Hmm, not a book that bowled me over. I persevered, partly because that’s what I do but also because I was interested in the depictions of systems developed to enable people with hearing loss to communicate with hearing folk, and the tensions and problems along the way. Not exactly an absorbing read though.

everyone should know sign language! It's a well written book, inspired and informative. Recommended read.

I really enjoyed this read for many reasons, it was an extremely well written read, a story & part of history I knew very little about. The characters were wonderful and it was a truly inspiring thought-provoking read.

Thank you for allowing me to review this. I found it very moving. I have a relative who lost her hearing as a baby, and attended a school for the hearing impaired. I have also taught children with heating impairment, so was aware of the difficulties encountered whilst lip reading.
Ellen's story told over 2 timelines is compelling, although it is also very heavy going at times. This meant that at times I felt like giving up with the book. She is very likeable and has an interesting background story. I'm not sure that the other characters were do interesting, particularly the men. It wasn't very easy to understand where they stood in the story.
I was unaware of Alexander Bell's work with the deaf, and that at the time hearing impaired people were expected to learn to dpeak and lip read. Sign language is such an important skill for communication with each other and those of us with normal hearing.

I really enjoyed this book! Ellen was a really likeable character and though I am hearing myself I live with a disability so I could appreciate her struggle to find her place in a world not designed for her.

I honestly hadn't thought about how difficult it must have been for deaf people before the invention of hearing aids and implants, so I am grateful to this book for educating me, and also raising awareness of the stigma and isolation still felt by many deaf people. The details about children prevented from learning sign language or separated from their families were heartbreaking.

I enjoyed the dual timeline aspect of this book although at points I struggled to keep track of all the characters. The intrigue around the invention of the telephone and Bell's work (albeit misguided) with the deaf were also new information for me, so this book was informative as well as entertaining. Altogether a great novel drawing many different threads and issues together.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

An enjoyable read, albeit a little slow in places. Shame that children are not taught sign language in schools.

Many moons ago, I studied linguistics at university and my favourite parts were learning about speech production and decoding the graphical representation of speech, so when I read the blurb for this book I was really drawn to it. I knew all about Bell’s work with the telephone, however I wasn’t aware of his work with the deaf community.
The novel follows Ellen Lark, who becomes deaf as a result of contracting scarlet fever at age four. Ellen learns to communicate with her sister using a system of signs that they develop between themselves and by writing. In those days signing was very much frowned upon by the hearing / speaking community and when an opportunity arises for Ellen to study with the famous Professor Bell, inventor of visible speech, Ellen is enrolled in his classes. The story moves between two time frames, Ellen as a young woman and then the story of her growing up to the present day in the book. Running through the book is something of a mystery about something that happened in the past to affect Ellen’s relationship with Bell and a growing romance.
I found it fascinating to see how much emphasis was placed on speech for deaf people despite them not being able to hear their own voices and so having to rely heavily on lip reading. Ellen’s understanding and awareness of homphenes was also incredible. All in all an interesting read.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Headline, Tinder for an arc in exchange for a review.

I really enjoyed the social commentary of this novel. The Deaf protagonist's journey in finding their place in a hearing world (while navigating the consequences of societal perception and pressures placed upon them) was illuminating, thought provoking, and gripping.

However, I found the pacing of other elements of the story challenging and found this reduced my enjoyment & interest in the story.

This is an interesting historical novel based on the work of Alexander Graham Bell and the development of Visible Speech, told though the story of one of his pupils, Ellen Lark. Alongside his teaching, there is a take of deception and skulduggery about the invention of the telephone.
I enjoyed this book but found the changing timelines a bit confusing. I’m going to assume that my ARC, provided by Net Galley, doesn’t have the markers which would make this easier to understand in a finished copy.
What I think the book does really well, is to explore what it is to be deaf in a hearing world. The sense of having to try really hard to understand everything which is happening, and the debates about sign language, finger spelling and lip reading, as well as developing sounds of speech, are really thought-provoking. I found myself wondering how much things have really changed. I wasn’t as excited by the rival telephones - but think that’s on me, rather than on the author. A good read.

