‘Discover the spellbinding portrait of two women determined to find their freedom. Perfect for fans of Sarah Waters, The Doll Factory and The Essex Serpent.‘
– The Secret Photographs
The Secret Photographs by Jacquie Bloese was released in paperback October 3rd with Hodder & Staughton (originally published in hardback as The Golden Hour). I am delighted to be joining the blog tour today with an extract from The Secret Photographs, a novel that has been described as ‘richly atmospheric and gripping historical fiction shining a light on the role of women in a world dominated by men.’
[ About The Secret Photographs ]
England, 1895: In the bustling seaside town of Brighton, photography is all the rage. Ellen Harper assists her twin brother running one of the city’s seafront studios, where fashionable ladies and gentlemen pose in their finery to have their likeness captured forever in a silver frame.
But behind the façade of a respectable business, the siblings have something to hide. After the studio closes for the day, secret photographs are taken in the back room. There is money to be made from this underground trade, but if exposed to the light of day, these photographs would destroy them…
When newly married Clementine comes to sit for a portrait, Ellen learns she is looking for a lady’s companion. Longing for a life of her own choosing and freedom from the deals her brother has made, Ellen accepts the post. The new position transports her to a sweeping white-fronted townhouse on one of Brighton’s most prestigious crescents, full of every luxury imaginable.
But Clementine’s gilded world hides as much darkness as Ellen hoped to escape… What will happen when the secrets Ellen has left behind finally catch up to her?
[ Extract ]
Prologue
Brighton, 1896
The body comes up with the spring tide, not far from where the gulls smash clams and winkles under the rusting girders of the pier. It lies blunted and bruised on the glistening pebbles as the sea retreats, and in those few moonlit hours before it rises again there is a peace of sorts: crabs scuttle from their whelk shells to feast and fight, a thorn ray lays a pouch of eggs in the green shallow waters, a kittiwake swoops silver across the shingle and calls out a blessing.
A fisherman down on the beach at the first shimmer of dawn with his young son sees it first, and he turns his boy’s head away and tells him to go to school today instead. He is superstitious, he won’t go out on the boat this morning, and then, just as he is deciding what to do, he sees the fellow who’s made a mint from selling ice cream, out for his early morning stroll. They confer in hushed tones as the tide creeps in and more boatmen come, and someone covers the body with a blanket, and a boy is given a penny to fetch a policeman, but he spends it on a bun from Medfords and forgets; and by the time word is received at the station and the constable on duty has reached the seafront, the sun is up and so too is most of Brighton, and a small crowd has gathered, as crowds tend to do in this shoeless, well-heeled town.
Constable Fisher waits a moment before approaching. He’s been in this job for long enough to know when there’s been foul play – it’s there if you look in the set of a person’s shoulders, the shifting dart of an eye. It’s in the air too, you can smell wrongdoing, just as you can goodness: he’s a religious man and he believes in spirits. Heads turn as he walks down the slipway; but he can’t yet see the body. It’s a woman, he expects. It’s almost always a woman.
The Secret Photographs – Purchase Link
[ Bio ]
Jacquie is a writer of historical book group fiction, originally from the Channel Island of Guernsey. She draws her inspiration from atmospheric locations with intriguing histories, and people – both real and imaginary – whose stories are calling out to be told.
Her first novel THE FRENCH HOUSE, set during the German Occupation of Guernsey in the second World War, was a Richard and Judy Winter 2022 book club pick, and a finalist in the Mslexia Novel Award. Her second novel THE GOLDEN HOUR is inspired by the seaside town of Brighton, where Jacquie currently lives, and tells the story of three women from different classes who become caught up in the underground world of erotic photography in 1890s Victorian England.
Jacquie began her professional life teaching English, in Turkey and Spain, before returning to the UK to work in ELT publishing for a number of publishers, including Scholastic, Oxford University Press and Penguin Random House. She now works freelance as an educational consultant, writer and editor.
Thank you to Graeme William for inviting me to join in the celebration of the paperback release of The Secret Photographs
