BlackBerry and Wild Rose by Sonia Velton – Book Review

BOOK BLURB 

For fans of Jessie Burton and Tracy Chevalier, a rich historical debut set among the Huguenot silk weavers of Spitalfields in the late 18th century.

WHEN Esther Thorel, the wife of a Huguenot silk-weaver, rescues Sara Kemp from a brothel she thinks she is doing God’s will. Sara is not convinced being a maid is better than being a whore, but the chance to escape her grasping ‘madam’ is too good to refuse.

Inside the  Thorels’ tall house in Spitalfields, where the strange cadence of the looms fills the attic, the two women forge an uneasy relationship. The physical intimacies of washing and dressing belie the reality: Sara despises her mistress’s blindness to the hypocrisy of her household, while Esther is too wrapped up in her own secrets to see Sara as anything more than another charitable cause.

It is silk that has Esther so distracted. For years she has painted her own designs, dreaming that one day her husband will weave them into reality. When he laughs at her ambition, she strikes up a relationship with one of the journeyman weavers in her attic who teaches her to weave and unwittingly sets in motion events that will change the fate of the whole Thorel household.

MY REVIEW 

Blackberry and Wild Rose is Sonia Velton’s historical fiction debut and is based around the silk workers in 1860s Spitalfields in London. 

It is told from the points of view of Sara and Esther and illustrates the hardship and poverty at the time. 

It also covers the conflict between journeyman weavers and master weavers and the fact that women were unable to work in certain professions, including art. This is so beautifully written, an ethereal yet grounded tale of just what it must have been like to live and fight against the every day adversities of this age.

In my opinion, Sonia Velton has written a stunning and elegant tale which show the strengths of women who even when so downtrodden show such hope and determination to improve their lives, those of others and to follow a dream. Remarkable writing.

Buy a copy from Amazon here:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image and bio from Goodreads

Sonia Velton has been a solicitor in Hong Kong, a Robert Schuman Scholar in Luxembourg and spent eight years being a full-time Mum of three in Dubai. She now lives in Kent. Her first novel, BLACKBERRY AND WILD ROSE, tells the story of a fictional household of master silk weavers living in eighteenth century Spitalfields. The protagonist is loosely inspired by Anna Maria Garthwaite who was the foremost silk designer of the mid-eighteenth century and the title takes its name from an actual silk design. The novel was shortlisted as a work in progress for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize 2015 and longlisted for the Myslexia Novel Competition.