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The Painter's Daughters
The award-winning debut novel selected for BBC Radio 2 Book Club
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Check link for latest rating. ( 2,719 ratings, 478 reviews)
Brief Description
SELECTED FOR THE BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB | WINNER OF THE MSLEXIA NOVEL COMPETITION 1759, Ipswich. Sisters Peggy and Molly Gainsborough are the best of friends and do everything together. They spy on their father as he paints, they rankle their mother as she manages...
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See moreAn award-winning first novel about art, sisterhood and madness, inspired by the two daughters of painter Thomas Gainsborough, who spent their lives trying and failing to live up to the perfect image the world so admired in their portraits
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Description
SELECTED FOR THE BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB | WINNER OF THE MSLEXIA NOVEL COMPETITION
1759, Ipswich. Sisters Peggy and Molly Gainsborough are the best of friends and do everything together. They spy on their father as he paints, they rankle their mother as she manages the books, they tear barefoot through the muddy fields that surround their home. But there is another reason they are inseparable: from a young age, Molly has had a tendency to forget who she is, to fall into confusion, and Peggy knows instinctively that no one must find out.
When the family move to Bath, Thomas Gainsborough finds fame as a portrait artist, while his daughters are thrown into the whirl of polite society. Here, the merits of marriage and codes of behaviour are crystal clear, and secrets much harder to keep. As Peggy goes to greater lengths to protect her sister, she finds herself falling in love, and their precarious situation is soon thrown catastrophically off-course. The discovery of a betrayal forces her to question all she has done for Molly – and whether any one person can truly change the fate of another...
Inspired by true events and told with irresistible vibrancy and wit, Emily Howes' award-winning debut, The Painter's Daughters, is a captivating and deeply moving novel about art, sisterhood and the price we pay for love.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781399610803
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 06 February 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 28.0mm
Width: 128.0mm
Height: 196.0mm
Weight: 270g
Pages: 384
About the Author
Emily Howes has worked as a storyteller, theatre maker, performer, writer and director in stage, television and radio. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, the Bath Short Story Award, the New Scottish Writing Award and she won the Mslexia Novel Award 2021. In addition to writing fiction, Emily has a Masters in Existential Psychotherapy and works as a psychotherapist in private practice. She lives in London with her children. The Painter's Daughters is her first novel.
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