The Weaver's Daughter

by Elizabeth Jeffrey

When Anna discovers her father's plans to marry her off to an old widower, she flees from Holland with her sweetheart, Jan. They go to Colchester in England, the hub of the thriving cloth trade, where there is a substantial immigrant community. However, there is a great deal of animosity between the English and the Dutch, and riots often break out. On the advice of the local church minister, Jan takes up poorly paid work as a dyer, in very bad conditions. Anna is offered a place in the minister's house, looking after his pregnant wife. But she soon realises the true motive behind Minister Archer's generosity...

Genres: Fiction

544 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2004

About the author

Elizabeth Jeffrey was born and grew up in Wivenhoe, the village of her parents and grandparents. Far from being born with a quill in her hand, Elizabeth didn't start serious writing until after her children were born, beginning with short stories - on the premise that not so much paper was wasted if they were rejected! She won first prize in a short story competition run by the Daily Express, which led to an invitation to write for Mills & Boon. This was a useful stepping stone and after publishing five titles for them she moved on to writing historical novels. Her third novel, Cassie Jordan, was short-listed for Angel Prize for East Anglian writers and later The Buttercup Fields (under the title. The Chair Mender,) was short-listed for the very first Catherine Cookson prize. She has written over 15 novels. http://www.severnhouse.com/author/Eli...

Reviews

[Fi · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were times when I wanted to slap the heroine, but by & large a good - if slightly formulaic - story; it's always good to read a novel set in a new (to me) region of the country, & based around a specific event/era in history; I had known that there had been Dutch people living in this country for a long time, but had never really known how they came to be here