Jeremiah's trunk / Denise Tobin Shine
- Bib ID:
- 7858937
- Format:
- Book
- Author:
- Shine, Denise, author
- Description:
-
- Brighton, VIC : Denise Shine, [2019]
- ©2019
- 492 pages ; 23 cm
- ISBN:
- 9780648421801 (paperback)
- Summary:
-
Synopsis - Jeremiah's Trunk - Denise Tobin Shine In 2013, after her mother's death, Abigail Skinner inherits an old oak trunk containing journals, belonging to her ancestors of the nineteenth century. But it's the enclosed, more recently written letter from her late Aunt Jane that turns her world upside down. Devastated to discover that Jane, her actress mother, gave her up for adoption to her brother and his wife, Dorothy, there is no mention of the identity of her biological father. Still in shock, Abigail turns to Leticia's journals and discovers what life was like for her ancestors, two hundred years ago. Living in the English Midlands, Leticia writes of her Dame school, her twelve-year-old son, Jeremiah, the reunion with her son's Royal Academician father and taking up residence in the gracious Winston Manor, home to the Sargood family of potters. Abigail is soon immersed in the historical importance of the canals, when various real life characters like John Constable and William Garrow feature in her great-great-great-grandmother's writing. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in England and on the eve of the crowning of Queen Victoria, their lives are shattered when Jeremiah, now a part-time artist/potter is transported to New South Wales for forgery. He leaves two children and a wife to operate their working narrowboat on the canals between the Midlands and London. Throughout his years in NSW, he dreams of returning to his homeland, but on meeting up again with Cornelia Greene, a free-passenger on his convict ship, his life takes a new turn with the discovery of gold in 1851. Jeremiah starts his own dynasty, when his children, Meggie and Geordie immigrate to Australia to join him in Ballarat. As the Skinner family continues to engage their 21st century descendant, Abigail, she embarks on her own voyage of self-discovery to Britain looking for her biological father, to discover the life of the mother she never really knew and to visit her ancestors' former haunts. Along the way, she finds love and learns to redefine her feelings for her birth mother and indifferent siblings. When the ancient past and her personal history overlap much closer to home, she finally finds peace and solace. With its theme of family history and several twists in the tale, Jeremiah's Trunk is a page turner with believable and endearing characters set in both historical and contemporary eras, underpinned by real events of the times.
- Notes:
-
- "Two women, two centuries apart, both grapple with family secrets and heartache"--Cover.
- NLApp80366
- Subject:
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
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Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary, dramatic or musical work
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 2019
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