The Low Road

By Katharine Quarmby£18.99 + Shipping
Status: published
Publication Date: 22.06.2023Available
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About The Book

Two young women. One passionate love. Will their paths ever cross again?

Norfolk, 1813. In the quiet Waveney Valley, the body of a woman – Mary Tyrell – is staked through the heart after her death by suicide. She had been under arrest for the suspected murder of her newborn child. Mary leaves behind a young daughter, Hannah, who is later sent away to the Refuge for the Destitute in London, where she will be trained for a life of domestic service.

It is at the Refuge that Hannah meets Annie Simpkins, a fellow resident, and together they forge a friendship that deepens into passionate love. But the strength of this bond is put to the test when the girls are caught stealing from the Refuge's laundry, and they are sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay, setting them on separate paths that may never cross again.

Drawing on real events, The Low Road is a gripping, atmospheric tale that brings to life the forgotten voices of the past – convicts, servants, the rural poor – as well as a moving evocation of love that blossomed in the face of prejudice and ill fortune.

'The Low Road is a tough read, paradoxically, because of the empathy with which Quarmby tells her story; tougher, too, because it is based on true events' Katherine Mezzacapa, Historical Novel Society

The descriptiveness of Hannah’s thoughts, her environments, the conditions, the women she meets, and the controlling men that impact her life, all make this story so credible and riveting. You feel as if you are there with her ... It is important that stories like Hannah’s are preserved. It is a very thought-provoking read
Beauty and Lace Book Club

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