Painters Daughters award winning debut novel selected

SELECTED FOR THE BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB | WINNER OF THE MSLEXIA NOVEL COMPETITION Beautifully written . . . I raced through it HILARY MANTELAs exquisitely and tenderly rendered as a Gainsborough painting TRACY CHEVALIERConvincing, engaging, transporting GUARDIAN A wonderfully powerful and haunting novel with a hugely gripping plot DEBORAH MOGGACH1759, 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 offcourse. 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 awardwinning debut is a captivating and deeply... | Emily Howes The Painter's Daughters : The award-winning debut novel selected