The Maid of Buttermere by Melvyn Bragg

The Maid of Buttermere by Melvyn Bragg

'This is historical fiction with a human face' Peter Ackroyd, The Times 'A vivid and erudite tour de force' Penelope Lively, Booker Prize-winning author of Moon Tiger 'A skilled, ornate and convincing examination of a nineteenth-century scandal in Bragg's own Cumbria' Thomas Keneally, Booker Prize-winning author of Schindler's Ark Set in the Lake District in the early nineteenth century, this is a riveting story of love and deception, and a scandal that shook the entire nation.

A vivid and erudite tour de force

-- Penelope Lively
This is the story of an impostor and bigamist, a self-styled Colonel Hope, who travels to the North, where eventually he marries "The Maid of Buttermere", a young woman whose natural beauty inspired the dreams and confirmed the theories of various early nineteenth-century writers. . It is a fine story . . . This is historical fiction with a human face -- Peter Ackroyd * The Times *

A skilled, ornate and convincing examination of a nineteenth-century scandal in Bragg's own Cumbria

-- Thomas Keneally
A detailed, eloquent and affecting panorama of truth and lies . . . thrusts [him] into the front rank * Mail on Sunday *

A triumph . . . I am overwhelmingly impressed

-- Beryl Bainbridge
Bragg achieves the most difficult of feats, the telling of the changing perceptions and ideals of a radical age . . . He is also as powerful as ever in his description of nature * Sunday Times *

A terrific tale of passion, lust, deception and moral outrage.

* Daily Mail *
Bragg writes with picturesque clarity; his prose accommodates the formality of the period, the splendidly sombre wateriness of the place and the robust passions of the people who lived there * Sunday Telegraph *

A fine novel, both sad and tragic. His background descriptions are beautiful . . . while his evocation of the early nineteenth century, and his handling of the ever-interesting topic of English snobbery is impeccable

* Irish Times *
Compelling . . . Painted on a broad canvas, packed with detail, with characters, with interesting psychological issues, and sallies into the history of the years 1802-1803 * Glasgow Herald *

Very much enjoyed; a fine subject treated with great energy and imagination, and a gusto that Hazlitt would have admired

-- Richard Holmes

An ingenious telling of a romantic tragedy

-- Gore Vidal

Melvyn Bragg was born in Wigton, Cumbria, in 1939. He went to the local Grammar School and then to Wadham College, Oxford. He joined the BBC in 1961, and published his first novel, For Want of a Nail, in 1965. He left the BBC and continued to write novels which include The Soldier's Return (WH Smith Literary Award), Without a City Wall (Mail on Sunday John Llewellyn Rhys Prize) and Now Is the Time (Parliamentary Book Award 2016). A Place in England, Son of War and Crossing the Lines were all nominated for the Booker Prize. His non-fiction includes The Adventure of English and The Book of Books, and his first memoir, Back in the Day, was published in 2022 to critical acclaim. He edited and presented The South Bank Show from 1977 and hosted the BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time from 1998. He has now retired from both. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society and of The British Academy. He was given a Peerage in 1998 and a Companion of Honour in 2017.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780340423738
ISBN 10	0340423730
Title	The Maid of Buttermere
Author	Melvyn Bragg
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton
Year published	1993-01-01
Number of pages	464
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.