To the parentals and all the extended family for all their support.

To Sara-Jane Arbury, Jonathan Davidson, Jon Bruford, Simon Bolton, Tariq Jordan, Abby Harrison, Polly Shepherd, Ali G (not that one), Katy Moran, Jane Hobson, Natasha Farrant, MG Leonard, Lesley Parr, Zara McCartney- Hubbard, Ruth Cairns, KB, Jackie Morris, Nicola Davies, Rebecca F John, Stacey Halls, Thi Dinh, Maura Wilding, Lucy Hirschman, Magic Deb, Simon Thomas, Stanton Stephens, Claire Preston, Chlöe Alexander, Ruth at Booka, and Sarah Odedina for kind words and support – I cannot tell you how much it’s meant to me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

To the entire brilliant Writing West Midlands team for tea, cake and kindness – particularly to Liv Chapman for helping me through ‘suspended terror’.

A special thank you to Rachel, Ange, Sarah, Laura, Rich, and the team at Moniack Mhor. I was lucky enough to be awarded The Bridge Award/Moniack Mhor Emerging Writer Award in 2018. It gave me thinking, wandering, and writing time at a truly magical place and I began writing The Gifts when I was there.

In memory of the lovely Nick ‘Ferg’ Ferguson whose wise advice about knowing when the right time to step away is has stuck with me for all these years.

To all the friends and family whose names I’ve borrowed for cameo roles – you know who you are!

Thank you too to my canine pals – Scout, Dennis, Roscoe, Brian, Spud and in memory of lovely Millie.

And lastly and most importantly, my heartfelt thanks to Rob – for putting up with me.

About the Author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Liz Hyder has been making up stories ever since she can remember. Originally from London, she now lives in South Shropshire. She has a BA in drama from the University of Bristol, and, in early 2018, she won the Bridge Award/ Moniack Mhor Emerging Writer Award. Bearmouth, her debut young adult novel, won a Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Branford Boase Award and was chosen as the Children’s Book of the Year in The Times. The Gifts is her debut adult novel.

@LondonBessie

@LondonBessie

Bibliography

Bibliography

Annie Swynnerton – Painter and Pioneer, Christine Allen and Penny Morris

Crucial Interventions, Richard Barnett

Victorian News and Newspapers, Lucy Brown

Digging up the Dead, Druin Burch

Untold Histories – Black people in England and Wales during the period of the British slave trade 1660-1807, Kathleen Chater

The Victorian Flower Garden, Jennifer Davies

The Victorian Kitchen Garden, Jennifer Davies

Night Walks, Charles Dickens

Around the World in 80 Trees, Jonathan Drori

Sex and Sexuality in Victorian Britain, Violet Fenn

The Butchering Art, Lindsay Fitzharris

The Victorian City, Judith Flanders

The Victorian House, Judith Flanders

Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell

How to be a Victorian, Ruth Goodman

Britain’s Black Past, edited by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina

Black Victorians – Black Victoriana, edited by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina

George Eliot – The Last Victorian, Kathryn Hughes

Victorians Undone, Kathryn Hughes

Dirty Old London, Lee Jackson