The Silk Weaver – Liz Trenow Blog Tour Guest Post & Giveaway (@LizTrenow @panmacmillan)

Published by Pan Macmillan

Ebook & Paperback: 26 January 2017

As soon as I saw this book mentioned on my Twitter feed it went on to my wishlist and I was delighted to later be offered a copy by the publisher.   I loved a previous book by Liz, The Poppy Factory, and although sadly I haven’t been able to fit The Silk Weaver into my current reading schedule in time for this tour, I am very much looking forward to reading it.

It’s a pleasure to be taking part in the launch celebrations and for my turn today, I have a guest post from Liz on how her family’s silk weaving business inspired the book.

My family run the oldest silk weaving company in Britain – it was founded in the early 1700s in East London, and now operates in Sudbury, Suffolk. Just up the road from the first recorded address in Spitalfields is the house where the eminent silk designer Anna Maria Garthwaite lived at around the same time as my ancestors. I was fascinated to imagine that she would have known and worked with my silk weaving forebears.

Anna Maria was one of the most celebrated textile designers of the eighteenth century, her silks were worn by royalty and nearly a thousand of her designs are in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Yet no-one knows how she learned her craft or how an unmarried middle-aged woman managed to develop such a successful business in a male dominated industry.

It is this mystery that sparked the idea for the novel.

I have received a duplicate finished paperback copy and with the publisher’s permission, I am offering a giveaway – entry details below.

About the book

1760, Spitalfields. Anna Butterfield’s life is about to change forever, as she moves from her idyllic Suffolk home to be introduced into London society. A chance encounter with a French silk weaver, Henri, draws her in to the volatile world of the city’s burgeoning silk trade. Henri is working on his ‘master piece’, to become a master weaver and freeman; Anna longs to become an artist while struggling against pressure from her uncle’s family to marry a wealthy young lawyer.

As their lives become ever more intertwined, Henri realises that Anna’s designs could give them both an opportunity for freedom. But his world becomes more dangerous by the day, as riots threaten to tear them apart forever . . .

Inspired by real historical events and characters, The Silk Weaver is a captivating, unforgettable story of illicit romance in a time of enlightenment and social upheaval.

GIVEAWAY

To win one new paperback copy, please use the Rafflecopter box below.  The giveaway will finish at 12.00 midnight (UK) time on Sunday 29 January 2017 and a winner will be selected.  Because of postage costs, I’m afraid that entries are restricted to UK entrants only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway