The Ghost of Lily Painter
  • Published: 15 March 2012
  • ISBN: 9780099538134
  • Imprint: Windmill Books
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $26.99

The Ghost of Lily Painter

Formats & editions
EBook
15 Jun 2011
Paperback
15 Mar 2012
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A spellbinding novel which combines rich writing with a sinister period in London's history

The first time Annie Sweet sees 43 Stanley Road, the house is so perfect she almost feels as though it has chosen her. But with her husband seeming more distant, and her daughter wrapped up in her friends and new school, Annie is increasingly left alone to mull over the past.

She soon becomes consumed by the house and everyone who has lived there before her, especially a young music hall singer called Lily Painter, whose sparkling performances were the talk of London. As Annie delves further into the past she unravels the case of two notorious baby farmers, who cruelly preyed on vulnerable unmarried mothers. And until she solves the mystery at the heart of the scandal, the ghost of Lily Painter will never be able to rest.

Basing her story on true events, Caitlin Davies skilfully blends fact and fiction to bring to life part of our sinister past. Spanning an entire century, from the journals of an Edwardian police inspector to a doomed wartime love affair, The Ghost of Lily Painter is a gripping and poignant novel.
  • Published: 15 March 2012
  • ISBN: 9780099538134
  • Imprint: Windmill Books
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $26.99
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About the author

Caitlin Davies

Caitlin Davies is a journalist, teacher, non-fiction writer and novelist. She is the author of The Ghost of Lily Painter, and most recently, Family Likeness. She lives in north London.

Also by Caitlin Davies

Family Likeness
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Praise for The Ghost of Lily Painter

I read it in two days flat and enjoyed it hugely - a wonderful combination of ghost story, detective story and social history.

Gaynor Arnold, author of 'Girl in a Blue Dress'

[A] meticulously researched and moving new novel

Camden New Journal

The author's exhaustive research has the same ability as Sarah Waters to vividly bring to life a particular period in history.

The Morning Star

She represents historical research as exciting, romantic and as offering personal catharsis.

History Today

I enjoyed it so much - stories of "then" and "now", and beautifully balanced between the two

Judith Flanders, author of The Victorian House

Unputdownable

Jenni Murray

An engrossing novel

Image Magazine

Big, rich and entertaining

Kate Saunders, Saga Magazine

In this dark thriller, Caitlin Davies uses the haunted house as the frame for a disturbing story of cruelty in Victorian London

Daily Mail