A dazzling, immersive work of historical fiction set in eighteenth-century London, where a young woman on the brink of fame and her father, both fugitives from enslavement, must fight to define – and defend – their freedom.

Pearl was only an infant when her father, Daniel, seized a desperate chance and fled with her from a Jamaican sugarcane plantation. Now sixteen, in London, she is on the cusp of something extraordinary: a blossoming career on the stage, where her voice wins admiration, envy and the intoxicating promise of independence.

But Daniel knows how quickly fortune can turn. While he works with the Brotherhood of Crows to protect Black men, women and children from injustice, he is determined to shield Pearl from the dangers of public life. Respectability, in his eyes, may be her only protection – especially as he pursues a long-promised inheritance owed to him for saving a major’s life in battle. Yet those who control the courts and the money have no intention of letting Daniel claim what is his. To them, his freedom is something to be challenged, stolen or destroyed.

As Pearl resists her father’s fears, she finds a thrilling new family in the theatre: glittering, ambitious and treacherous. Fame and romance seem suddenly within reach, until rivalry, sabotage and a devastating betrayal place her in grave danger.

From the shadowed tunnels of the St Giles rookery to the blazing stages of Covent Garden, Pearl must decide what freedom truly means – and what she is willing to risk for a life of her own.

In a city alive with opportunity and peril, one choice can change everything.

Praise for The Blackbirds of St. Giles:

‘The novel Dickens didn’t write, but should have done. Simply magnificent’ Sean Lusk

‘Readers are in for a true treat … Dazzling’ Paterson Joseph

‘A memorable and thoroughly entertaining narrative’ Sunday Times, Book of the Month

‘A beautiful, original and heart-stopping read’ Janice Hallett

‘Gritty and thrilling, with vivid and unforgettable characters’ Laura Shepherd-Robinson