A rather wonderful though very sad book. I suppose you could argue that the Victorian poor child , beaten and starved is a well trodden path but I really enjoyed this tale. So engrossed I wasn't bothered by the things that seem to niggle everybody else. Never read any Rose Tremain before and I think I have missed out. Maybe it was the setting of the book in a county I know extremely well (and an acknowledgement to a hospital I love) that made it mean more to me. Some of the sentences just leapt out at me- their human forms cast no shadows, as if they were no longer standing upright in the world.
I was fully engaged with Lily and rooting for her the whole way through.
This book , although very sad, was delightful

Okay. I honestly think this book could have been brilliant - and maybe is??? - but there was a major problem for me. I’m not sure if it was just the format I was reading it in or if it’s intentional, but the time jumps are confusing af. I love a story with multiple timelines - get me all over it! However, this book literally changed timelines in the middle of a paragraph: no warning or anything!! As I went through it and knew the characters a bit more, it became easier to recognise when it switched, but I honestly didn’t even realise at the start because there was no sign of anything.

That trauma aside, this book is good! It’s very sad and quite intense and I really really felt for Lily. Her character is trying to get you to believe she’s this evil, terrible person who’s done a great wrong, but from what happens to her through the book, you just don’t feel that at all!

Quite an emotionally strange story, but I really liked the ending?! Still not 100% certain about how I feel, but definitely worth reading if you’re up for feeling a bit lost and confused!

Lily is an orphan child - found abandoned as a baby by a young police constable, who takes her to the foundling hospital. She is then fostered to a loving family who will keep her until she is six years old, then forced by law to return to the hospital - a place of cruelty and heartache.
Lily is now seventeen years old and has a dark secret, one that she fears will send her to the gallows.
This is a gothic tale of love, despair and revenge. Beautifully written and at times heartbreaking.
Thanks to Netgalley and Publisher for the ARC.

A highly enjoyable read about all my favourite things in Victorian London - foundlings, the West End and sweet revenge. I really engaged with Lily and found her a likeable character. She had such a lovely upbringing in Suffolk that my heart went out to her when she had to return to the horrible Foundling hospital. The book had echoes of Jane Eyre in it and I do believe that nurse Maud got her comeuppance. I'll be reading more Rose Tremain books from now on..

Beginning in 1850, Lily is found as a baby at the gates to the park by a young policeman, Sam Trench. He runs across London to the Foundling Hospital to hand the baby in, to get it help and give it hope. Sadly for Lily however, the children's home is not really a place of hope and after six happy years living with a foster family she finds herself back there to be abused and mistreated. How Lily deals with the tough life she has been dealt and who she becomes as she grows up and starts her own life are determined by these early years.
This is the first book I've ready by Rose Tremain, although I've known the name for some time, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the way she entwined the chapters of Lily's early life with her current one, and the depth of knowledge about Victorian London and attention to detail in the writing is excellent. Lily comes across as a sad figure, but she had strong internal resolve. Sam Trench is a decent solid individual, Belle Prettywood and her Wig Emporium are delightful, Lady Elizabeth Mortimer is completely believable as a benefactress, while the Bucks are thoroughly good people.
I did have to suspend belief over Bert the sheep - I cannot fathom that it would follow them...
The story is a tad sentimental with the foundling child at the heart of it, and it is difficult to place Lily in the category of murderer since the whole of that scene is written almost as if she is in a dream, but the story is well written and a joy to read. I will certainly look out for more books from this author.
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK, Vintage for an early proof in return for an honest review.

A Book of Fragile Beauty.

This novel contains many moments of peace and beauty, but all of them are menaced in some way. It is in the nature of Victorian society that most people should go to Church and that “Christian” phraseology be widely used, even to justify abuse. Persons in authority ignoring the awful warning of Matthew 18.6 are commonplace throughout the story. Kindness, where shown, is not always accompanied by sufficient courage either. Probably, no matter what century you are in, the number of people going to church and dedicating their lives to “good works” in the name of Christ is a distinctly unreliable guide to the number of true Christians around at the time. Consciously or not, the author illustrates Matthew 18.6 almost perfectly.

