A stunning historical novel, ‘The Book of Fires’ is the unforgettable story of Agnes Trussel – and love, fireworks and redemption.Brought up in rural Sussex, seventeen-year-old Agnes Trussel is carrying an unwanted child. Taking advantage of the death of her elderly neighbour, Agnes steals her savings and runs away to London. On her way she encounters the intriguing Lettice Talbot who promises that she will help Agnes upon their arrival. But Agnes soon becomes lost in the dark, lab...

From the author of the Orange New Writers shortlisted ‘The Book of Fires’, an extraordinary tale of love and science.When Henry Lyte brings his young bride Frances home to his Somerset estate, he hopes she will share in his devotion to the garden – a refuge of fruit trees and flower beds, with a knot of herbs at its heart. Henry is a scholar, and his life’s work is his ‘herbal’ – a book of plants and their medicinal properties, intended for those who cannot afford physicians’ expen...

Reminiscent of Year of Wonders, a captivating debut novel of fireworks, fortune, and a young woman's redemptionIt is 1752 and seventeen-year-old Agnes Trussel arrives in London pregnant with an unwanted child. Lost and frightened, she finds herself at the home of Mr. J. Blacklock, a brooding fireworks maker who hires Agnes as an apprentice. As she learns to make rockets, portfires, and fiery rain, she slowly gains his trust and joins his quest to make the ...

Ein stimmungsvoller und farbenfroher Roman mit außergewöhnlichem SchauplatzLondon, 1752: Ein Feuerwerk, wie ihr Dienstherr John Blacklock es fertigt, hat die junge Agnes noch nie gesehen. Erst vor wenigen Tagen hat sie ihr beengtes Elternhaus in Sussex verlassen, um Schimpf und Schande von ihrer Familie fernzuhalten. Das Glitzern und Brausen fasziniert sie, und dank ihrer geschickten Finger lernt Agnes rasch, Raketen zu bauen, Wunderkerzen, Leuchtsterne und Feuerre...