Melvyn Bragg's highly acclaimed, bestselling historical novel, the story behind one of the 19th century's greatest scandals.

'This is the story of an impostor and bigamist, a self-styled Colonel Hope, who travels to the North, where eventually he marries "The Maid of Buttermere", a young woman whose natural beauty inspired the dreams and confirmed the theories of various early nineteenth-century writers . . . It is a fine story . . . This is historical fiction with a human face'
Peter Ackroyd, The Times

'A skilled, ornate and convincing examination of a nineteenth-century scandal in Bragg's own Cumbria'
Thomas Keneally

'A triumph . . . I am overwhelmingly impressed'
Beryl Bainbridge

'Bragg achieves the most difficult of feats, the telling of the changing perceptions and ideals of a radical age . . . He is also as powerful as ever in his description of nature'
Sunday Times

Melvyn Bragg's highly-acclaimed bestselling historical novel, the story behind one of the 19th century's greatest scandals.

About the Author

Melvyn Bragg is a writer and broadcaster whose first novel, For Want of a Nail, was published in 1965. His novels since include The Maid of Buttermere, The Soldier's Return, A Son of War, Credo and Now is the Time, which won the Parliamentary Book Award for fiction in 2016. His books have also been awarded the Time/Life Silver Pen Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the WHSmith Literary Award, and have been longlisted three times for the Booker Prize (including the Lost Man Booker Prize).
He has also written several works of non-fiction, including The Adventure of English and The Book of Books about the King James Bible.
He lives in London and Cumbria.

Reviews

A vivid and erudite tour de force

-- Penelope Lively
This is the story of an impostor and bigamist, a self-styled Colonel Hope, who travels to the North, where eventually he marries "The Maid of Buttermere", a young woman whose natural beauty inspired the dreams and confirmed the theories of various early nineteenth-century writers . . . It is a fine story . . . This is historical fiction with a human face -- Peter Ackroyd * The Times *

A skilled, ornate and convincing examination of a nineteenth-century scandal in Bragg's own Cumbria

-- Thomas Keneally
A detailed, eloquent and affecting panorama of truth and lies . . . thrusts [him] into the front rank * Mail on Sunday *

A triumph . . . I am overwhelmingly impressed

-- Beryl Bainbridge
Bragg achieves the most difficult of feats, the telling of the changing perceptions and ideals of a radical age . . . He is also as powerful as ever in his description of nature * Sunday Times *

A terrific tale of passion, lust, deception and moral outrage.

* Daily Mail *
Bragg writes with picturesque clarity; his prose accommodates the formality of the period, the splendidly sombre wateriness of the place and the robust passions of the people who lived there * Sunday Telegraph *

A fine novel, both sad and tragic. His background descriptions are beautiful . . . while his evocation of the early nineteenth century, and his handling of the ever-interesting topic of English snobbery is impeccable

* Irish Times *
Compelling . . . Painted on a broad canvas, packed with detail, with characters, with interesting psychological issues, and sallies into the history of the years 1802-1803 * Glasgow Herald *

Very much enjoyed; a fine subject treated with great energy and imagination, and a gusto that Hazlitt would have admired

-- Richard Holmes

An ingenious telling of a romantic tragedy

-- Gore Vidal



Book Information
ISBN 9780340423738
Author Melvyn Bragg
Format Paperback
Page Count 464
Imprint Sceptre
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Weight(grams) 320g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 130mm * 34mm