The Twisting Vine by Margaret Muir

Title: The Twisting Vine
Author: Margaret Muir
Publisher: Robert Hale
ISBN: 0-7090-8132-4
Format: Hardback
Publication date: 31 August
A saga set in Yorkshire - 1896
With temptation thrown in her lap, Lucy Oldfield steals an expensive French doll from her dying mistress. After losing her job at Heaton Hall, she returns to the squalid streets of Leeds where she falls victim to the lies of a confidence trickster.
Alone, and with a son to support, Lucy has little to look forward to, until a chance meeting with a stranger on a train changes her fortune. When Lucy moves to the country to care for the ageing gentleman, she is provided with a cottage of her own. What more could she wish for? But the menacing torments of an itinerant worker, and the outbreak of war, turn her world upside down. Then a sudden death and an unexpected discovery sees her embarking on a voyage to India. Can fate have other cruel twists in store?
The Twisting Vine follows the fluctuating fortunes of Lucy and her son, James, over a period of twenty five years. Their lives are loosely connected by the unobtrusive presence of the porcelain-faced French Bru.
The doll’s apparel, which changes throughout the story, serves as an extended metaphor which parallels the ageing process.
Margaret Muir draws on her love of Yorkshire for its settings.
The Twisting Vine is her second novel published by Hale.
Links: To read an excerpt, click here
The Twisting Vine is available fromAmazon UK