Mini-Review

Eliza Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper and sometime lover of her cousin, the novelist William Ainsworth, a contemporary of Dickens. She has a piercingly clear and intelligent view of the world, in which she is only partially allowed to participate due to her being a woman in a patriarchal time, and becomes a keen abolitionist. She also becomes mixed up in a Victorian cause celebre: the Tichbourne case, fascinated by the intersection of wealth, fraud, privilege, colonialism and slavery.

As always, Smith’s prose is light and engaging, and very often funny. Loved it. I listened to the audiobook, which was read by Smith herself: she does a remarkably good job on all the voices, and sings beautifully when there is a snatch of singing to be done.

Fyi: descriptions of the maltreatment of slaves.

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