Why a Booktrail?
1840: In an age defined by men, it will take something extraordinary to show four women who they truly are . . .
The Gifts
What you need to know before your trail
October 1840. A young woman staggers alone through a forest in Shropshire as a huge pair of impossible wings rip themselves from her shoulders.
Meanwhile, when rumours of a ‘fallen angel’ cause a frenzy across London, a surgeon desperate for fame and fortune finds himself in the grips of a dangerous obsession, one that will place the women he seeks in the most terrible danger . . .
Locations
Reset- England -London
- A: Folgate street
- B: Cheapside
- C: The Strand
- D: Somerset House
- England - Shropshire
- E: Ludlow
- England - Herefordshire
- F: Elton
Travel Guide
BookTrail a Gift of a novel in London
This is a London well evoked with the cobbled streets, hansom cabs, dens of poverty and the gilded cages of the upper classes. This author allows us to fly high about the city with the angels looking down through the windows and the soul of those below. We see wealth and poverty, power and obsession.
This is a man’s world. The wealth and power, liberty and imprisonment. Women live in gilded cages, poverty, but they are all trapped in some way. One character dreams of being a botanist. Only one man sees the beauty in this. The words such as ‘let’s her’, ‘approves of her’ is the language which forms this landscape putting you in no doubt how women are regarded. They are creatures, beings, bothers, nagging mistresses and worse.
Rural Shropshire – known as Salop in this novel-is the main setting of this novel. In French, ‘Salope; is a derogatory word for a woman which is ‘tart’ or ‘slapper’ in English, a woman of ill repute in other words. It can also mean someone who is egotistical. Both apt for this novel.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Gifts
Destination/Location: London, Shropshire Author: Liz Hyder Departure: 1840s
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