Those characters who show both kindness and courage shine through, despite their flaws and sometimes ambiguous status in Victorian society. The author also does a very good job in presenting the importance of the performing arts in an era where life can be dreary and grim even for the wealthy. In our our lives of constant music and almost unending entertainment, we have lost this and I think it’s a loss that matters.

I really loved the premise of this book, a foundling, abandoned and left to die but found by a young police man. There has obviously been a lot of research done into the life of these children in the 1850s, them taking on the shame of their mothers, being made to pay for their sins by drudgery and the abandonment of hope. We know that Lily is a murderer right from the beginning but this is really almost an aside, although you do at first wonder how a child like Lily could become a murderer. I found the format difficult to follow and whilst I felt for Lily, and also Sam Trench, the policeman who found her, I didn’t find myself engrossed in the book. Not the book for me, but a really good portrayal of the era.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I knew I’d be on to a winner with a new Rose Tremain, but I think this is my favourite of her books. The structure was really interesting and the contrasting settings worked extremely well. There were one or two things I was able to guess in advance but not the final resolution - enough to feel smug about, but not enough to spoil the book! I absolutely guzzled this book and have no hesitation in recommending it.

Lily By Rose Remain is a remarkably written historical fiction. Highly emotional, full of hope and heartbreak. Set in the winter of 1850, Lily was found abandoned, by a police constable at the gates of the park and taken to London Foundling Hospital. The harshness and cruelty endured feel so real and one can't help but feel sorry for her.

Set in Victorian times, life was hard, being an orphaned child, life was even harder for Lily. Captivating on so many levels, the characters in this novel are so rich in history, well-described, and full of depth. The author has the skill of pulling the reader into the story, making it impossible to put the book down.

I enjoyed this book very much and highly recommend it !!
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Thank you Netgalley, Random House UK, Vintage, and Rose Remain for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Genre: Historical Fiction

Release Date: Expected 11th November 2021

Publisher: Random House UK | Vintage



Nobody knows yet that she is a murderer...

On a cold night in 1850, a young police constable finds a baby abandoned in the dark. After delivering her safely to the foundling hospital, he tries to find her again only to find out she'd been sent away to live with a foster family in the countryside and left with nothing but a name - Lily.

As Lily grows, she finds she isn't quite happy with the expectations everyone seems to be placing on her - being quiet, subservient and grateful for the suffering she's had to endure. She can't wait to be released into the world, and Lily soon finds herself living in the basement of a prominent wig maker and becoming their best employee ... but then she meets Sam.

Sam had always kept a watchful eye on her over the years, when he could. He'd never been allowed to visit, but he was always there, just needing to know she's okay. And now they've finally been reunited, they can't deny there is a connection between them that is growing by the day. But now, as the Detective Superintendent, Sam could bring her the happiness she's always desired or he could be the person to finally uncover her crimes and be her undoing.

"A 'good' life. How can you live a good life if you have been precious to nobody and made to feel burdened by shame? How can your heart not be vengeful?"

Lily is a richly dark tale set back in the 19th century, completely captivating from the first page. The setting was flawless, transporting the reader back in time and space, and while the period language took a little while to get into, it became immersive within a matter of pages.

I felt an immediate kinship with Lily - I didn't care that she was a murderer. I didn't particularly even need the details of why, I just knew I cared for her character. My heart ached for her, and her childhood friends as they tried to survive as best they could under the cold eyes of Nuns were supposed to care for them but never did. The treatment they received was disturbingly uncomfortable, but wasn't anything uncommon for orphanages in that time period.

Lily was a brilliant narrator, insightful and reflective, providing vivid storytelling throughout and making every small detail stand out.

