Featured on The TV Book Club on More4 on 4 March 2012.
With each chapter inspired by a real work of art, this richly textured debut novel transports us into a perfectly imagined tale of how each portrait came to be. As the narrative grows through time, from 1333 into the present and beyond, the reader is woven into the subtle connections that grow and thread through the narratives. Unusual, beguiling and full of beauty, Girl Reading is as finely drawn as the portraits that inspired it.
Seven portraits. Seven eras. Seven women and girls reading.
A young orphan poses nervously for a Renaissance maestro in medieval Siena, and an artist’s servant girl in 17th-century Amsterdam snatches a moment away from her work to lose herself in tales of knights and battles. A young woman reading in a Shoreditch bar catches the eye of a young man who takes her picture, and a Victorian medium in a photographer’s studio casually holds a book while she waits for the exposure.
‘Girl Reading is a debut of rare individuality and distinction. The writing is full of light and shadow, alive with fresh and startling perceptions. Ward is wise, poised, and utterly original. Her eye and her words are fresh, as if she is inventing the world.’ Hilary Mantel
Author
About Katie Ward
Katie Ward was born in Somerset in 1979. She has worked in the public and voluntary sectors, including at a women’s refuge and for a Member of Parliament. She took a career break in order to write her debut novel, after being inspired by a book of portraits of women and girls reading.
In 2007, Katie Ward met Hilary Mantel through a work colleague and Hilary took a keen interest in her work.
When Girl Reading was complete, Hilary recommended it to her agent, who soon had a number of publishers bidding for it.
