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A world away from the Royal courts of Europe, this is set in and around the aftermath of the slave trade in Bristol. Gregory brings her unique combination of a vivid sense of history and inimitable storytelling skills to illuminate a complex period of our past, a past that unlike the American slave trade is much less well known but no less disgraceful. Riveting, heart-breaking, powerful, haunting, intensely disturbing, this is a novel of desire and shame, of individuals, of a society, and of a whole continent devastated by the greed of others.
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Synopsis
A Respectable Trade by Philippa Gregory
Bristol in 1787 is booming, from its stinking docks to its elegant new houses. Josiah Cole, a small dockside trader, is prepared to gamble everything to join the big players of the city. But he needs ready cash and a well-connected wife.
An arranged marriage to Frances Scott is a mutually convenient solution. Trading her social contacts for Josiah’s protection, Frances enters the world of the Bristol merchants and finds her life and fortune dependent on the respectable trade of sugar, rum and slaves.
Once again Philippa Gregory brings her unique combination of a vivid sense of history and inimitable storytelling skills to illuminate a complex period of our past. Powerful, haunting, intensely disturbing, this is a novel of desire and shame, of individuals, of a society, and of a whole continent devastated by the greed of others.
Reviews
‘The great roar and sweep of history is successfully braided into the intimate daily detail of this compelling and intelligent book’ Penny Perrick, THE TIMES
‘Philippa Gregory is a very good storyteller indeed’
SUNDAY TIMES
About the Author
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Philippa Gregory was our Guest Editor in October 2011 - click here - to see the books that inspired her writing.
Philippa Gregory was an established historian and writer when she discovered her interest in the Tudor period and wrote the novel The Other Boleyn Girl which was made into a tv drama, and a major film. Now, six novels later, she is looking at the family that preceded the Tudors: the magnificent Plantaganets, a family of complex rivalries, loves, and hatreds.
She lives with her family on a small farm in Yorkshire where she keeps horses, hens and ducks. Visitors to this site, Philippa Gregory.com become addicted to the updates of historical research and the progress of ducklings.
Her other great interest is the charity that she founded nearly twenty years ago: Gardens for The Gambia. She has raised funds and paid for 140 wells in the primary schools of this very dry and poor African country, and thousands of school children have been able to learn market gardening in the school gardens watered by the wells. The charity also provides wells for womens’ collective gardens and for The Gambia’s only agricultural college at Njawara.
A past student of Sussex university, and a PhD and Alumna of the Year 2009 of Edinburgh university, her love for history and commitment to historical accuracy are the hallmarks of her writing. She also reviews for the Washington Post, the LA Times, and for UK newspapers, and is a regular broadcaster on television, radio, and webcasts from this website, Philippa Gregory.com.
Photograph © copyright Sven Arnstein
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Historical Fiction
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