Why a Booktrail?
1752: Ever wondered how fireworks came to be? Who were the kind of people involved in making them? How they get their colouring? This is the story of a young girl in that explosive world finding her way.
The Book of Fires
What you need to know before your trail
1752 London
Agnes Trussel is barely 17 when she arrives in London pregnant with an unwanted child. Immediately getting lost on her arrival in the city she wanders to the home of Mr. J. Blacklock, a maker of fireworks who reluctantly at first hires Agnes as his apprentice.
AsAgnes gains his trust, she becomes fascinated with her new world and she starts to help him make the most spectacular fireworks there are. But she has left some deadly secrets behind in her old life that may catch up with her. And the explosion to come may not be that of a firework.
Travel Guide
Not only does the author capture the grit and dankness of the London streets well, it’s the world of fireworks that really captures the imagination here.
The art of fireworks in London
As Agnes learns her craft about explosives, powders, pigments, and combustibles, so do we. But it’s as fascinating and illuminating as watching a display for real. The writing boosts the evocative passages to a new level with phrases which Blacklock says to Agnes
“Do not mistake the degree of roaring of a rocket upon ignition to be an indication of the fierceness of its powder.”
The making of fireworks is seemingly a lost art for the way Blacklock takes such pride in his work gives an insight in to the times and the excitement with which new developments were received.
The appetite for artificial fireworks cannot be sated, or so it seems. Once the pleasure of kings, now the common man is glad to pay to see these things we offer. And we all want to find the most novel, the most dazzling, the biggest, best, newest creation.
The Site of Tyburn
Seen through Agnes’ eyes , in the first person, she takes you by the hand and weaves you with her through the streets of 18th Century London It is an exciting place but also one of danger – the hanging which took place at nearby Tyburn cast their shadow over the entire novel
`With thoughts spared for all those condemned to death by hanging at Tyburn.’
Where Next?
