The Silk Factory

Name: The Silk Factory
Brand: Harper UK
Availability: InStock
Author: Judith Allnatt
ISBN: 9780008121242

Author: Judith Allnatt

Narrator: Antonia Beamish

Unabridged: 12 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 05/21/2015

Categories: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Ghost, Women, Fantasy, Gaslamp, Horror

Synopsis

A beautiful and eerie story of love and memory from the author of The Moon Field. Anyone who’s ever lost someone is haunted Rosie Milford inherits a house in an old silk factory after her mother’s death and moves there with her young children. The discovery of a shocking truth about her own childhood, when she is already reeling from the breakup of her marriage, fills her with distrust and fearfulness. Then she starts seeing a strange child, wandering in the garden, who seems as lost as she is. In 1812, silk master Septimus Fowler has grand plans to keep his factory in step with the industrial revolution: he will plant mulberry trees, rear silkworms and import new mechanized looms. Orphan Beulah Fiddement works as a bobbin winder and has secrets that the master would go to any lengths to get. Caught up in a dark adult world of illicit love, rebellion and revenge, Beulah must put away her childhood and draw on all her spirit to protect those she loves. Beulah’s story of guilt and bravery will echo down two centuries and change Rosie’s life as she struggles to overcome the hand of her own past and find redemption.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Zoe

Set just three miles away from my cottage this compelling tale was recommended to me by someone in my book group. I'm very glad she did, because it was a very enjoyable read that kept me engaged right to the end. I had a couple of late nights not being able to put it down. If you read it I strongly s......more

Goodreads review by ram

had to do a last gcse paper with this......more

Goodreads review by Wendy

Brooding and atmospheric , The Silk Factory embraces two life stories set in dual periods of history. With the gentlest of touches, Judith Allnatt has spun her gorgeous threads with care, so they interweave seamlessly. The divine prose, magnificent scene setting, and energy of the individual personal......more

Goodreads review by David Reviews

We are transported back in time to the early 1800’s to an English silk factory. Both the profit driven owner and the poor who work there struggle to make a living. In the present we have Rosie a divorced mother of two whose difficulties increase with the death of her own mother and the move away fro......more

Quotes

‘There is so much to love about The Silk Factory – an utterly compelling story, a fascinating setting, characters you care about deeply. Judith Allnatt is a wonderfully warm and empathic writer, with a real feeling for the thread of the uncanny that runs through our lives’ Margaret Leroy author of The Soldier’s Wife 'Fascinating and tender’ Catharine Arnold, author of Globe: Life in Shakespeare's London Praise for The Moon Field: ‘Genuinely and deeply moving’ THE TIMES ‘Deeply engaging and unsentimental…really memorable’ CHARLES PALLISER, author of The Quincunx Praise for The Poet’s Wife: ‘Allnatt gives her an affecting, beautifully written afterlife’THE TIMES ‘'This is a beautifully written, poignant novel, lyrically descriptive of the landscape, detailed in the country life of the time and reminiscent of the gentle style of the genius peasant poet'CHOICE MAGAZINE Praise for A Mile of River: 'A novel of rare insight, exquisitely written. A standing ovation for this debut’ Michael Morpurgo ‘'Excellent…The writing is restrained but powerful and the description of that remorseless heat is masterful’NEW BOOKS MAGAZINE