Description
The Portrait Girl by Nicole Swengley
Will she captivate you too?
1880
A young woman sits for the painting of a miniature portrait – a fashionable betrothal gift – while secretly contemplating a terrifying decision that will change everything.
This Year
Freya Wetherby’s life is falling apart. Her jewellery business has failed and her boyfriend has betrayed her. Then she discovers a Victorian portrait miniature in her late mother’s belongings. Who is this intriguing young woman? Why is Freya becoming so obsessed by her?
As she embarks on a quest to discover the girl’s identity, a meeting with an art historian draws her into a fascinating but sinister series of salons where the Victorian art world is uncannily brought to life.
Past and present become dangerously blurred as Freya begins a perilous search for the truth about the portrait miniature – and herself.
Front cover image: Keith Corrigan/Alamy Stock Photo. Original oil painting by Arthur Hughes, 1864.
“An ingenious plot, masses of fabulous detail, a compelling mystery and, at its heart, a vindication for the rights of the female artist. Brava.” Elizabeth Buchan, author of Bonjour Sophie.
“A splendid, mysterious tale about Victorian art in which people are not quite what they seem.” Adam Hart-Davis, presenter of BBC TV’s What the Victorians Did for Us.
One of FAD magazine’s “top books for Autumn”
