Joanna Rees
FORCED to go on the run from her home in the heart of
industrial Lancashire, Anna Darton discovers an exciting and liberating new
life with the Bright Young Things of London.
But even with a new name, and working in the exuberant and
fashionable nightclubs of the big city in the roaring Twenties, shocking events
in the past are never far behind.
Joanna Rees, author of fifteen novels, including glorious rom-coms,
page-turning blockbusters and big-hearted adventures such as The Tides of
Change and A Twist of Fate, makes a welcome return with a sweeping saga full of
show dancing, gorgeous fashion, ambitious flapper girls, and dangerous enemies.
The Runaway Daughter is the first novel in A Stitch in Time,
a dazzling historical trilogy which is steeped in the atmosphere, romance, and wild
hedonism of a nation awakening from the grief and horrors of the First World
War, and revelling in a host of new-found social and domestic freedoms.
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| TRILOGY: Joanna Rees |
It’s 1926 and Anna Darton is on a midnight escape from her
home, Darton Hall, in the industrial heartland of Lancashire where her father
owns a mill, and from a shocking crime that she feels she was forced into
committing.
Alone and frightened, she sneaks on board a train heading
for London, knowing that she must reinvent herself ‘to cope with this
terrifying descent into her future.’ On the way, she decides that henceforth
she will be Verity (Vita) Casey because for the first time in her life, ‘she
was free to be the truest version of herself.’
Arriving in London fills her with ‘a strange, nervous
euphoria’ which quickly evaporates when she finds herself a lone fugitive in a
terrifying metropolis with virtually no money and not a friend in the world. But salvation comes in the form of Nancy, a sassy American
dancer at a notorious nightclub off the Strand called The Zip. Using the
name Vita Casey, Anna becomes part of the line-up and is thrown into a highly-charged
world of dancing, parties, flapper girls and fashion.
And when she meets the dashing Archie Fenwick, Vita buries
her guilty conscience and believes him when he says he will love her no matter
what. But unknown to Vita, her past is fast catching up with her, and when the
people closest to her start getting hurt, she is forced to confront events back
Darton Hall or risk losing everything she holds dear.
From the mills and hills of industrial Lancashire to the
vibrancy and volatility of London’s clubs and fashionable young sets, Rees
delivers a gripping and glamorous story propelled by one young woman’s
desperate battle to leave behind heartache, cruelty, and a dark secret.
Alongside Vita’s adventures both on and off stage in
London’s high spots is an undercurrent of menace which adds a thrilling frisson
to the author’s rich evocation of women enjoying their long-overdue independence,
and a city determined to throw off the sombre pall of wartime death and
destruction.
Social issues like homosexuality, the early beginnings of
the feminist movement, drug usage and workers’ rights are also explored as the
old Anna’s past is slowly revealed, and the new Vita immerses herself in the
extravagances of the post-war period.
Immaculately researched, teeming with vibrant characters,
full of twists and turns, and with fascinating insights into flapper girl
fashions, The Runaway Daughter is a tale of self-reinvention and finding love,
and is a captivating start to what promises to be an exciting trilogy.
(Pan, paperback, £7.99)
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