The Buttonmaker’s Daughter by Merryn Allingham was just published last month and the sequel is due out in July. I heard about this one from Margaret @BooksPlease and you can read her thoughts on the book here.
I went from not being quite sure about this book to really feeling sorry that I had come to the end of it, then happy when I realised that there was a sequel coming out soon.
The setting is rural Sussex 1914, in the run up to the beginning of World War I. Summerhayes is an estate belonging to Joshua Summer who had made his wealth in the button making trade. His daughter Elizabeth is now nineteen and her parents are keen to marry her off, but during her summer London season when she was presented at court she turned down two good offers of marriage. She’s an artist and has hopes of making a living through her art.
Relations between the Summer family and the owners of the next-door estate are fraught, it was Elizabeth’s mother’s family home, now owned by her brother who is jealous of the wealth that she has married into, but despises them for being in trade.
This book deals with lots of topics in a time of change. Women’s suffrage, arranged marriages, religious bigotry, class distinctions, romance, same sex relationships and Irish politics – it’s all going on.
This is the first book I’ve read by Merryn Allingham and I’ll definitely be reading more. She also writes under the name Isobel Goddard.
I’m swithering between giving it a four or five on Goodreads.
I remember reading about it on Margarets blog too. I need to get out of old books long enough to read some of these good new books!
Peggy,
That’s what I’m trying to do, I have been concentrating on old books too. Mind you I should be reading my own books – not library books!
I’m glad you enjoyed it too – and I swithered as well about the rating.
Margaret,
I wish we could put a 4.5. It started a bit slowly for me otherwise it would have been a 5. Thanks for reading this one in the first place as I doubt if I would have picked it up otherwise.
Swithered is a great word!
I also enjoyed Margaret’s review and have this one down to read in the summer. Good to hear another endorsement.
Sandra,
Yes I like ‘swithered’ too and it’s obvious what it means.
This does sound good. I will look up her books and she if they’re available here. If not, there’s always other means–like The Book Depository.
Regarding another author who wrote about this period (as well as others), have you found that you have enjoyed any of Delderfield’s novels? They appear to be interesting sagas, but I’d be interested in your opinion, as well as others’, of course.
Judith,
I have one Delderfield to read but it’s the second in a trilogy and I haven’t got around to getting the first one yet. Those books were very popular in the 1970s when I worked in libraries.