Windsor Selection S.
2 total works
Based on a true story, a captivating tale of passionate love and violent death in 1850s Dorset. In 1856, Martha Brown was publicly hanged for the brutal murder of her husband. Among those who witnessed her death was a sixteen-year-old local lad, and the memory of her execution haunted him for the rest of his life. Corresponding to a friend many years later, he wrote thus: 'I remember what a fine figure she showed against the sky as she hung in the misty rain, and how the tight black silk gown set off her shape as she wheeled half-round and back.' The writer was Thomas Hardy. Martha Brown was an ordinary woman of humble parentage, probably illiterate. Very little is known about her. Despite a small team of dedicated researchers delving into old records and original sources to try and piece together her life story, she remains tantalising and elusive, seemingly exercising a strange and powerful spell, even from the grave. Martha was described as 'a wonderful-looking woman with beautiful curls'. It is easy to see why she would have married a handsome, younger, virile man who could perhaps release her from a life of tedium and drudgery. Why did John Brown marry Martha?
Some people have suggested it was for money. Did the age difference that eventually led him into the arms of a much younger and prettier girl lead to jealousy, a precipitating factor in the tragedy -- if Martha did indeed kill John?
Some people have suggested it was for money. Did the age difference that eventually led him into the arms of a much younger and prettier girl lead to jealousy, a precipitating factor in the tragedy -- if Martha did indeed kill John?
Tina and Steve seem like the golden couple: rich, good looking with everything they could want except a child of their own. Tina is a very beautiful but temperamental former model, Steve a successful businessman with international interests, but he also wants to develop his stately home in the country as a garden centre and leisure complex. The lynchpin to this enterprise is Louise who, though not unattractive, is solid and sensible and has loyally and devotedly worked for Steve for a number of years, since before his marriage to Tina which came as a shock to her. Louise and Tina are complete opposites, both in looks and personality, and Louise thinks Steve has married the wrong woman and should have realised that she would have been the perfect partner. Her obsession with Steve, her wish to be more closely bound to him, leads her to make the radical suggestion that she should be a surrogate mother to his much wanted child by Tina.
The consequences of this offer and the effect it has on the relationships not only of the three people most intimately concerned, but also their family and friends, is the subject of this riveting novel where Nicola Thorne has dared to tackle two contemporary and very controversial subjects.
The consequences of this offer and the effect it has on the relationships not only of the three people most intimately concerned, but also their family and friends, is the subject of this riveting novel where Nicola Thorne has dared to tackle two contemporary and very controversial subjects.