The Mapmaker's Wife

In 1844, two young women arrive in London in the same September week. Catherine, pregnant and seventeen, has crossed the Irish Sea in search of her circus strongman lover. Mary, a pure-hearted midwife, as fled a personal trauma in Somerset. By the time their parallel journeys collide, three lives will lay ruined. How will they be mended, and who will do it? With rich prose and a cast of vibrant characters, the story sweeps from rural hinterlands to teeming city streets, veers north to Scotland's solitary islands, and back to a burgeoning, confident London in the midst of the Industrial Revolution. Along the way, the reader encounters the Victorian love of travelling circuses, its fascination with spiritualism, and the horrors of the Irish potato famine. It concludes with a glimpse into a future of social reform and an emerging women's movement.