A page turner of a novel about two women whose lives are brought together by a twist of fate.
"Did life ever deal you a real wild card?" So steely MP Frances Quilter asks her new lover. It's the turbulent summer of 2019 and she's distracted from affairs of state by affairs of the heart. She misjudges the public mood and falls foul of local opinion over the demolition of "The Cooper", a notorious local housing estate.
Once the estate was farmland, beloved home of the Gardiner family. But when the English Civil War erupts, the family is scattered. Feisty young Elizabeth Gardiner is sold as an indentured labourer by her mother and put on a sailing ship bound for America.
The two lives of the women, separated by 400 years of history, are brought together in this captivating story.
Can Frances salvage her career or keep her lover? Does Elizabeth survive to reach the new world? And who is the enigmatic American student who arrives in London to intern for Frances at the start of that fateful summer?
Freeborn Girls is a dual timeline novel that tackles some of the big political issues of our times. It tells a lyrical story of women in very different times finding their version of freedom. A pacy, carefully-researched novel, it's inspired by a true story.
Written by former MP, Sally Keeble, it lifts the lid off the Westminster hothouse.
What the reviewers say:
"Beyond all the noise and the chaos and the fear - so brilliantly captured in the prose - is a chronicle of women doing what has to be done, and then some, in order to be free.
I can't recommend this book highly enough. I read it first in one sitting and then went back and read it again. Beautifully written, meticulously
researched." Margaret Johnson.
"Freeborn Girls is a beautifully written novel that showcases Sally Keeble's skills as a writer. She is able to enthral with her powerful storytelling," Yvonne Dykes, author.
