A Respectable Trade

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Frances and Mehuru are the main characters, but we also follow the Cole family's story. Josiah Cole is gullible and ambitious. Unlike Frances, he is morally ambivalent, desperate for ready cash, and prepared to gamble everything to join the big players of the city. But both he and his sister had very humble beginnings. Their father was a collier, and his older sister Sarah has worked hard all her life to establish a firm base for their trade, In this novel, Frances Scott is a well to do, but lonely woman who marries Josiah, a slave trader. It is a marriage of convenience. She has the name and connections, he has the power to put a roof over her head. Basically, in exchange for a fancy house, she must train slaves Josiah imports to be domestic servants. She never counts on falling in love with one. As to Settlements and Dowry – these certainly should be Arranged between his lordship and myself – but may I Assure you that you will find me Generous if you are Kind enough to look on my Proposal with favour.

A Respectable Trade by Philippa Gregory | Goodreads A Respectable Trade by Philippa Gregory | Goodreads

The great roar and sweep of history is successfully braided into the intimate daily detail of this compelling and intelligent book’ The novel provides an interesting analysis of how an individual's attitudes can change. The Bristol merchants do not seem to adapt at all, and neither do Frances's relatives, but those in her household mostly shift position as the novel progresses. Even the cook and servants, initially as exclusive, aggressive and judgemental as anyone, begin to side with the slaves, and the reader sees that both underclasses are forming a sort of solidarity. Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II. A Respectable Trade is in a totally different era than what a regular reader of Gregory is used to and a topic and plot line that can be quite triggering. This novel centres around the Bristol Trade in Britain and a lady who marries into being a trade Merchants Wife. Much of the trade during this time was in Sugar and Rum however this book explores the Coles branching into new territory, Slavery.It’s the middle of the night,’ the boy protested and then stopped when he saw Mehuru’s look. ‘Yes, master.’ Writer: Philippa Gregory (from her novel) / Music: Julian Nott / Costume Design: Frances Tempest / Production Design: Anthony Ainsworth / Producer: Ruth Baumgarten / Executive Producers: Kevin Menton, Nigel Warren-Green, Ruth Caleb, Michael Wearing / Director: Suri Krishnamma He gave a little shiver and turned from the doorway. The dream had been very clear – just one image of a looped rope dropping from a stone quayside and snaking through the water to the prow of a ship, whipping its way up the side as it was hauled in, and then the ship moving silently away from the land. There should be nothing to fear in such a sight but the dream had been darkened by a brooding sense of threat which lived with him still.

A Respectable Trade (Historical Novels) Kindle Edition A Respectable Trade (Historical Novels) Kindle Edition

Philippa Gregory is one of the world’s foremost historical novelists. She wrote her first ever novel, Wideacre, when she was completing her PhD in eighteenth-century literature and it sold worldwide, heralding a new era for historical fiction.The devastating consequences of the slave trade in 18th century Bristol are explored through the powerful but impossible attraction of well-born Frances and her Yoruban slave, Mehuru. A Respectable Trade takes place in the port city of Bristol in 1787. The city—indeed much of the kingdom—thrives on the slave trade, while elsewhere William Wilberforce is just beginning his decades’ long campaign for the abolition of the trade. Into this mix comes gently-bred Frances, forced by economic necessity to marry a merchant far below her station. Frances is confronted for the first time with the realities of slavery in Bristol, and finds that it’s far harder to condone such injustice when you’re witnessing beatings, rapes, and gross dehumanization under one’s own roof (especially when one of the victims happens to be the love of your life). That being said, the criticism some readers have made about the way Frances’s moral quandry is resolved in the final chapter is pretty valid. Rather than have Frances be brave and confront injustice and live bravely for her convictions, she gets to…die. Kind of a cop-out on Gregory’s part, though it’s possibly preferable to France and Mehuru sailing off to Sierra Leone to live happily together forever and ever. But like I said, this is still a Philippa Gregory book. In four part period BBC drama A Respectable Trade, adapted by Philippa Gregory from her own novel, it is 1788 in Bristol where governess Frances Scott (Emma Fielding) finds her life undergoing a dramatic change when she marries ambitious ship owning slave trader Josiah Cole (Warren Clarke).

A Respectable Trade[19/04/98] (1998) | BFI A Respectable Trade[19/04/98] (1998) | BFI

Her flair for blending history and imagination developed into a signature style and Philippa went on to write many bestselling novels, including The Other Boleyn Girl and The White Queen. I had an idea Then which I now Communicate to you: Namely that I wish that I might think of you as a Wife.I liked seeing Frances grow as a character. She starts out being shy and submissive, willing to do whatever people tell her to do without asking any questions, but as the novel continues, she slowly becomes more independent, and realizes that what her husband is doing isn't entirely sound at all. England 1648. A dangerous time for a woman to be different . . . Midsummer’s Eve, 1648, and England is in the grip of civil war between renegade King and rebellious Parliament. The struggle reaches every corner of the kingdom, even to the remote Tidelands – the marshy landscape of the south coast.

A Respectable Trade[26/04/98] (1998) | BFI A Respectable Trade[26/04/98] (1998) | BFI

If this book was JUST historical fiction, it would've been trashy, a bit melodramatic and pretty dang fun to read. However, Ms. Gregory had to make it a romance too, which ruined it. Admittedly, I was most interested in what was happening whenever Josiah was interacting with the Merchant Venturers, or even when Frances was "entertaining" because I'm just fascinated by the social norms of this time period but I agree with a lot of readers who said that the book could've done without the romance. It absolutely could've. It made me despise Frances and made me incredibly irritated with Mehuru. To the point that the ending was kind of a relief for me. Because it meant that Frances couldn't treat Mehuru like shit anymore, nor continue to take him for granted.

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Philippa Gregory is clearly aware of her reputation for embroidering the facts. She stated that she had never before felt the need to write an author's note for her novels, but that, this book is about a topic so important to me that I wanted to emphasise some of the historical facts". Fans of Ms Gregory's phenomenally successful Tudor novels will encounter a more somber, pensive writer in A Respectable Trade. Re-issued by Touchstone, this novel set in 18th century Bristol offers a painful glimpse into the flourishing slave trade of the era, which enabled the majority of England's enterprising merchants and the nation at large to amass fortunes at the cost of unimaginable human suffering.