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  • Published: 2 July 2012
  • ISBN: 9780241959558
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 176

The Colour of Milk




A novel with a fierce, urgent voice - an illiterate farmer's daughter in the 1830s

'this is my book and i am writing it by my own hand'

The year is eighteen hundred and thirty one when fifteen-year-old Mary begins the difficult task of telling her story. A scrap of a thing with a sharp tongue and hair the colour of milk, Mary leads a harsh life working on her father's farm alongside her three sisters. In the summer she is sent to work for the local vicar's invalid wife, where the reasons why she must record the truth of what happens to her - and the need to record it so urgently - are gradually revealed.

  • Published: 2 July 2012
  • ISBN: 9780241959558
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 176

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Praise for The Colour of Milk

Haunting, distinctive voices . . . Mary's spare simple words paint brilliant pictures in the reader's mind . . . Nell Leyshon's imaginative powers are considerable

Independent on Sunday

The Colour of Milk is an astounding read. Like the best bits of Hardy's Tess of the D'Ubervilles . . . Mary is one of the most compelling narrators I've ever encountered . . . packs a powerful punch . . . a very British gem

Stylist

It is once in a blue moon that an author creates a voice quite as alive and as startling as Mary's. Nell Leyshon deserves to be showered with awards for The Colour Of Milk

Sunday Express

Spare and beautifully crafted . . . compelling . . . Like a love letter to the power of words

Marie Claire

A small tour de force - a wonderfully convincing voice, and a devastating story told with great skill and economy

Penelope Lively

Brilliant, devastating and unforgettable

Easy Living

Leyshon is a master of domestic suspense . . . Slender but compelling, the charm of Leyshon's novella is to be found as much in its spare, evocative style as in the moving candour of its narrator

Observer

Leyshon's spare, dialogue-centred storytelling is lean and vivid . . . a small potted tragedy

The Times

Leyshon's novel has a powerful impact . . . one is wholly submerged in the horrific events . . . skilfully captures the young girl's steadily growing confidence in her writing

Independent

I loved it. The Colour of Milk is charming, Brontë-esque, compelling, special and hard to forget. I loved Mary's voice - so inspiring and likeable. Such a hopeful book

Marian Keyes

An urgent tale of class division, poverty and the hardship of life as a poor woman in a patriarchal world . . . packs a punch

Psychologies

Brontë-esque undertones . . . a disturbing statement on the social constraints faced by 19th-century women

Financial Times

The economy of her prose heightens the power of this slender but vivid tale

Daily Mail

Memorable . . . the ending will surprise you

Glamour