Melvyn Bragg's highly-acclaimed bestselling historical novel, the story behind one of the 19th century's greatest scandals.

Melvyn Bragg's highly acclaimed, bestselling historical novel, the story behind one of the 19th century's greatest scandals.

'This is the story of an impostor and bigamist, a self-styled Colonel Hope, who travels to the North, where eventually he marries "The Maid of Buttermere", a young woman whose natural beauty inspired the dreams and confirmed the theories of various early nineteenth-century writers . . . It is a fine story . . . This is historical fiction with a human face'
Peter Ackroyd, The Times

'A skilled, ornate and convincing examination of a nineteenth-century scandal in Bragg's own Cumbria'
Thomas Keneally

'A triumph . . . I am overwhelmingly impressed'
Beryl Bainbridge

'Bragg achieves the most difficult of feats, the telling of the changing perceptions and ideals of a radical age . . . He is also as powerful as ever in his description of nature'
Sunday Times

"This is the story of an impostor and bigamist, a self-styled Colonel Hope, who travels to the North, where eventually he marries "The Maid of Buttermere", a young woman whose natural beauty inspired the dreams and confirmed the theories of various early nineteenth-century writers . . . It is a fine story . . . This is historical fiction with a human face" - The Times

"A detailed, eloquent and affecting panorama of truth and lies . . . thrusts [him] into the front rank" - Mail on Sunday

"Bragg achieves the most difficult of feats, the telling of the changing perceptions and ideals of a radical age . . . He is also as powerful as ever in his description of nature" - Sunday Times

"

A terrific tale of passion, lust, deception and moral outrage.

"Bragg writes with picturesque clarity; his prose accommodates the formality of the period, the splendidly sombre wateriness of the place and the robust passions of the people who lived there" - Sunday Telegraph

"

A fine novel, both sad and tragic. His background descriptions are beautiful . . . while his evocation of the early nineteenth century, and his handling of the ever-interesting topic of English snobbery is impeccable

"Compelling . . . Painted on a broad canvas, packed with detail, with characters, with interesting psychological issues, and sallies into the history of the years 1802-1803" - Glasgow Herald