The Pharmacist's Wife

I really enjoyed this book, and have put it up there as one of my favourite books 2018. I know we are not yet finished January but I know when I love a book, and this one I didn’t just love, but I devoured.

Set in Victorian Edinburgh, which always excites me as I am from Edinburgh, recently married Rebecca Palmer is adjusting to married life with her pharmacist husband Alexander. When Alexander begins administering her daily salts to calm her ‘hysteria1 Rebecca begins a horrible descent into heroin addiction. It’s very easy to compare this to Trainspotting as its about heroin addiction and they are both set in Edinburgh. But whilst you can say the trace this is no Trainspotting. Rebecca’s addiction is not a choice she has made, it is a choice her husband has made under the guise of scientific research.

Other themes are woman’s disempowerment in Victorian society, a lack of female choice in Victorian Society, or at least choice for woman who are unmarried, men’s manipulation of woman and sexual desire. Rebecca is intelligent, well read and interested in current affairs, she reads the Newspaper and appears to be very up to date in current affairs. Following the Suez Crises and the Edinburgh Seven in the newspapers, and even teaching her maid to read.

Ultimately its Rebecca’s wit and intellect that saves her. I thoroughly enjoyed this and it’s an easy five stars.

Great book. Brilliant storyline and excellent main characters. I would not hesitate to recommend this book.