The next book to be featured on the Zoe Ball Radio 2 Book Club will be The Painter’s Daughters, the fascinating debut novel by Emily Howes. The book is released on 29 February and Emily’s full length interview with Zoe is on BBC Sounds now.
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The Painter’s Daughters
1759, Ipswich. Sisters Peggy and Molly Gainsborough are the best of friends and do everything together. They spy on their father as he paints, they rankle their mother as she manages the books, they tear barefoot through the muddy fields that surround their home. But there is another reason they are inseparable: from a young age, Molly has had a tendency to forget who she is, to fall into mental confusion, and Peggy knows instinctively that no one must find out.
When the family move to Bath, the sisters are thrown into the whirl of polite society, where the merits of marriage and codes of behaviour are crystal clear, and secrets much harder to keep. As Peggy goes to greater lengths to protect her sister from the threat of an asylum, she finds herself falling in love, and their precarious situation is soon thrown catastrophically off course. The discovery of a betrayal forces Peggy to question all she has done for Molly – and whether any one person can truly change the fate of another.
Selection panel review
The book was selected with the help of a panel of library staff from across the UK. Our readers loved The Painter’s Daughters – here are some of their comments:
“It was a great read about two very close sisters in the Victorian era. One of them has a mental health condition and the other sister is fiercely protective of her and will do anything to prevent her from being sent away to a madhouse. The conventions of Victorian high society added a strain onto this as they become young women. It was well-written. All the characters were engaging, it was very atmospheric and moving. It was half amusing reading about the mischief they get up to as children and but sadder towards the end. It made me feel grateful that our understanding and empathy towards mental health has massively improved today.”
“This is an imagined version of the lives of the daughters of the portrait artist Thomas Gainsborough, from their early childhood in Suffolk, to the end of their lives in London. I am not a great reader of historical novels, so was unsure about this at the start. It won me over quite quickly and drew me into the lives of the members of this small family. It is mainly about the relationship of the sisters, Molly and Peggy, within the family setting, but from the point of view of the younger sister Peggy. Peggy devotes her whole life to sister Molly, who has episodes of blankness, strange behaviour and amnesia. This devotion is self-sacrificial, true sisterly love. It manages to be full of period detail, so the reader feels they are there. It made it real to me. It is a good imagining of what the lives of the two women might have been like, based on what is known. I cared about Peggy and Molly and wanted them to be happy, so much that I shed a tear at the end. It’s also about women, family relationships, life in late eighteenth century England, artists and mental ill health.”
“A beautifully written story of the bond between sisters, of family relationships, madness and the difficulties of life for women in the eighteenth century. The relationship is beautifully nuanced, from the sisters’ closeness as children and the fun they have together, through their changing interests and concerns as they get older, the pressures on them to conform to society and to marry and the changes in the balance of power between them throughout their lives.”
“Beautifully written book, loved the intricacy of the sisters and very powerfully written. Rushed through the book as so mesmerised with the story and the way it portrayed the way we try to live up to expectations.”
“I really enjoyed this. The gentle, sensitive and realistic depiction of Molly really sets the book apart from other examples of the genre. Her decline when they move to Bath – which made me think of Jane Austen’s own struggles with the city – is sensitively portrayed. Peggy’s loyalty and love for her sister is palpable even when it restricts her own life, her internal struggles felt real but ultimately this is a passionate portrayal of sisterly love and devotion. The romance element only added to the conflict and emotion within the story. I really enjoyed this and feel it is perfectly suited to any book group.”
“I really loved this book and reading about the beautifully close relationship between the daughters of painter Thomas Gainsborough, Peggy and Molly. Alongside their story we learn about how their mother was conceived, and the intrigue and scandal about that story. It becomes clear what this is about as the story progresses. There are some great descriptive passages, about painting and colours. The author obviously conducted a huge amount of historical research, which was wonderful to read about. It was very well written – a great read.”
About the author
Emily Howes has worked as a storyteller, theatre maker, performer, writer and director in stage, television and radio. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, the Bath Short Story Award, the New Scottish Writing Award and she won the Mslexia Novel Award 2021. In addition to writing fiction, Emily has a Masters in Existential Psychotherapy and works as a psychotherapist in private practice. She lives in London with her children. The Painter’s Daughters is her first novel.
Get involved
Tune in to the Zoe Ball Breakfast Show to hear more about the Book Club, and listen to the full-length interview on BBC Sounds.
Have you read The Painter’s Daughters? You can share your thoughts with us on Twitter using #R2BookClub and you can also follow Emily.
Planning to buy The Painter’s Daughters for your group? Buy books from Hive or from Bookshop.org and support The Reading Agency and local bookshops at no extra cost to you.
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