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In mid-eighteenth century London, Bess goes back to the Foundling Hospital to reclaim the child she once left there. Unexpectedly, she is told she has already come and gone with the child. At a dour property nearby, a reclusive widow hires a nursemaid for her own daughter, leading to a confrontation with a difficult, repressed past.
About the author
Stacey Halls was born in Lancashire and worked as a journalist before her debut The Familiars was published in 2019. The Familiars was the bestselling debut hardback novel of 2019, won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the British Book Awards Debut Book of the Year. Her novels The Foundling and Mrs England were also acclaimed Sunday Times bestsellers. Mrs England was further longlisted for the Portico Prize, the Walter Scott Prize and won the Women's Prize Futures Award.
Summary
Don't miss Stacey Halls' captivating new novel THE HOUSEHOLD - available to buy now!
From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Familiars
Two women, bound by a child, and a secret that will change everything . . .
London, 1754. Six years after leaving her illegitimate daughter Clara at London's Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the child she has never known. Dreading the worst, that Clara has died in care, Bess is astonished to be told she has already claimed her. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl - and why.
Less than a mile from Bess's lodgings in the city, in a quiet, gloomy townhouse on the edge of London, a young widow has not left the house in a decade. When her close friend - an ambitious young doctor at the Foundling Hospital - persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But her past is threatening to catch up with her and tear her carefully constructed world apart.
From the bestselling author of The Familiars comes this captivating story of mothers and daughters, class and power, and love against the greatest of odds . . .
'The new Hilary Mantel' COSMOPOLITAN
'Stacey Halls is a writer of great originality, great imagination and great sense of place. Atmospheric, intelligent, accessible, every novel is worth reading, then reading again and again' Kate Mosse
Another gripping, immersive, intelligent work of historical fiction from the bestselling author of The Familiars' KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE, author of THE MERCIES
A moving, atmospheric chiller' INDEPENDENT
'A breathtaking achievement' SUNDAY EXPRESS
'Enjoyable and atmospheric' THE TIMES
'Historical drama at its very best' MY WEEKLY
**MRS ENGLAND: the brand new novel from Stacey Halls is out now**
*Sunday Times bestseller February and September 2020*
Foreword
From the bestselling author of The Familiars, and set against the vibrant backdrop of Georgian London, The Foundling explores families, secrets, class, equality, power and the meaning of motherhood.