A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh

“Peach. Its shape floats on Mr Bell’s mouth. The pinch of the p, followed by a rounded push of the lips, sending the last syllable hard across the tongue. My hand nearly reaches for my pocket, as if the feather from our lessons might still be found there. It’s been a long time since I thought of the feather. I would balance it on my knuckles and make it quiver with the puff of my ps. Puh-puh-puh. I stop myself just in time, folding my hands against my skirts.”

I found the opening scene of this novel incredibly moving and so skilful at placing us so close to our heroine that we understood the barriers she faced being deaf. In it, Ellen and her fiancé receive an unexpected visit from Alexander Graham Bell. As the two men converse, Ellen is picking up body language and tone of voice which indicate a serious topic but she notices a repeated word ‘peaches’. Her attention moves to the beautiful jar of peaches preserved by her mother on the dining table.

As Ellen reminisces, so do I. I was propelled back to the early years of my nephew Charlie, who was born visually impaired. Before we knew the full implications of his sight loss, we’d noticed he was behind in his development. He wasn’t moving round much, had put on weight and wasn’t speaking. It then occurred to us. In order to learn something for the first time, we tend to copy it. If you can’t see, you can’t imitate others and just as Ellen is struggling to get the full meaning of the conversation, Charlie couldn’t form words if he didn’t know how to use his mouth to make the noises. So Mum used the same technique she’d used with us when we were small. When a specific noise was needed like the ‘puh’ sound in the book, Mum would raise his hand to her mouth and make the sound against his fingers. He would then put his fingers to his own mouth a copy her. It was lovely to relive that memory and feel perhaps a tiny bit of what Ellen is feeling too.


A Sign of Her Own is narrated by Ellen Lark across two timelines and it’s an incredible feeling to be in her world, because it’s so different from the world we know. It felt similar to when actress Rose Ayling-Ellis did Strictly in 2021 and with Giovanni Pernice they performed a ‘Couple’s Choice’ dance, choreographed to bring the audience into Rose’s world. At a point in the dance, the music stopped but the couple continued to dance and we realised that this was Rose’s world. She couldn’t hear the music, but somehow used her trust in Giovanni to read his body, alongside counting, to perfect her dance routines. It was moving, disorienting and a complete revelation so it was no surprise to me that they were winners of that year’s BAFTA for a memorable TV moment. Ellen’s inner world is a revelation and the author writes it so beautifully. She lost her hearing as a child during a bout of scarlet fever and communicated with her mother using a language of signs they made up as they went along. It broke my heart to read how the sound of her speech was viewed by local children. Restricted to vowel sounds, because she couldn’t hear the precision of the consonants, Ellen feels shame about how she sounds. Her personal sign language seems to suit her, but it’s her grandmother who comes up with the idea of using Alexander Graham Bell’s ‘Visible Speech’. Students of his method were banned from using any sort of sign language, but were allowed to use a notebook. Family politics played their part in the decision, because the family were in debt to their grandmother. Luckily Ellen enjoyed studying and proved to be incredibly clever, even if she was unsure about Bell’s method and his motives. She has to be perceptive and learns to read people very quickly, including Bell. As we move into the present day, Ellen and her fiancé are visited by Bell who is embroiled in a fight to be recognised as the sole inventor of the telephone. He wants Ellen’s support as a character witness, but Ellen doesn’t have good memories of her time under his tutelage. She feels like he betrayed her and other deaf students for his own fame and recognition. How can she support him when she feels so conflicted?

During the later timeline Bell’s fight becomes all consuming. He is full of determination and I felt torn about his character because on one hand he appears to be paying attention to a group of people rather alienated by the rest of society. His work could be seen as altruistic, but it’s as if the people he’s helping don’t really matter to him. There’s a narcissism or selfishness in his character that means he only sees his students in terms of how they can help him potentially find fame. I felt
like he didn’t appreciate their characters or individuality. I found myself disliking him intensely. By contrast, Ellen is instantly likeable and intelligent. Through her we are invited into the deaf community and the debate over sign language and visible speech is fascinating. As someone who has studied disability theory, I was very aware that some deaf people don’t consider deafness a disability. If they sign, they simply see themselves as speakers of a different language. I was interested in the politics and ethics of a speaking world imposing a method of communication on the deaf community, rather than letting the community come to society with their choice of language or speech method. I think there are many readers who might never have considered these issues and wondered how the book is being received in the deaf and/or disabled community. I understood why the author wanted to bring these issues to the fore and loved the enthusiasm she clearly has about her subject. I was impressed by this well researched debut, clearly inspired and informed by her own experiences of deafness as a child. It puts the reader into the centre of those experiences and I came away feeling like I had a renewed awareness of sensory disability. 


