The Midwife's Daughter
  • Published: 2 January 2013
  • ISBN: 9780241962763
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 400

The Midwife's Daughter

Formats & editions
EBook
2 Jan 2013
Paperback
2 Jan 2013
Buy from…
Amazon Apple Books Google Play Kobo Booktopia eBooks.com

A deeply moving tale, set in a small Cornish village just before the First World War, about two sisters and the young black orphan who changes their lives

'Anyone in Silkhampton of the poorer class, aged twenty-eight or under, stood a fair chance of having been seen into the world by Violet Dimond. She was Mrs Dimond, urgently sent for in the middle of the night, ready to practice the arcane behind closed doors, in possession of the grisliest secrets of the hidden adult world. . .'

It's the turn of the twentieth century and Violet Dimond, the Holy Terror, is the village's best handywoman. She's the last of a dying breed, as for some the good old ways are no longer good enough: medicine is moving forward, with all the modern formalities and administration that will change her profession forever.

But Violet does not know that change is coming - or that her decision to adopt a young black orphan, Gracie, will have far reaching and unforeseen consequences for herself and her twin sister, Bea. In what sort of world will Grace grow up, with war and change galloping towards them all? And what was it like to be black and a young girl in a Cornish village then?

A moving tale of prejudice, struggle, love, tragedy, bravery and the changing lives of women in the twentieth century, The Midwife's Daughter grips the reader all the way to its quietly heartbreaking conclusion.
  • Published: 2 January 2013
  • ISBN: 9780241962763
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 400
Categories:
Share…

Also by Patricia Ferguson

The One I Saw
Aren't We Sisters?
See all

Praise for The Midwife's Daughter

The Midwife's Daughter is warm and wise, heart- breakingly sad and yet somehow uplifting too.I've been a big fan of Patricia Ferguson for many years - and I think this is her finest novel yet.

Jacqueline Wilson

A masterfully detailed, compassionate and enthralling story, rich in surprising revelations and beautifully plotted.

Miranda Seymour

She is precisely the kind of writer whose novels you'd expect to find advertised on tube billboards and selling in the hundred thousands - plotty, emollient, fluent, concerned with relationships and what fosters or thwarts them, and capable of making you root for the characters

Guardian

Strong, affecting, vividly depicted . . . It is a pure pleasure to read

Lionel Shriver, Telegraph

One of the most brilliant novelists around . . . funny, gripping, wonderfully shrewd

Amanda Craig, Independent

Moving seamlessly between characters, she shines light on barely-conscious thoughts and feelings to great, often ironic effect . . . a sympathetic, psychologically acute and thoroughly involving tale

Daily Mail

Hugely enjoyable, classic storytelling

Red

Ferguson should be better known . . . she draws on years of experience working as a nurse and midwife to produce acute, skilful descriptions

FT