Hachette, 2021.
1822 Edinburgh was not a setting about which I knew very much before reading this novel.
The story intertwines the lives of two fictional female characters, Elizabeth Rocheid and Belle Brodie. Elizabeth is recently widowed and, her husband having left her with almost nothing, she has nowhere else to go and so comes to live with her cousin on her estate near the city of Edinburgh. She eventually meets Belle Brodie, Edinburgh’s most expensive courtesan who has a side hustle as a perfume and oil producer, a business Belle hopes will eventually serve as her primary income into her retirement.
The story of these two women overlaps neatly with other events such as the relocating of the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens from Leith to Inverleith and the royal visit to Scotland by King George IV in 1822.
The characters are lifelike, so much so that it is impossible to tell apart those—like Elizabeth and Belle—who are creations stemming from the author’s imagination from those characters—like William McNab and Robert Graham—who were real-life characters with well documented histories.
Sheridan’s evocation of the city of Edinburgh and its surroundings is astounding, particularly since she wrote the book during the 2020 pandemic lockdown, without much opportunity to visit the city. Her writing is atmospheric and joyful, with small details, landmarks and carefully-painted street scenes which serve to provide consistency and authenticity to the writing.
The selection of the present tense was an interesting component and one which brought a clever immediacy to the story. This was woven together by deft switches in point of view and voice to give an intriguing sense of the reader being able to follow multiple characters simultaneously. While the story is surely that of Elizabeth and Belle, with there being little doubt that they are the intended protagonists, we are treated to insights into the minds of other characters like Elizabeth’s cousin Clementina or her eventual love-interest Johann von Streitz.
Ultimately, this is a well-researched and skilfully written piece of historical fiction which astutely gives voice to otherwise forgotten female voices of nineteenth century Scotland.
