Nansi is fourteen and trying to survive as an orphan in Victorian Wales, Cardiff to be precise. She gets a home and protection of some sort from ‘Pernicious’ Sid, for working at his theatre, and thieving for him on the side. But all certainty in her life vanishes when she discovers that Sid is keeping secrets from her, secrets concerning her own mother. Can Nansi unravel the mystery and find her missing mother? Dark and often scary this is an excellent piece of melodrama for younger readers, setting and characters vividly described.
Recommended for fans of Philip Pullman’s Sally Lockhartbooks, and you could follow up with some Dickens too.
1899. All Nansi knows is that her mother disappeared on the day she was fished out of Cardiff docks. She can't remember anything else. Now, with no other family to turn to, she works for Sid at the Empire Theatre, sometimes legally, sometimes thieving to order, trying to earn enough money to hire a detective to find her mother.
Everything changes when Constance and Violet join the theatre, both with their own dark secrets. Nansi is forced to be part of Violet's crooked psychic act. But it's when Constance recognises her, and realises who her mother must be, that Nansi's world is turned upside down forever. She is soon on the run for her life and she will have to risk everything if she's going to find the truth.
‘A darkly delicious romp through the backstreets of Victorian Cardiff. I loved it!’ Emma Carroll, Frost Hollow Hall, Strange Star
‘Keep an eye out for this firecracker, folks - it’s gorgeously raw, dark and Dickensian.’ Lucy Strange, The Secret of Nightgale Wood.
Author
About Eloise Williams
Eloise is the inaugural Children’s Laureate Wales 2019-2021, an initiative run by Literature Wales. Having originally trained in Theatre at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, she went on to work as a performer, theatre maker and creative practitioner for over a decade before studying for a Masters in Creative and Media Writing at Swansea University in 2011. She is the author of Elen's Island, Gaslight, Seaglass and Wilde.
