The new novel from Readers’ Favourite silver medalist Allie Cresswell.
Thirty years before the beginning of ‘Emma’ Mrs Bates is entirely different from the elderly, silent figure familiar to fans of Jane Austen’s fourth novel. She is comparatively young and beautiful, widowed – but ready to love again. She is the lynch-pin of Highbury society until the appalling Mrs Winwood arrives, very determined to hold sway over that ordered little town.
Miss Bates is as talkative aged twenty nine as she is in her later iteration, with a ghoulish fancy, seeing disaster in every cloud. When young Mr Woodhouse arrives looking for a plot for his new house, the two strike up a relationship characterised by their shared hypochondria, personal chariness and horror of draughts.
Jane, the other Miss Bates, is just seventeen and eager to leave the parochialism of Highbury behind her until handsome Lieutenant Weston comes home on furlough from the militia and sweeps her – quite literally – off her feet.
Mrs Bates of Highbury is the first of three novels by the Amazon #1 best-selling Allie Cresswell, which trace the pre-history of Emma and then run in parallel to it.
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Katie’s 4 Star Review
Mrs Bates of Highbury
By Allie Cresswell
4 stars
Reviewed on behalf of 3 Degrees of Fiction Book Blog
This was a really well written story. I love Jane Austin’s Emma, it was one of the first ‘classic’ books that I read when I was a teenager so when I read the blurb for this book I was really looking forward to reading it and I wasn’t disappointed. The author had a really good writing style, the story was engaging and her descriptive language was beautiful, I could imagine everything that I was reading. This is a standalone novel and even if you haven’t read Emma it won’t take anything away from this story. There are some really great characters in the story and I enjoyed reading about them. I definitely think this story would appeal to fans of classic romance, Jane Austin and also historical romance. The story takes place around 30 years before Emma and is set in the same village. I liked Mrs Bates; I thought that she was a great character, typical of that time period. I really felt for her at times as she tried to overcome the grief of losing her husband.
I haven’t read anything by this author previously but as I really enjoyed her writing style I would love to in the future.
A really lovely story that I absolutely recommend!
Author Bio
Allie Cresswell was born in Stockport, UK and began writing fiction as soon as she could hold a pencil.
She did a BA in English Literature at Birmingham University and an MA at Queen Mary College, London.
She has been a print-buyer, a pub landlady, a book-keeper, run a B & B and a group of boutique holiday cottages. Nowadays Allie writes full time having retired from teaching literature to lifelong learners.
She has two grown-up children, two granddaughters and two grandsons, is married to Tim and lives in Cumbria, NW England.
You can contact her via her website at www.allie-cresswell.com or find her on Facebook
Social Media Links
https://www.facebook.com/alliescribbler/
For the duration of the blog tour, Allie Cresswell has five hard copies of Game Show and five hard copies of Tiger in a Cage, all signed, available for £5 plus p & p to UK addresses. If you are interested then please get in touch.
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