Will appear on my blog tomorrow as part of the Squad POD Collective

This is a really interesting story, concerning the deaf community, the evolution and acceptance of sign language, and the part that Alexander Graham Bell played in this alongside his work with the telephone.

Ellen is deaf, and studies the spoken word with Alexander Graham Bell. She is torn between 'visible speech' - learning how to pronounce the written word, and communicating through sign language, which is regarded detrimentally by society.

Bell requires Ellen to assist him with promoting his new telephone; her fiance (a fairly unpleasant character) is invested in the commercial possibilities.

This is a story of communication in all its guises - the telephone and other technological advances, the ways in which deaf communication has evolved and become accepted, and fundamentally the communication between individuals within the story. The characters are interesting and believable, and all in I really enjoyed this book.

I really enjoyed this unique read. Ellen who is deaf, feels silenced and isolated as Alexander Bell is about to launch the telephone. A brilliant read that follows Ellen’s quest to be heard.

On the cusp of marriage, Ellen Lark and her fiancé are approached by Alexander Graham Bell, who wants Ellen, a former student, to support his patent for a certain implement called the telephone. Ellen, who is deaf, participated in a technique called Visible Speech, has vivid memories of working with Bell. Will anyone want to listen to her story? This is a clever, beautifully written read.

An interesting re-telling of a story we only know the name of- a great introduction into the struggles Deaf people have faced in society

This really was a tremendously engaging read, bringing history to life, told through two well balanced and equally involving timelines, vividly capturing the realities of being deaf in a hearing world along with exposing the corrupt world of scientific discovery – and it really was quite beautifully written.

Now living in London with her fiancé, Ellen Lark is sought out by her former teacher Alexander Graham Bell, seeking her support while pursuing the patent for his newly invented telephone. Their history together, when living in Boston, was when he became her teacher – discouraging the use of the sign language that became her lifeline when she lost her hearing through scarlet fever at the age of four, and that made communication possible while growing up with her mother and sister.

When her mother travels to England, she’s left in the care of her grandmother Adeline, who agrees to her attending Bell’s school where she learns the techniques of visible speech and use of notebooks – a difficult struggle, but a change driven by Bell’s belief that it’s the only way that deaf people can communicate on an equal footing in a hearing world. While his charisma engages her, and she proves a particularly good pupil, Ellen has her doubts about Bell’s motives – and her fears are only confirmed after a chance meeting with Frank McKinney, which brings her into close contact with a wider deaf community she didn’t know existed, who open her eyes to the way he was using them to achieve his own fame and fortune.

The characterisation in this book is really excellent. The story is told by Ellen, in a clear and consistent voice – and in the earlier timeline you really feel her loneliness and vulnerability as her only means of communication is denied to her. The author makes very real the difficulties of lipreading – the words that can be difficult to distinguish, the need to fill the gaps by guessing intervening words, even the problems caused by facial hair. At times, the writing becomes equally staccato and faltering – very cleverly done, and particularly effective in conveying the difficulties. But Ellen is also an extraordinarily strong character – beautifully drawn, involving the reader in her emotional journey and very easy to empathise with through the insights into her experience. And Bell himself is complex and fascinating – outwardly caring and driven by his determination to make a difference and improve the lives of others, but in reality more motivated by his quest for recognition and its rewards with rather less consideration for the lives of those he touches.

I really enjoyed finding out more about the issues around the development of the telephone, and the fight to secure the all-important patents – a moment in history I knew very little about. But I also learned a great deal about the realities of living with deafness – it’s a subject I’ve never seen examined in such depth, with such exceptional authenticity, and the author’s writing engaged me deeply at an emotional level. An important book, but also a quite stunning read – and one I’d very much recommend to others.

(Review also copied to Amazon UK, but link not yet available)

This is Ellen Lark’s story, a fictional character. Ellen has been deaf since the age of four after contracting scarlet fever. Her family taught themselves a form of sign language to enable them to communicate but her paternal grandmother insisted she be sent to Boston under the tutelage of Alexander Graham Bell to learn Visible Speech. Narrated by Ellen in dual timelines this is an emotional and emotive fictional story, based on factual detail in part.

