A compelling story of passion, loyalty and the dangers of an obsessive relationship by the Booker Prize-longlisted and bestselling author Melvyn Bragg

Half-French and with an agile, inquiring mind, Rosemary Lewis cannot help being out of the ordinary in Thurston, the Cumbrian market town where she grows up between the wars. An early, bruising failure in love drives her inwards to the solace of books until she meets Edgar - vigorous, down to earth and determined to win her. Charting their life together, this powerful novel probes with exceptional acuity the heights and tortured depths of a bond that becomes a shackle.


'Rosemary is an outstanding creation' Sunday Telegraph

'A vigorous but never crude study of female sexuality, it is distinguished by passages of prose which have precisely the sort of leaping life that Lawrence held up before himself as an ideal all through his career' Guardian

A compelling story of passion, loyalty and the dangers of an obsessive relationship

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

Rosemary is an outstanding creation.

* Sunday Telegraph *
A vigorous but never crude study of female sexuality, it is distinguished by passages of prose which have precisely the sort of leaping life that Lawrence held up before himself as an ideal all through his career * Guardian *
Rosemary is drawn with great sympathy and warmth . . . Melvyn Bragg writes with a timelessness that suits his heroine and his theme, that is in tune with the whole story * Financial Times *

Words could be used linking Melvyn Bragg with Hardy, Lawrence and Bennett in the Grand Chain: that he belongs there is indisputable

* New Statesman *
Most attractive of all is this book's openness, its serious intention and a certain ingenuousness in the way it treats its themes. * Sunday Times *

A strong and solid novel, with a totally convincing figure, at once fallible and admirable, at its centre

* Sunday Telegraph *

It is an extraordinary analysis of the battle between the sexes, and is compelling reading

* Cosmopolitan *

Rosemary is utterly convincing throughout . . . a character real enough to behave out of character at times and shock the reader as much as she both dismays and excites her husband.

* Listener *



Book Information
ISBN 9780340553480
Author Melvyn Bragg
Format Paperback
Page Count 432
Imprint Sceptre
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Weight(grams) 300g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 130mm * 30mm