HISTORICAL EITHNE FARRY

THE PAINTER’S DAUGHTERS by Emily Howes (Phoenix €21, 384pp)

DELICATE and luminously loving, Howes’s delightful debut delineates the close, protective friendship between Molly and Peggy, the daughters of artist Thomas Gainsborough.

Set in the wilds of Ipswich and the bourgeoisie delights of Bath, the story follows the girls from their countryside romps to the marriage market of the town as Molly’s mental illness becomes more apparent. In a world where appearance is everything, their irascible, ambitious mother attempts to cover up Molly’s madness. Gainsborough continues his rakish painterly ways and does his best to ignore it, as Peggy, afraid for their future, is doing her best to keep Molly’s secret, while nursing a hidden love of her own.

It’s a beautifully written story of sacrifice and sisterly affection, both heartfelt and empathetic.

THE SECRETS OF BLYTHSWOOD SQUARE by Sara Sheridan (Hodder €24.65, 400pp)

IT’S 1846, and Glasgow is on the cusp of change. In the hurlyburly of the back streets and the more refined squares and sedate churches, old social mores and new ways of being are tussling it out; a skirmish that is brilliantly reflected in the lives of Sheridan’s cast of eclectic characters.

At the heart of this engaging story are two women — lonely Charlotte Nicholl, who discovers her inheritance comes in the shape of a valuable, but untoward art collection, and the enterprising Ellory McHale, who wants to be a photographer.

Sheridan’s spry plot sees secrets discovered, ruinous rumours scotched, happiness regained and friendships founded in a novel that celebrates the search for autonomy.

THE BONE HUNTERS by Joanne Burn (Sphere €23.80, 352pp)

INSPIRED by the intrepid Mary Anning, the trail-blazing Victorian paleontologist who scoured the cliffs of Lyme Regis in her search for fossils, this electrifying novel heads to the wild shores of Dorset’s Jurassic coast in the company of clever, obsessive, stubborn 24-year-old Ada Winter.

She’s hard-scrabble poor, lives with her weary, frightened mother in a cottage by the sea and spends her time hunting for the bones of an ancient beast.

Desperate to be accepted by the geological community, but denied access because she’s a woman, she treads a lonely path, until she meets the equally ambitious Dr Edward Moyle, who seems like an answer to her problems. This is a brilliantly researched, powerful story of scientific adventure and selfdiscovery, with a gloriously staunch heroine at its core.