by chance with Alice Gray, a young midwife. Alice promises to help her give birth to a healthy baby, and to prove the physician wrong.
As Alice is drawn into the witchcraft accusations that are sweeping the north-west, Fleetwood risks everything by trying to help her. But is there more to Alice than meets the eye?
Soon the two women’s lives will become inextricably bound together as the legendary trial at Lancaster approaches, and Fleetwood’s stomach continues to grow. Time is running out, and both their lives are at stake."
We talked first about the cover of the book and all the things it contained that related to the story (how far through were you before you saw the noose?) We also discussed how even though the book itself wasn't about Autumn or Winter it nevertheless made a perfect autumn reading book.
We naturally talked about Gawthorpe Hall, the Pendle witch trials and the fact the characters were real, albeit the story was fiction. This posed us some problems with the mens names all beginning with R, two of the witches having similar names and there being two Catherines but we coped!
Nobody thought Alice was a witch, just a herb woman caught up in the scandle. We all thought Roger was simply using the witch trials to further his career and we discussed briefly how much of a hold religion had on everyone during that period. How it was so easy for a woman to be labelled - if you drown you are innocent if you float your a witch and will be hung for it.
Fleetwood was discussed at length, how alone she was, how nieve. We thought her constant galloping around unrealistic and I learned what a Turkey Carpet was! A few of us feared she was going to be accused of witchcraft and we thought a book about her children would make a brilliant follow on. We all thought Richard was a well written character - he wasn't a hero yet wasn't a total villain. He was just very much of his time and in his own way loved Fleetwood, giving her more freedom than some husbands would.
We all really enjoyed the book pretty much from the get go and found various points to talk about during the meeting which is always good. It was easy to read and scored a 7.75 with a few 9s scattered about.
Next book will be A Gift For Dying by M J Arlidge.
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