In the wake of her mother’s death, Pandora Woodville is desperate to escape her domineering father and finally return to Cornwall in 1801. Posing as a widow, she safely makes it across the Atlantic, bright with the dream of working at her Aunt Harriet’s school for young women. But as Pandora is soon to learn, […]
Asylums and prisons: locking women away in madhouses
Nicola Pryce tells Historia about the historical background to her latest novel, which touches on various kinds of imprisonment; the most shocking is the 18th-century practice of locking inconvenient women away in madhouses, as she explains. The Cornish Captive is the sixth novel in my Cornish series. My heroine is mentioned before in passing but […]
The Cornish Captive by Nicola Pryce
Cornwall in 1800. Imprisoned on false pretences, Madeleine Pelligrew, former mistress of Pendenning Hall, has spent the last 14 years shuttled between increasingly destitute and decrepit mad houses. When a strange man appears out of the blue to release her, she can’t quite believe that her freedom comes without a price. Hiding her identity, Madeleine […]
A Cornish Betrothal by Nicola Pryce
Eighteen months have passed since Midshipman Edmund Melville was declared missing, presumed dead, and Amelia Carew has mended her heart and fallen in love with a young physician, Luke Bohenna. But, on her 25th birthday, Amelia suddenly receives a letter from Edmund announcing his imminent return. In a state of shock, devastated that she now […]
Review: A Cornish Betrothal by Nicola Pryce
The internationally best-selling author Nicola Cornick reviews A Cornish Betrothal, the fifth book in Nicola Pryce’s Cornish Saga series. A Cornish Betrothal by Nicola Pryce is a historical novel set in Cornwall at the turn of the 18th century (the clue is in the title!). Historical novels of this era and with this setting, particularly […]
The Cornish Lady by Nicola Pryce
Cornwall in the 18th century. Educated, beautiful and the daughter of a prosperous merchant, Angelica Lilly has been invited to spend the summer in high society. Her father’s wealth is opening doors, and attracting marriage proposals, but Angelica still feels like an impostor among the aristocrats of Cornwall. When her brother returns home, ill and […]
Desert Island Books: Nicola Pryce
At first, I thought it would be impossible to choose just five books for my desert island. My head was brimming with countless possibilities, but in less than five minutes my heart had led me straight to five rather worn and browning books. As I looked at them, I realised I had read them all before […]