Briefly, after being sent to study with Bell Ellen struggles with his teachings methods and misses her sign language which she, along with the other students, are banned from using. She becomes involved with the local deaf community against Bell’s wishes and meets a young deaf man who tells her his experiences with Bell. Having left the college she goes to England where her mother is living and meets her stepfather’s nephew and starts courting. On the cusp of her wedding, she is contacted by Bell. He wants her help but she doesn’t remember him in a good light.

This is a really interesting look at how the speaking world viewed the deaf community at this time, and I hope this is much improved today. Bell comes across as a rather self obsessed and ambitious man, although he spent much of his life working with the deaf and married a deaf woman. He seemed blinkered in that he didn’t seem to realise that his single mindedness and his inventions, which could benefit so many, were just his way of achieving fame and fortune. However, Ellen needs to tell her story about Bell and how his ambition was at the detriment of the deaf community. It’s quite slow paced but a fascinating story with an interesting protagonist in Ellen who was a woman before her time, strong and intelligent, a fighter for the rights of the deaf community. A compelling and inspiring story.

An interesting story of Ellen Lark, a young deaf woman who is trying to find her own authentic voice.
It cleverly weaves in Alexander Graham Bell, illuminating his developments on visible speech, promoting lip reading to support integration- being deaf doesn’t mean you have no voice, just have to communicate in a different way.
Ellen receives an unexpected visit from Bell, he wants her to support his claim to the patent to his new invention, the telephone as she was his star pupil.
But she has a different story to tell - how Bell betrayed her and the deaf community in pursuit of personal ambition and gain.
It vividly portrays the era’s patent frenzy and society’s attitudes towards deaf people, highlighting the tiring nature of lip reading and sign language and effectively rejecting it as a communication tool.
It’s slow paced, captivating and thought provoking, allowing you to really feel the frustration and isolation Ellen must have felt.
It’s time to tell her story
Thanks @sarahcmarsh @headlinepg & @netgalley for the beautiful historical read

A Sign of Her Own marries two of my favourite things: a historical moment or period I know little about but am now fascinated by and a reclaiming of a narrative from an overlooked voice.

The patent frenzy and Bell’s promotion of Visible Speech were things I knew very little about, but Marsh pours so much time into them and gives us details that make you want to rush off and learn everything about. In particular, the way Bell exploits the Deaf community and embodies the societal attitudes towards Deaf individuals, while also challenging them in some ways. It creates a complex portrait of the man, but emphatically points out the disregard and dismissal of the Deaf community. Deaf culture is vibrant and exciting - as shown in some of my favourite scenes of the book. There are so many different ways of communication, further showing the societal ignorance of sign language. Marsh imbues the book with the isolation Ellen feels to contrast it with this engaging community, though they have their own difficulties around acceptance. That central discussion is fantastic.

Ellen is a great protagonist as well and this is firmly her story. She is reshaping her narrative and learning to be proud of her communication styles, though this is a long and arduous journey that does not necessarily result in a happy ending. Her narrative reflects the silence she hears, pushing through the pages and getting you to question how Visible Speech removes all meaning from words - reducing them to their audibility instead. On the other hand, Ellen is often characterised as a very perceptive woman, who sees the meaning of everything, reminding the reader of the importance of intent and meaning. Her sight is also emphasised to show the extra work placed upon the shoulders of the Deaf community and generally upon disabled bodies. Society forces them to adapt, at exhausting extremes, rather than trying to change.

A Sign of Her Own strays far away from simplistic resolutions - staying instead in the nuanced messiness of being human.

I do like a book that makes me want to learn about someone or something and this is one of those books. I confess I had a vague idea that Bell's achievement might not be as cut and dried as is generally accepted, but now I know who the other players were. As well as all that, it is cleverly written and conveys a sense of lonely confusion which illustrates the situation Ellen finds herself in.

I’ve reviewed A Sign of Her Own by Sarah Marsh for book recommendation and selling site LoveReading.co.uk.
I’ve chosen A Sign of Her Own as a Liz Robinson Book of the Month for February. Please see the link for the full review.