A tale of beautiful, brutal revenge that is perfect to get lost in.

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was gifted an advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

Rose Tremain is one of the most accomplished novelists I have come across, and each new novel is a veritable treat. In Lily: A Tale of Revenge, Tremain deals with the harsh realities of children’s orphanages in 19th century London. Lily is one such foundling, who, after six happy years of foster care in Suffolk, has to return to the Foundling Hospital in London and is later sent to work making wigs. Sensitive, brave and spirited Lily provides such a contrast to the horrifyingly cold environment of the orphanage, and as well as empathy with the plight of abandoned children like Lily, the reader also develops deep curiosity to figure out the crime that we know occurs at some point of Lily’s life. Meticulously researched historicity, beautifully drawn settings and engaging characters make this one of the best novels I have read this year. A highly recommended read, and my thanks go to the publishers and to NetGalley for the free ARC I enjoyed.

A heartrending story of the injustice and cruelty inflicted upon children in Victorian England, and of the tantalising possibilities of love and redemption. Newborn baby Lily is found at the gates of a cemetery and taken to the Foundling Hospital, then to a caring foster family where the first six years of her life are spent in a loving rural idyll. Everything then changes for Lily and her story becomes more dark, and her strength of character keeps her going through exploitation, cruelty and poverty. As always with Rose Tremain, the writing has a beautiful fluidity, the characters are real and so believable the reader can slip into their lives, and the settings so well described that they become visible. A quietly moving and vividly told tale.

I love Rose Tremain's books and this was no exception. Well written and beautifully told, it brings to life the streets of Victorian London. A sad tale, but also full of hope.

A quietly engaging story of a Victorian orphan, well written and believable as with all Tremain’s stories.
I’m not quite sure why, but I found the style of this short novel initially jarring in its simple language, but quickly fell into the rhythm of Lily’s story. This alternates between her current (1867) life, after she has committed murder (the story at the centre of the book, as we don’t know who till much later, although we suspect why), and her upbringing as an orphan, abandoned in London and rescued by a police constable to be placed in Coram’s Foundling Hospital.
Lily’s early life is vividly described, first to the age of six on a Suffolk farm where life is hard but happy, and then when she is returned to the Foundling Hospital (orphanage) to learn a trade so that she can be useful to society (Victorian utilitarianism).
The storytelling is almost picaresque, with a profusion of potential storylines and characters creating dramatic tension, as I wondered where the story was going. This is Dickensian in the richness of creating Victorian London, but with more three dimensional secondary characters (policeman Sam Trench who finds the abandoned baby Lily, Nellie Buck her foster mother until she is six, her sadistic orphanage Nurse Maud, Belle Prettywood her employer and wig emporium proprietor, Lady Elizabeth Mortimer her benefactress, Mrs Quale seller of holy artefacts) and without the humour.
Instead the novel includes moments of poetic insight for Lily, epiphanies to heighten the story, showing how she might struggle on with her life. And struggle on she does to reach a satisfyingly open ending, full of possibilities.

I visited the Foundling Museum (built on the site of the original orphanage) about two years ago, so had some historical background to the work of the Foundling Hospital, and found this fictionalisation very engaging.

I received a Netgalley copy of this book, but this review is my honest opinion.

Extraordinarily captivating! The absence of chapters seems to make it even more of a real page turner- I completed it it two sessions, finding it a superb read. Lily is found abandoned as a baby and taken to a center for foundlings where she remains until Nellie, a farmer takes her in as a foster child. Unfortunately she has to return to the center when she is six and life takes a downturn. Follow her as she tries to overcome what life throws at her.

Foundling and Murderess, a tender and heart-warming tale of the 1860s

An unnamed baby girl, abandoned to die, is rescued by a kindly policeman, and taken to the Foundling Hospital in Coram’s Fields. It is 1850. Such children are generally regarded as products of a woman’s shame – illegitimacy. The hospital pays for the infants to be fostered, for 6 years, after which time they must be returned to the hospital, where they will be trained for some menial employment.

