AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM Elizabeth Warne SPB

Bibliographic Details

ISBN: 186019639X
Publisher: Headline, Great Britain
Publication Date: 1997
Binding: Soft Cover
Book Condition: Very Good

Description: Reading creases to spine, otherwise unmarked.

Willow Riches has never told her parents that she was offered higher eduction, for there is no money to spare, and she has worked since she was thirteen as a runabout in a corset factory.  She dreams of making beautiful garments like those in the shops in Park Street where smart Bristol people go.

When Willow saves the child of a wealthy family from a car accident, she is rewarded with a job in the Maddisons' country house.  But she chafes against the narrow restrictions of life in the kitchen.  Her ambition is to become a lady's maid, and eventually her skill as a seamstress is recognised and she achieves her goal.

During a visit to London with her mistress, Willow is embroiled in a Suffragette demonstration and sent to prison.  At the end of her sentence, with no job and little money, she sets out to break into the world of fashion.  Her road to success leads her into a world of highly unconventional clients, one which she must keep secret from her family.  But her attention is diverted by two men: Steven Kerslake, the former bootboy, who has himself struggled to achieve respectability; and Edgar Maddison, the spoilt son of her employers, who is attracted to her independent spirit, but is trapped in the conventions of his class.

Bookseller Inventory # 0807-567