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The Painter's Daughters
- Narrated by: Gemma Lawrence, Louise Brealey
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
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Summary
SELECTED FOR THE BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB
WINNER OF THE MSLEXIA NOVEL COMPETITION
'Beautifully written . . . I raced through it' HILARY MANTEL
'As exquisitely and tenderly rendered as a Gainsborough painting' TRACY CHEVALIER
'A wonderfully powerful and haunting novel with a hugely gripping plot' DEBORAH MOGGACH
1759, Ipswich. Sisters Peggy and Molly Gainsborough are the best of friends and do everything together. They spy on their father as he paints, they rankle their mother as she manages the books, they tear barefoot through the muddy fields that surround their home. But there is another reason they are inseparable: from a young age, Molly has had a tendency to forget who she is, to fall into mental confusion, and Peggy knows instinctively that no one must find out.
When the family move to Bath, the sisters are thrown into the whirl of polite society, where the merits of marriage and codes of behaviour are crystal clear, and secrets much harder to keep. As Peggy goes to greater lengths to protect her sister from the threat of an asylum, she finds herself falling in love, and their precarious situation is soon thrown catastrophically off course. The discovery of a betrayal forces Peggy to question all she has done for Molly - and whether any one person can truly change the fate of another.
Critic reviews
'A mesmerising and at times quietly devastating tale of two sisters, art, shared suffering and love. With The Painter's Daughters, Emily Howes has pulled off the finest of balancing acts, combining rich and evocative historical detail with a light and contemporary writerly touch.' (Chloë Ashby, author of WET PAINT)
'A beautiful, moving and full-blooded novel that explores powerful questions about madness, art and love and brings unseen lives to the fore... I loved seeing the Gainsborough girls brought out of the canvas and into the messy real world, and the portrait of the artist himself in all his loving, faithless complexity.' (Kate Murray-Browne, author of THE UPSTAIRS ROOM)
'In the tradition of Maggie O'Farrell and Tracy Chevalier, Emily Howes brings us the story of Thomas Gainsborough's two daughters, Molly and Margaret, whom she imagines were equal parts muse and millstone for the famed eighteenth-century portrait painter. Howes' thorough research and exquisite prose brings both girls to life, but it is the author's deep understanding of mental illness and how it affects families that sets the novel apart.' (Rachel Beanland, author of THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE)
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- Lucy Halberstam
- 03-04-24
A compelling account of the Gainsborough sisters and also of hereditary legacies
The characters and story are well drawn with enough to question and aspects of the story left unanswered. A really enjoyable and interesting read
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