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1872: A girl clutches a button box and dreams of opening her own shop
The Button Box
What you need to know before your trail
Clara held onto the precious button, glimmering like a jewel in the dark alleyways of London’s notorious Seven Dials. She needed to save her family… but who was going to save her?
There was a time when the Carter sisters’ father was their hero. Now he’s a drunk who’s gambled away everything they had and put them all in peril. It’s on Clara’s shoulders to save the four sisters from destitution. Clutching her precious button box, the only thing of value they have left, Clara dreams of starting a shop that could put a roof over their heads and keep them safe…
But in debt to the terrifying Patches Braggs, leader of one of the East End’s roughest gangs, Clara is in fear for her life. When a mysterious benefactor seems to offer an escape, Clara realizes too late that it comes at a terrible price…
Cheated, abandoned and alone – can Clara save her family and hold onto her dreams?
Travel Guide
Dilly Court’s London
This is the London of drapery shops button boxes, narrow cobbled alleyways, inns and old shops that need restoring. Pie shops and baked potato stands on street corners. Dilly creates a London detailed with a London of tram cars, hansom cabs and people going about their daily lives in 1870s London, a city rapidly growing.
Wych street
Wych Street was a street in London, roughly where Australia House now stands on Aldwych. It ran west from the church of St Clement Danes on the Strand to a point towards the southern end of Drury Lane. Unfortunately for Dilly Court fans, it was demolished by the council in 1901.
The shops in the novel are first on Drury Lane and then the shop called The Button Box opens up as a rival of department stores in the shopping street which is going to become the main shopping throughfare of the city. Now, it’s bustling and busy and Clara dreams of opening up a store to sell items from all over the world, the unexpected which department stores don’t already offer.
London is dimly lit by gas lamps, the aroma of pies and potatoes fill the empty bellies of those who work in shops or as maids for richer people. The snow covers the ground in much of the novel which keeps people inside their homes and off the streets. Not good for clara and the shopkeepers and the only people running around seem to be the criminals who hang around the slums of Seven Dials and St Giles Rookery which is an area to avoid even in the day time.
Paris
There is a jaunt over to Paris too as Clara gets the chance to visit the shops and Parisian stores selling fabrics and exclusive items. Boulevard Haussman is like a dream to a girl from London dreaming of the best that the elaborate French stores have to offer. In the city, the Conversatoire orchestra plays a part to as a musical interlude. Try wandering around the Montmartre area an visit a cafe in St Roche to truly step in Dilly Court’s characters’ shoes!
Streetview Maps
D) London - Wych Street was next to Melbourne Street
E) London - Seven Dials
F) Paris - Boulevard Haussman
G) Paris - Conservatoire de Paris
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Button Box
Destination: London, Paris Author/Guide: Dilly Court Departure Time: 1872
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