The Jewellers Wife

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1938 onwards: A jewel is only such if it is cared for, polished and adored

ISBN: 978-1472223678
Genre:

What you need to know before your trail

1938. As England awaits the outbreak of war, Juliet Winterton journeys from the Mediterranean to the Essex countryside to begin her life as the beautiful young wife of a London jeweller.
But beneath her husband’s intelligence and ambition, lies a cruel and ruthless man. And when dashing politician Gillis Sinclair comes to stay at Marsh Court, Juliet is drawn to his irresistible charm.
So begins a passionate affair that will have consequences far beyond anything Juliet imagines. For Gillis Sinclair is hiding a dark secret and, as the next generation of Wintertons grows up, Juliet fears that they, too, will be tainted by the past…

Locations

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Egypt
A: Cairo - Shepheard's hotel

Travel Guide

Cairo Egypt

Where the story starts with Juliet meeting a man she spends the night with “she needs the comfort of human touch” Then as she is trying to sell a necklace due to her father’s debts, she meets Henry Winterton in a jewellery shop of all places. Jewels are involved from the start. He’s staying in the swanky Shepheard’s Hotel. Even then, her world is spilt in to – “the shabbiness of her days contrasted with her evenings at Shepherd’s hotel. Henry takes her from one world, one prison and places her into another.

London

The land of jewels and promise with the shine of Winterton’s Jewellers in Bond Street soon acting like some sort of prison and expectation for Juliet. A jewellers wife is supposed to act and be a certain way as did woman of that time. But a gilded cage is still a cage so it’s only when she meets and falls for Gillis Sinclair that she goes outside her normal comfort zone and travels to Hyde Park to meet him in secret and to a flat in Pilmico.

London becomes freer and less claustrophic when he is around.

Essex

Thorney Island is fictional yet is inspired by the islands of the Blackwater Estuary so could well be this one. The islands and the estuary provide a calming background to the heat and hustle of the Egyptian sun. However this contrast is sometimes seen by Juliet as tiredness and boring. An existence now which makes her ill at ease.

“The rain ha exhausted itself, leaving in it s wake a pale blue skies and a peaceful stillness. Marsh Court stood on a peninsula that jutted out into the North Sea and was bordered by the Backwater Estuary to the north and the River Crouch to the sough. The low lying countryside that surrounded the house was made up of soft shades of green and grey and brown , restful to the eye.”

The only shade of difference in this landscape is the red bricked cottage for a Winterton maid where Gillis Sinclair ends up staying. With the colours of Malton Court blending into its surroundings, this place seems like a smudged oil painting where the lines which were once drawn have now been confused. Like the marriage between Juliet and her husband. The outside and the inside merged together into one big mess you could say.

Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer

This is a sumptuous saga of secrets, rivalries, jealousies and hidden desires.

Juliet is a woman ahead of her time but also tainted and constrained by it too. Marriage is a must, her father’s debts condemn her to a life of pain. An affair seems almost inevitable and that, with an MP, is more of a scandal than most.

The cast of characters (handy cast list at the start) is just a joy as you can clearly see each and every one of them. I can’t say I liked all of them and there was a air of things simmering between them, between the pages so that the rustle as I turned each page over seemed to hide a whisper between some of them. I found them out towards the end but the whispering of pages really built up the mystery.

What I really enjoyed was the subdued and understated elegance of Judith Lennox’s writing. There is little dialogue at the start and the static world of Juliet is well drawn.

This saga is slow burning but very satisfying.