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The Curewife

The Dundee Book Prize Winner (2002)

Scotland biggest literary award of its type

Claire-Marie Watson

Published by
Birlinn Ltd http://www.birlinn.co.uk/
West Newignton House, 10 Newington Road, Edinburgh EH9 1QS
Tel: 44 (0) 131 668 4466   E-Mail info@birlinn.co.uk

A review (©, 2003) by the author Claire-Marie Watson
Original Copyright by Claire-Marie Watson. Used by permission of the author. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission of the author.

"History is a combination of reality and lies.
The reality of history becomes a lie.
The unreality of fable becomes the truth."
   - Jean Cocteau

In the reign of Charles I, Grissel Jaffray, the Curewife, arrives in Dundee as a new bride and begins a diary, intending to pass the story of her life and the lives of her ancestors to her first-born daughter.

Through the transcription of this diary, a powerful narrative unfolds. Grissel Jaffray has inherited a legacy of uncommon sagacity: the accumulated knowledge of her forebears who possessed the gift of healing and practised witchcraft for more than three centuries.

Grissel is a woman of keen intelligence whose fictional journal graphically depicts life in seventeenth-century Dundee: a land of war, plague, political turmoil, and fanatical witch-hunts.

This compelling story, based on the very few known facts about the life of a real character, subtly embraces major historical figures and events, from Bannockburn and Robert the Bruce to Cromwell and Monck, regicide and the lost treasure of the Tay.

Rave reviews of the book

Comments on the book by Hilary Mantel - "A story of subtlety and dark intrigue told with immense skill"
The Book Prize Judges - Unanimously commended by the Judges for its quote;Highly charged atmosphere.quote; and as "An impeccably researched work which bore its research lightly, given it is an historical novel."
also:
"Watson's style is lucid and her characters have been developed naturally and sympathetically." "As soon as I read it I knew it was the winner." - Dr. Kasia Boddy, University College London.
"Claire-Marie was a very clear choice......She is a real find." - Marion Sinclair, Napier College Edinburgh.
"A dark and brooding historical thrillerÉ. ....it succeeds triumphantly, a testament to its beautiful plotting." - Don Paterson, poet, musician and writer.

ISBN: 0954407547
Price, UK: £8.99
Paperback
Order securely on-line.

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