Jane Harris

As she sits in her Bloomsbury home, with her two birds for company, elderly Harriet Baxter sets out to relate the story of her acquaintance, nearly four decades previously, with Ned Gillespie, a talented artist who never achieved the fame she maintains he deserved.Back in 1888, the young, art-loving, Harriet arrives in Glasgow at the time of the International Exhibition. After a chance encounter she befriends the Gillespie family and soon becomes a fixture in all of their lives. But when tragedy strikes - leading to a notorious criminal trial - the promise and certainties of this world all too rapidly disorientate into mystery and deception.Featuring a memorable cast of characters, infused with atmosphere and period detail, and shot through with wicked humour, Gillespie and I is a tour de force from one of the emerging names of British fiction.

Vastly original. Bessy is surely one of the most striking characters in recent fiction: cynical, disruptive, tender and very, very funny.Independent on Sunday Shortlisted for the Orange PrizeScotland, 1863. In an attempt to escape her past, Bessy Buckley takes a job working as a maid in a big country house. But when Arabella, her beautiful mistress, asks her to undertake a series of bizarre tasks, Bessy begins to realise that she hasnt quite landed on her feet. In one of the most acclaimed debuts of recent years, Jane Harris has created a heroine who will make you laugh and cry as she narrates this unforgettable story about secrets and suspicions and the redemptive power of love and friendship.

Featuring a memorable cast of characters, shot through with wicked humour, and infused with atmosphere and period detail, ''Gillespie and I'' is a triumphant return from one of rhe major new voices in modern fiction.Su primera novela era "The Observations".

A deliriously captivating tale of sex, ghosts, lies, and mysteries. (Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love) By turns funny and sad, but always true to the ear. And the sprightly, profane Bessy is a joy. (Entertainment Weekly) Its a rare feeling to be swept up by a book in the childhood way, but when it happens, its extraordinary: deeply familiar and strangely unsettling. (London Review of Books) The Observations combines the best qualities of literary fiction with page-turning accessibility. (The Observer, London)

The stunning return from the Orange Prize shortlisted author of The Observations and Gillespie and IPitches you headfirst into this outstanding, heartbreaking story of siblings, slavery and the savagery of the colonial past.SUNDAY EXPRESSHarris builds a lush sense of place, and the pace and tension of a rip-roaring adventure here, with derring-do and double-crossing.THE TIMESThrough masterful detail, Harris shows the dehumanisation of the brothers and their fellow slaves . . . Beautifully cadenced.IRISH TIMESMartinique, 1765, and brothers Emile and Lucien are charged by their French master, Father Cleophas, with a mission. They must return to Grenada, the island they once called home, and smuggle back the 42 slaves claimed by English invaders at the hospital plantation in Fort Royal. While Lucien, barely in his teens, sees the trip as a great adventure, the older and worldlier Emile has no illusions about the dangers they will face. But with no choice other than to obey Cleophas - and sensing the possibility, however remote, of finding his first love Celeste - he sets out with his brother on this reckless venture.With great characters, a superb narrative set up, and language that is witty and thrillingly alive, Sugar Moneyis a novel to treasure.

As she sits in her Bloomsbury home, with her two birds for company, elderly Harriet Baxter sets out to relate the story of her acquaintance, nearly four decades previously, with Ned Gillespie, a talented artist who never achieved the fame she maintains he deserved. Back in 1888, the young, art-loving Harriet arrives in Glasgow at the time of the International Exhibition. After a chance encounter she befriends the Gillespie family and soon becomes a fixture in all of their lives. But when tragedy strikes - leading to a notorious criminal trial - the promise and certainties of this world all too rapidly disintegrate into mystery and deception...

This work is set in Scotland, 1863. In an attempt to escape her not-so-innocent past in Glasgow, Bessy Buckley - the wide-eyed Irish heroine of "The Observations" - takes a job as a maid in a big house outside Edinburgh working for the beautiful Arabella. Bessy is intrigued by her new employer, but puzzled by her increasingly strange requests and her insistence that Bessy keep a journal of her most intimate thoughts. And it seems that Arabella has a few secrets of her own - including her near-obsessive affection for Nora, a former maid who died in mysterious circumstances. Then a childish prank has drastic consequences which throw into jeopardy all that Bessy has come to hold dear. Caught up in a tangle of madness, ghosts, sex and lies, she is determined to remain devoted to Arabella. But who is really responsible for what happened to her predecessor Nora? As her past threatens to catch up with her and complicate matters even further, Bessy begins to realise that she has not quite landed on her feet. "The Observations" is a brilliantly original, funny and endlessly intriguing story of one woman''s journey from a difficult past into an even more disturbing present.

?Bessy Buckley, la heroína de Observaciones, está a la altura de Moll Flanders, de Daniel Defoe.? The Times?Harris ha creado un personaje con tanta fuerza que capta la atención del lector de la primera a la ultima pagina.? The Observer?Una gran primera novela de corte victoriano, llena de locura e injusticias sociales, para un lector moderno.? The Book MagazineEscocia,1863. En un intento de escapar de su pasado un tanto dudoso en Glasgow, Bessy acepta un trabajo en una gran casa a las afueras de Edimburgo a las ordenes de la señora Arabella. Bessy siente gran curiosidad por su nueva señora y por la insistencia de esta en que anote en un diario cada uno de sus pensamientos mas intimos. Parece que Abarella tambien tiene secretos propios, como su afecto casi obsesivo hacia Nora, la antecesora de Bessy, quien murio en misteriosas circunstancias. El lector de Observaciones no tardara en verse atrapado por la inteligente intriga de esta novela historica. A traves de la voz de la inolvidable Bessy y de una narracion llega de guiños, Observaciones muestra los aspectos mas sordidos de la sociedad victoriana y ofrece un certero analisis sobre las relaciones de afecto y poder. Jane Harris nacio en 1962 en Belfast. Ha publicado algunas narraciones breves por las que obtuvo el Writer?s Aw

Nada es a simple vista lo que parece y mucho menos en esta intrigante novela de corte clásico.«Os parecerá extraño que sea yo la primera en hablar de Ned Gillespie, pero ¿quién sino yo iba a hacerlo?