Amazon:
‘They say I must be put to death for what happened to Madame, and they want me to confess. But how can I confess what I don’t believe I’ve done?’
1826, and all of London is in a frenzy. Crowds gather at the gates of the Old Bailey to watch as Frannie Langton, maid to Mr and Mrs Benham, goes on trial for their murder. The testimonies against her are damning – slave, whore, seductress. And they may be the truth. But they are not the whole truth.
For the first time Frannie must tell her story. It begins with a girl learning to read on a plantation in Jamaica, and it ends in a grand house in London, where a beautiful woman waits to be freed.
But through her fevered confessions, one burning question haunts Frannie Langton: could she have murdered the only person she ever loved?
A beautiful and haunting tale about one woman’s fight to tell her story, The Confessions of Frannie Langton leads you through laudanum-laced dressing rooms and dark-as-night back alleys, into the enthralling heart of Georgian London.
Book design:
Embroidery by Scott Heron
Endpapers by William Morris (1834-96)
My reading experience:
A beautifully designed book, I was drawn to it just for its cover.
This is a surprisingly compelling story told in the eloquent voice of Frannie Langton, a black slave educated in the name of an experiment and then punished for her intuition.
Set in Georgian London, the reader is opened to society and social segregation, prejudices, passion and intrigue.
In all honesty this book was a slow burn for me. The structure was perfect, the prose are beautiful and the story flows in a leading way. I recommend this book to those of you who enjoy colourful historical novels.
Appletree Books 