The Low Road was published last month (Unbound, June 2023) , and I’m grateful to everyone who has supported it, reviewed it and read it so far – please keep your comments coming. This book means a huge amount to me, as many of you will know. It’s taken seven years to research and write. It feels very strange and wonderful to have brought three women from our lost history back to life in this way.
REVIEWS
The Historical Novel Society reviewed it, saying: “The Low Road is a tough read, paradoxically, because of the empathy with which Quarmby tells her story; tougher, too, because it is based on true events. Hannah’s trajectory in life is almost inevitable. She accelerates it by pilfering, but the reasons for her thefts are pitifully human. Sent to a refuge in London, she meets Annie, who is to be the love of her life, but both of them end up in a nightmarish Newgate prison, leavened only by the presence of Elizabeth Fry. The ultimate destination for the two women, though separately, is transportation, to an Australia as lush in colour and birdsong as London was bleak…Quarmby’s imagery is vivid: “…another uniform. It felt damp to the touch, as if everything on board oozed a kind of despair”. Occasionally Hannah tells her story in a dreamlike, almost hallucinatory fugue, as happens with extremes of cold or hunger. The novel is almost a “progress” but closer to Hogarth than Smollett or Cleland; the otherwise voiceless Hannah is granted her place in history at last.”
It was also endorsed by other novelists:
“A darkly gripping picaresque tale of cruelty, courage and kindness as an orphaned girl survives poverty and injustice to seek love on the other side of the world” Maggie Gee, author of The White Family
“Vibrant… Quarmby immerses the reader into the early nineteenth century with this page-turning tale of forbidden passion and a woman’s ultimate triumph over adversity” Michelle Styles, author of The Gladiator’s Honour
“This is a novel about love, betrayal, destitution, and redemption. A heart-rending story, impeccably researched, packed with rich and realistic detail, and reminiscent of the work of Charlotte Brontë and Sarah Waters” Jane Harris, author of The Observations
I also want to thank novelist Lydia Syson for not only reviewing The Low Road, but also chairing an event with me at the Hackney Archives, where we talked about our shared love of research, and delving into historical documents, for our writing.
“Ever evocative of time & place, The Low Road reads compellingly as an act of love & restitution.”
Thanks also to historical novelist and scriptwriter Emma Barnes, who wrote: “Historically, most of the population were domestic servants, but it’s hard to get much impression of their lives, for they rarely left any record of their thoughts and experiences. In The Low Road, Quarmby brings servant girl Hannah convincingly to life. Her childhood, where her mother is the servant on a Norfolk Farm, is almost poetically described, evoking the details of a rural world in the early nineteenth century. The idyll is soon shattered, but the book never becomes unbearably bleak, even though the life of a girl without relations or money could be grim indeed. Whether as an “object” in a refuge, preyed on by her employer, experiencing the horrors of nineteen century prisons or on a convict ship, Hannah still met with some compassion and kindness and forged lasting friendships. It’s beautifully written, and Hannah seems entirely believable: not sentimental, often untrusting, but able to maintain her integrity and “to go on” as her mother told her. Most of all I loved the settings, and the small details which brought to life the smells, taste and sounds of those times and places.”
And editor and writer Julia Williams reviewed it thus: “This is a powerful story of a love that endures even to the ends of the earth. Painstakingly researched and based on real-life characters, Quarmby brings Hannah and Annie poignantly to life. She shows us too, the hardships of life for single women with no families during the period, and how so many were condemned with no support or sympathy. At times a hard, and uncompromising read, nonetheless Quarmby has fashioned a beautiful story of forbidden love and loss, and the doggedness of the human spirit, that ultimately leads to redemption.”
BOOKSHOPS
I love bookshops, and one of my great pleasures is browsing in them and coming home with a haul of new or second-hand books. Thanks to Stoke Newington Books for being so helpful with this book and launching my first book back in 2011.
It’s great seeing pictures of my debut novel in the wild as well, on hills and in bookshops, a selection below – including in the front window of the iconic bookshop, Gay’s The Word.
The nicest wild spot so far goes to Katherine Runswick-Cole, who had a breather from a holiday to read the book in the glorious borders…
EVENTS
As I said, I did an event looking at the richness of archival research at the Hackney Archives, and more lately was in conversation with Lucinda Hawksley for the Goldster book club, where some great questions came in. I’ve also done events to mark the launch, at Harleston’s historical society but if you want to invite me, my contact details are on the website here.
Katharine Quarmby 