by VanessaLafaye (Author), Vanessa Lafaye (Author), Rebecca Mascull (Contributor), Vanessa Lafaye (Author)
`Exquisite' Veronica Henry Before A Christmas Carol there was... Miss Marley A seasonal tale of kindness and goodwill
Orphans Clara and Jacob Marley live by their wits, scavenging for scraps in the poorest alleyways of London, in the shadow of the workhouse. Every night, Jake promises his little sister `tomorrow will be better' and when the chance to escape poverty comes their way, he seizes it despite the terrible price.
And so Jacob Marley is set on a path that leads to his infamous partnership with Ebenezer Scrooge. As Jacob builds a fortress of wealth to keep the world out, only Clara can warn him of the hideous fate that awaits him if he refuses to let love and kindness into his heart...
In Miss Marley, Vanessa Lafaye weaves a spellbinding Dickensian tale of ghosts, goodwill and hope - a perfect prequel to A Christmas Carol.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 176
Publisher: Hq
Published: 01 Nov 2018
ISBN 10: 0008306117
ISBN 13: 9780008306113
`Exquisite' Veronica Henry, author of A Night on the Orient Express
`A charming, finely detailed and beautifully written jaunt through Dickens' London - a tale of heartbreak, love, kindness, and avarice. With Lafaye at her finest it's seamlessly finished by Mascull; this book is a total, total joy.'
Fionnuala Kearney, author of You, Me and Other People
`A moving companion piece to the classic A Christmas Carol, with all the traditional echoes of the Dickensian festive season woven through, and with tragedy and joy in equal measure. A delight.'
Essie Fox, author of The Somnambulist
`The beauty of this book is not only in the gorgeous story, the attention to detail, the flowing prose, and the tribute to the original A Christmas Carol, but in the legacy that it is. The stunning legacy. Vanessa Lafaye, whose previous two novels I adored, sadly passed away before finishing this book. Rebecca Mascull, whose The Wild Air I loved, finished it for her. I could not tell where Lafaye ended and Mascull began. Just perfect.' Louise Beech
`A perfect gem of a book: a luminous depiction of Dickensian England, filled with a profound humanity that is uniquely its own.' Louisa Treger
Praise for Vanessa LaFaye
`Vanessa Lafaye's impressive debut melds social history, crime noir, romance, and disaster fiction.' Sunday Times
`A taut and powerful novel that I found deeply moving. A riveting piece of social history, it's also a love story and a devastating account of what it's like to experience such a disaster.' Daily Mail
`Wow, what a novel. Almost hurts to read because you can feel the danger and the possibility of things going wrong all the time. So powerful. Exquisitely written and so evocative. She is an amazing writer.' Cathy Kelly
`I absolutely loved this novel. It is rare to read something with such emotional intensity AND such exciting pace.' Elizabeth Noble
Vanessa Lafaye was born in Florida and studied in North Carolina. She moved to the UK in 1999 (having been deported once). She is the author of two previous novels, her first book Summertime, was chosen for Richard and Judy in 2015 and was shortlisted for the Historical Writers Award. Vanessa passed away in February 2018.
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