According to Dilly Court’s own website (http://www.dillycourt.com/about.aspx) she has been heavily influenced by Enid Blyton. She now lives in Dorset where her hobbies include knitting. In this gripping new novel of 2013 which penetrates to the heart of the human condition with all its random complexities, we meet eight-year-old Sarah Scrase and her widowed mother Ellen. They are forced to enter St Giles and St George’s Workhouse in Bloomsbury due to grinding poverty . Then Ellen dies in childbirth and it seems Sarah’s life will always be one of poverty and struggle. The plucky youngster then falls foul of Workhouse Master Trigg and his cruel wife. Things could hardly be worse. But then Sarah’s ordeal seems to be over when philanthropist and sugar mill owner James Arbuthnot takes her into his home. Her wealthy benefactor reportsTrigg and his wife for their dastardly ways. Sarah is blamed for their misfortune, and in a fit of revenge the couple decide to take the law into their own hands. One doesn’t quite know right to the end whether things will turn out well for the innocent and spirited child. A page turner which will keep you reading to the last word.
496 pages in Arrow paperback edition.
ISBN 978-0099562627