‘Prudence and Justice’: the formal motto of the Shuttleworths – the aristocratic family that young, naïve, and pregnant Fleetwood is married to and mistress of – that forms the firm, unforgiving worldview of the mighty and the magistrates in 1612. Collins’s prose is rich with detail and description, and though it’s occasionally too decorative to picture, her portrayal of the devilish de Havilland and Emmett’s antediluvian tutor Seredith are adept, true-to-life depictions. The private, devious practise is left in the dark after the first act, and Collins devotes more time and poetic writing to painting a detailed, and, at times visceral, portrait of Emmett’s developing affections and their devastating physical and psychological effects. Told in three acts from three perspectives – two characters, three moments in time – the novel transforms from the fantastical to the romantic. With memories as fragile and valued as this, what has Emmett forgotten? This is the tempting yet terrifying premise of The Binding: the tale follows Emmett Farmer as he’s apprenticed to the peculiar art of extracting torturous and disruptive memories from the desperate, the exploited, and the defenceless, transforming them into an attractive volume for a less attractive fee, and leaving the purchaser – or victim – with less of themselves. Stacey Halls is the Winner of the Women's Prize Futures Award for her novel Mrs England.Memories are tough to imagine: meticulous and muscular, fractured and fragile and ephemeral, forgotten and evoked and etched into our character – yet, what if you could extract them, etch them onto a page, and forget your grief, your regrets, or your gravest memories? Time is running out, and both their lives are at stake. Soon the two women's lives will become inextricably bound together as the legendary trial at Lancaster approaches, and Fleetwood's stomach continues to grow.

But is there more to Alice than meets the eye? Alice promises to help her give birth to a healthy baby and to prove the physician wrong.Īs Alice is drawn into the witchcraft accusations that are sweeping the North-West, Fleetwood risks everything by trying to help her. Then she crosses paths by chance with Alice Gray, a young midwife. When Fleetwood finds a letter she isn't supposed to read from the doctor who delivered her third stillbirth, she is dealt the crushing blow that she will not survive another pregnancy. But as the mistress at Gawthorpe Hall, she still has no living child, and her husband, Richard, is anxious for an heir. To protect a secret, she must risk her life.įleetwood Shuttleworth is 17 years old, married and pregnant for the fourth time. To save her child, she will trust a stranger.

The familiars a novel