A Respectable Trade

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It’s the middle of the night,’ the boy protested and then stopped when he saw Mehuru’s look. ‘Yes, master.’ The great roar and sweep of history is successfully braided into the intimate daily detail of this compelling and intelligent book’ Speaking to the press Emma Fielding felt that the affair between Frances and Mehuru was key to getting across some important facts about the slave trade saying “the love story is a more acceptable way of showing slavery. This way it’s not just a history lesson.” I liked seeing Frances grow as a character. She starts out being shy and submissive, willing to do whatever people tell her to do without asking any questions, but as the novel continues, she slowly becomes more independent, and realizes that what her husband is doing isn't entirely sound at all. Philippa Gregory is an established writer and broadcaster for radio and television. She went to school in Bristol, has a history degree from the University of Sussex and a PhD in Eighteenth-century literature from the University of Edinburgh. She has been widely praised for her historical novels, as well as for her works of contemporary suspense. The Other Boleyn Girl has been adapted for BBC television and is now a major film, starring Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman and Eric Bana. Philippa Gregory lives in the North of England with her family.

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While this setting of late 1700’s England, deeply immersed in the time of slave trade, is unnerving to a modern reader I believe the story is told as well as could be done. There is no “soapbox” preaching of good vs evil. I appreciate the story told from a candid point of view, using that time period’s vernacular and attitudes to let the reader decide for themself the right and wrong of the slave trade/working situations and not have it pushed on to the reader via the telling of the story. this book is about a topic so important to me that I wanted to emphasise some of the historical facts". In this novel, Frances Scott is a well to do, but lonely woman who marries Josiah, a slave trader. It is a marriage of convenience. She has the name and connections, he has the power to put a roof over her head. Basically, in exchange for a fancy house, she must train slaves Josiah imports to be domestic servants. She never counts on falling in love with one. Cast: Warren Clarke as Josiah Cole; Anna Massey as Sarah Cole; Emma Fielding as Frances Cole, nee Scott; Ariyon Bakare as Mehuru; Richard Briers as Sir Charles Fairley; Jenny Agutter as Lady Scott; Simon Williams as Lord Scott; Tanya Moodie as Rachel; Jenny Jules as ElizabethWhen she marries Cole, Frances doesn’t realise he expects her to help run his business. When she does get involved she develops an attraction to slave Mehuru (Ariyon Baker). Over the roofs of the city the sky was growing paler, shining like a pearl, striped with thin bands of clouds as fine as muslin. As he watched they melted away and the sky’s colour slowly deepened to grey and then a pale misty blue. On the eastern horizon the sun came up, a white disc burning. The conflict between the two forms an interesting dynamic. Also involved is a pro-abolitionist Dr. Stuart Hadley. The author explores the moral quandry of people such as this doctor, who feels trapped by the knowledge that he has also benefited by the very trade he now despises,

A Respectable Trade | Philippa Gregory

She had no notion of Africa before the coming of the British, of a huge continent populated by a complex of different peoples and kingdoms, of trading and barter stations, of caravans of goods which crossed from one nation to another; of men and women, some living like peasants working the land, some living in towns and cities and working in industries, some established in hereditary kingdoms seated on thrones of gold and ivory and living like gods. She had no interest in the slaves as people who had come from a living and potent culture." Philippa is a member of the Society of Authors and in 2016, was presented with the Outstanding Contribution to Historical Fiction Award by the Historical Writers’ Association. In 2018, she was awarded an Honorary Platinum Award by Nielsen for achieving significant lifetime sales across her entire book output.He got up from his sleeping platform, wrapped a sheet around him and went quietly to the door. The city of Oyo was silent. He looked down his street; no light showed. Only in the massive palace wall could he see a moving light as a servant walked from room to room, the torch shining from each window he passed.