Brocade

by Netta Muskett

Rachel had to escape, get away to a new life, a new country.

She was leaving behind so much misery. Once she had been happy living out in the country with her father and sister. Then her father brought them home a visitor: the woman who was to be his new wife. Soon it became clear that the new wife had married her father for his money. Then Rachel's married the man that Rachel loved.

Rachel herself had left home, had married, and had come to realise that she had made a terrible mistake. For a time she clung on, hoping for happiness. But the latest heart-breaking events made her realise that happiness would not come to her. She had to go out to seek it....

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Netta Rachel Hill was born on 1887 in Sevenoaks, Kent, England, UK. She was educated at Kent College, Folkstone, before became teacher of Mathematics. During the World War I, she joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment, and drove an ambulance in France. In 1916, her brother, member of the Imperial Camel Corp, was killed in Egypt. After war, she worked as secretary by Lord George Riddell, 1st Baron Riddell, owerd and Managing Director of the News of the World. In 1925, she married the widower Henry Wallace Muskett (1886-1953), who has three children for his firt marriage, and they had a son, Peter Muskett, who married Judith, and had two children: Sarah-Jane and Jamie. During the World War II, she again served with the V.A.D where she taught handicrafts in British and American hospitals.

She started publishing on 1927, and she continued writing until the day of her death, and her last novel, Cloudbreak, was published posthumously on 1964. Her novels are translated to several languages, including: Spanish, French, Portuguese, Finnish, Swedish and Danish. Netta Muskett was vice-president of the Romantic Novelists' Association's, that created in her honour the Netta Muskett Award for new writers. She died on 29 May 1963 in Putney. In 2013, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of her death, her family started to published her novels as ebook through Amazon Kindle.

Reviews

[Kimba · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite books of all time.
Of. All. Time.

Netta is notorious for writing [romance] books with unattractive, plain and downright unfortunate heroines.
The poor lass who is the central character of this novel suffers all manner of awful and violent situations in the first half of the book.. and just when you think she can't take it anymore.. her fiancé is bitten by a deadly snake in the dusty and remote African wilderness.. and THEN there is a kidnapping, some violent deaths... aaaah it is just wonderful.

Netta's treatment of the African native characters is shocking, sad, and unfortunately possibly a decent reflection of the era.

I adore this novelist. I have collected most of her novels - many early hardcover/dustjacketed editions.

I highly recommend this novel to nostalgia buffs. Truly a remarkable example of this genre.