The Painter's Daughters
The award-winning debut novel selected for BBC Radio 2 Book Club
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The Painter's Daughters
Narrated by:
Gemma Lawrence, Louise Brealey
Buy Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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Gemma Lawrence
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Louise Brealey
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By:
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Emily Howes
About this listen
1759, Ipswich. Sisters Peggy and Molly Gainsborough are the best of friends and do everything together. They spy on their father as he paints, they rankle their mother as she manages the books, they tear barefoot through the muddy fields that surround their home. But there is another reason they are inseparable: from a young age, Molly has had a tendency to forget who she is, to fall into confusion, and Peggy knows instinctively that no one must find out.
When the family move to Bath, Thomas Gainsborough finds fame as a portrait artist, while his daughters are thrown into the whirl of polite society. Here, the merits of marriage and codes of behaviour are crystal clear, and secrets much harder to keep. As Peggy goes to greater lengths to protect her sister, she finds herself falling in love, and their precarious situation is soon thrown catastrophically off-course. The discovery of a betrayal forces her to question all she has done for Molly - and whether any one person can truly change the fate of another . . .
Inspired by true events and told with irresistible vibrancy and wit, Emily Howes' award-winning debut is a captivating and deeply moving novel about art, sisterhood and the price we pay for love.©2024 Emily Howes
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Critic reviews
It's beautifully written and I raced through it. Research is filtered through contemporary consciousness and deployed with skill. It's a polished performance (Hilary Mantel, Booker Prize-winning author of WOLF HALL)
Beautifully written, moving and skilfully handled, The Painter's Daughters is as exquisitely and tenderly rendered as a Gainsborough painting (Tracy Chevalier, author of GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING)
A rich evocation of secrets, art, sisterhood and class
A beautifully written, impressively researched novel about sisterly love, art and sacrifice, The Painter's Daughters is historical fiction at its finest. Both entertaining and enlightening, it swept me along in its galloping pace while teaching me about a world I never knew. Howes is a talent to be reckoned with. Wonderful (Emma Stonex, author of THE LAMPLIGHTERS)
A moving exploration of the familial ties that bind us and the grief of a life half-lived . . . a wonderful debut that lingered with me (Elizabeth Macneal, author of THE DOLL FACTORY)
A thoughtful and thought-provoking debut novel that brings to life the daughters of painter Thomas Gainsborough. Emily Howes is a talented writer who vividly evokes Regency England but doesn't shy away from exploring how its glittering society could constrain and threaten young women. An engaging and enjoyable mix of historical fact and beautifully-imagined fiction (Joanna Quinn, author of THE WHALEBONE THEATRE)
A wonderfully powerful and haunting novel about sisterly love, art and betrayal, with a hugely gripping plot. I absolutely loved it (Deborah Moggach, author of TULIP FEVER)
A feast for the senses and the joy of a story well told - a beautiful debut (Jo Browning Wroe, author of A TERRIBLE KINDNESS)
I loved The Painter's Daughters - a vivid, sad, beautiful novel about sisters (Amy Key, author of ARRANGEMENTS IN BLUE)
My favourite kind of storytelling: vividly imagined and exquisitely brought to the page. I loved The Painter's Daughters for its freshness, its tenderness and its robust humour. It beautifully captures a child coming to terms with the adult world and the extraordinary bond that can exist between sisters. I adored it, and know it will stay with me for a very long time
(Rachel Joyce, author of THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY)
(Rachel Joyce, author of THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY)
A deeply touching tale of two sisters that probes the difference between love and self-sacrifice. Fascinating (Priscilla Morris, author of BLACK BUTTERFLIES)
A beautiful, moving and full-blooded novel that explores powerful questions about madness, art and love and brings unseen lives to the fore . . . I loved seeing the Gainsborough girls brought out of the canvas and into the messy real world, and the portrait of the artist himself in all his loving, faithless complexity (Kate Murray-Browne, author of THE UPSTAIRS ROOM)
Wonderful
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When the jailer becomes the prisoner.
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The painter Thomas Gainsborough. His provide a captivating story and I will certainly look different differently at Gainsborough’s paintings from now on.! I highly recommend!
A brilliant listen!
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Loved it!
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lovely story, exploring themes of love, family, protection, society through the Gainsborough sisters,
wonderful
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