Description
Book SynopsisThe unputdownable historical novel by the acclaimed and bestselling author of WAKE and EXPECTATION: a devastating story of love and madness at the brink of the Great War.
''Absolutely heart-breaking. One of the best books I've ever read'' DINAH JEFFERIES, author of The Tea-Planter''s Wife
''Compelling, elegant, insightful'' OBSERVER
1911: Inside an asylum at the edge of the Yorkshire moors, where men and women are kept apart by high walls and barred windows, there is a ballroom vast and beautiful. For one bright evening every week they come together and dance. When John and Ella meet it is a dance that will change two lives forever.
Set over the heatwave summer of 1911, the end of the Edwardian era, THE BALLROOM tells a rivetting tale of dangerous obsession, of madness and sanity, and of who gets to decide which is which. It is a love story like no other.
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Trade Review
Absolutely heart-breaking. One of the best books I’ve ever read * Dinah Jefferies, author of THE TEA-PLANTER'S WIFE *
A British version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Moving. Fascinating * Times *
An unsentimental and affecting story * Sunday Times *
Compelling, elegant and insightful. * Observer *
In this deeply moving book, Hope reminds us that behind everyone’s facade lies something waiting to be rent free * Irish Times *
An original, brilliant, evocative novel * Chris Cleave *
A heartbreaking story of how love can flourish in the darkest of times * Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Bookseller *
Part social commentary, part mystery and part dangerous liaison, this poignant story casts an unflinching gaze at the historic treatment of mental health disorders. * Financial Times *
Such a magnificent setting definitely demands a story that delivers, all guns blazing. It does, and then some . . . Fiction at it’s finest. * Irish Independent *
Beautiful * Stylist *
An exquisite love story * Good Housekeeping *
A terrifying, moving and uplifting story -- February Hot Read * Woman and Home *
A poignant against-the-odds love story * Glamour *
Tender . . . Hope is the emotion that unspools the delicate connections between these brilliantly drawn characters * Psychologies Magazine *
The Ballroom is a beautifully wrought novel, a tender, heartbreaking and insightful exploration of the longings that survive in the most inhospitable environments. * Sunday Express 5/5 stars *
Magnificent…a luminary of historical fiction…writing history from the margins, the personal stories behind the era, she delivers profound, poignant stories that stir the emotions. * Press Association *
All the intensity and lyricism of Hope’s debut, Wake * Daily Mail *
The Ballroom confirms her as a novelist of immense power...Exquisitely good. Sensitive, engrossing and highly recommended * Metro *
The Ballroom is a beautiful, gripping, heart-wrenching, thought-provoking book. I was so enthralled, I read it in an evening, unwilling to put it down. * thewritesofwoman.wordpress.com *
An atmospheric and thought provoking love story * bookslifeandeverything.blogspot.co.uk *
