The Peppered MothThe prize-winning author of The Dark Flood Rises offers an “absorbing” portrait of three generations of women—inspired by her own family (The New York Times Book Review). In the early 1900s, young Bessie Bawtry grows up in a mining town in South Yorkshire, England. Unusually gifted, she longs to escape a life burdened by unquestioned tradition. She studies patiently, dreaming of the day when she will take the entrance exam for Cambridge and leave her narrow world. A generation later, Bessie’s daughter Chrissie feels a similar impulse to expand her horizons, which she in turn passes on to her own daughter. Nearly a century after that, Bessie’s granddaughter finds herself listening to a lecture on genetics and biological determinism. She has returned to Breaseborough and wonders at the families who remained in the humble little town where Bessie grew up. Confronted with what would have been her life had her grandmother stayed, she finds herself faced with difficult questions. Is she really so different from the plain South Yorkshire locals? As she soon learns, the past has a way of reasserting itself—not unlike the peppered moth that was once thought to be nearing extinction but is now enjoying a sudden and unexplained resurgence. With The Peppered Moth, the acclaimed author of The Seven Sisters conjures a captivating work of semi-fiction, grappling with her memory of her own mother and the indelible mark of family and heredity. |
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... listened, it must be said, and those who did listen came up with some unorthodox interpretations. Nevertheless, the sounds rolled on, in saecula saeculorum, intoned from the pulpit, and in times of stress and heresy yelled forth in the ...
... listened, it must be said, and those who did listen came up with some unorthodox interpretations. Nevertheless, the sounds rolled on, in saecula saeculorum, intoned from the pulpit, and in times of stress and heresy yelled forth in the ...
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... listened and believed. Their pleasure, she assured them, would be her pleasure. How proud she was of Keith Badger (do not titter, Badger is a good Yorkshire name, and not to be ridiculed)—of Keith Badger, who took a top County ...
... listened and believed. Their pleasure, she assured them, would be her pleasure. How proud she was of Keith Badger (do not titter, Badger is a good Yorkshire name, and not to be ridiculed)—of Keith Badger, who took a top County ...
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... listened, but said nothing, as his mother gently probed Bessie about her prospects. He thought he could count on his mother to take his side if it came to a showdown. Joe was still his mother's pet. She had nursed him through a ...
... listened, but said nothing, as his mother gently probed Bessie about her prospects. He thought he could count on his mother to take his side if it came to a showdown. Joe was still his mother's pet. She had nursed him through a ...
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... listened sweetly, perhaps a little too sweetly, as Ada, Rowena, Joe and Ivy raised their voices in mock lament and mock Scots accents: 'But my false lo-over sto-ole my rose, and a-ah he le-eft the thorn wi' me...' Bessie glimpsed the ...
... listened sweetly, perhaps a little too sweetly, as Ada, Rowena, Joe and Ivy raised their voices in mock lament and mock Scots accents: 'But my false lo-over sto-ole my rose, and a-ah he le-eft the thorn wi' me...' Bessie glimpsed the ...
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Auntie Dora babies Bert Bessie Barron Bessie Bawtry Bessie's boys Breasebor Breaseborough Cambridge Chrissie's coal Cotterhall dark daugh daughter dead death Donald Sinclair Dora's Dr Hawthorn earth Edith Sitwell Ellen Bawtry eyes Faro Gaulden Faro's father Fiona George Bellew Georgette Heyer Gertrude Wadsworth girl glass Hammervale happy Highcross Holderfield Jenny Pargiter Joe Barron knew listened live look Lyme Regis married Miss Heald mother never Nick Gaulden Nick's night Northam once peppered moth Peter Cudworth ring Robert and Chrissie Rose round Rowena says Faro Sebastian seemed sister sister Dora Slotton Road smell South Yorkshire Spanish flu stare Stella Steve Nieman story sure T. S. Eliot tell thing thought tried waiting waste watch woman women wonder young