Some fostered babies are lovelessly fostered, just as a source of revenue, and are returned lovelessly to the harshness of Coram’s, to be reminded, daily, of their shameful beginnings and the hopelessness and burden of their existence.

Others, though a source of income for their fosterers, were dearly loved, and returned unwillingly by their fosterers, bound only by law and contract to return them. Lily was one such, growing up on a farm.

Despite this loving beginning, Lily, as a young woman, has a terrible secret. She has murdered someone, and knows her crime will be discovered, or her guilt and shame will force her to confess it, and she will be hanged

There are no spoilers in this review – the reader learns this almost instantly.

Rose Tremain is one of my favourite writers, drawn often to the stories of the outcasts, the strange, the outsiders.

This a beautiful and rich novel, and little Lily – and young woman Lily, is a glorious and tender creation.

Tremain is a writer who uses language richly and with delight, avoiding both clichéd writing whilst also not overcomplicating or being pretentiously clever or abstruse

“The next thing she learned after cross-stitch was blanket stitch. She thought of the downward threads as soldiers standing in a perfect line and the taut loops joining them along the edge of the fabric as their arms reaching out and reaching out to one another, to give themselves courage, until the line was ended. She liked to use scarlet silk thread so that the soldiers would look smart in the red uniforms which James informed her British infantrymen always wore”

Lily’s story, told in the third person, does not proceed in linear fashion. Her sad beginnings, the happy time with her foster family on their Suffolk Farm, the hell she was returned to at Coram’s, and now her adult life as a young girl, apprenticed to a flamboyant theatrical wigmaker, twines back and forth.

Initially, this was a little confusing – primarily I think because of some formatting challenges in my digital ARC, because paragraph, chapter or scene break symbols were missing, something which will clearly be rectified in wood or published digital version

As ever, I surrendered to Tremain’s perennial craft, and surfaced out of it with regret.

A heartrending tale of Lily's misfortunes from being a foundling. I particularly enjoyed the Victorian era issues, settings, and characters.
The novel wasn't always easy to read in terms of shifting around different times without separating paragraphs. Is this a proof copy issue?

Rose Tremain never disappoints, she is a brilliant storyteller, and I enjoyed this very much. In places it reminded me very much of Jane Eyre although Lily's privations at the Foundling Hospital are far worse than Jane's at Lowood. Lily's happiest times are with her foster family and the cruelty of their forced relinquishment of the little girl is painfully vivid. The book is full of strong women, both good and bad - characters beautifully drawn who command the reader's attention in a way that none of the male characters do. There is also a strong sense of place, often associated with Lily's search for her own identity and the burden of guilt she carries. The book has a hopeful ending but Lily is still a teenager at the end and I finished reading it wanting to know more about Lily's subsequent life.

I found the time changes in the narrative rather sudden and confusing - they weren't signalled by chapter, page or even paragraph breaks in the ARC I was reading. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

A well-written story which (sadly) reflected 19th century attitudes very well. Lily is a very believable character, and I am sure that her story is not at all atypical. However, I didn't become completely engrossed in this book; I felt that something was missing which meant I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped.

Set in 1850. A baby is left by the gates of Victoria Park in East London. A young passing police constable hears something and rescues her. He takes her to the Foundling Home where she is fostered out to a kindly family in Norfolk for the first 6 years of her life. At 6 she has to be handed back to The Foundling Home, as is the law then. Her life sadly becomes a bitter struggle to survive. Some staff are quite kind but one Nurse in particular is very cruel. She even tries to run away at one point but is brought back by the Nuns who found her.
She is apprenticed to a wig maker after leaving the home. In church every Sunday she spots a man who keeps looking at her. The story then unfolds.
I loved this book. An insight into the harsh life of Victorian London if you had very little money.