A Respectable Trade

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The institution of slavery is thus at the heart of this story, and all the characters in the novel are involved in the trade, or profiting from it - either directly or indirectly. In one way or another, slavery drives all their actions. The novel mainly concerns Frances Scott, an orphan who is living on the kindness of her aunt and uncle, Lord and Lady Scott, and working unhappily as a governess. She sees an advertisement for a new position advertised by Josiah Cole, a merchant involved in the slave trade. Frances has always known about slavery but only in a distant way, Cast: Warren Clarke as Josiah Cole; Anna Massey as Sarah Cole; Emma Fielding as Frances Cole, nee Scott; Ariyon Bakare as Mehuru; Richard Briers as Sir Charles Fairley; Jenny Agutter as Lady Scott; Simon Williams as Lord Scott; Tanya Moodie as Rachel; Jenny Jules as Elizabeth

A Respectable Trade (1998) - Warren Clarke (2 DVD Set) A Respectable Trade (1998) - Warren Clarke (2 DVD Set)

So maybe you're an entitled, upper class lady living in the 1780s. You have an inkling that slavery isn't as morally sound as your church suggests. But what if the slave trade is keeping you in fancy hats? Can you overlook the severe, continuous, dehumanizing oppression? Even when you meet a slave who becomes an odd combination of servant, friend, and lover? Does the cognitive dissonance start tearing you apart?He got up from his sleeping platform, wrapped a sheet around him and went quietly to the door. The city of Oyo was silent. He looked down his street; no light showed. Only in the massive palace wall could he see a moving light as a servant walked from room to room, the torch shining from each window he passed. A Respectable Trade is in a totally different era than what a regular reader of Gregory is used to and a topic and plot line that can be quite triggering. This novel centres around the Bristol Trade in Britain and a lady who marries into being a trade Merchants Wife. Much of the trade during this time was in Sugar and Rum however this book explores the Coles branching into new territory, Slavery. I’m getting older and I read for pleasure. Why should I continue to read a book that is just not for me? The dowry transformed marriage into a business proposition and women were bartered like cattle in the pursuit of ambition and status.

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Add to that Frances' failing health and the money worries of the scheming Josiah as he overreaches himself in more and more schemes to make money their outwardly happy world looks set to collapse. This is, rightfully, an angry book that uncovers the British slave-trade and the inhumanities upon which empire is built. Gregory is clearly incensed, both politically and personally, about this hidden history and uncovers the ignorance and wilful self-deceit which underpins any kind of prejudice, whether racial, sexual, gendered etc. Phillips Gregory has never disappointed me with a story of a historical nature. I can count on her abilities to immerse me in fantastic and appropriate detail and to always tell a good tale, no matter the setting. I am most familiar with this author from her fiction books on English royalty and their lineage over many different centuries and family lines. Another slave is Mandinka and one is Wolof. They all speak different languages, and we witness the total incomprehension as well as the barbarity of the sailors who have taken these people from their homes.

Fans of Gregory’s phenomenally successful Tudor novels will encounter a more somber, pensive writer in A Respectable Trade. Re-issued by Touchstone, this novel set in 18th century Bristol offers a painful glimpse into the flourishing slave trade of the era, which enabled the majority of England’s enterprising merchants and the nation at large to amass fortunes at the cost of unimaginable human suffering. Rather than opt for comfortable characters and pat storylines, Ms Gregory has crafted a quiet, powerful meditation on the nature of mankind’s inhumanity toward our fellow man, and the compromises we make to excuse and obscure our choices. I am Sensible of the Honour you would do me, Madam, and Conscious of the Advantage your connexion would bring me. But may I also hope that this Proposal of mine will Preserve you from a lifetime of employment to which your Delicate talents and Aristocratic Connexions must render you unfit? He called quietly for his slave boy, Siko, who slept at the foot of his bed. ‘Make tea,’ he said shortly as the boy appeared, rubbing his eyes.

A Respectable Trade (Historical Novels) Kindle Edition A Respectable Trade (Historical Novels) Kindle Edition

I used to take sugar in my tea, and I still love sweet puddings... My university is endowed by rich men who draw their wealth from the colonies. My patients are all Traders. We all profit from the thieving in Africa. If we stopped it tomorrow we would still be rich from their loss...I believe the Trade will be ended...But the cruelty we have learned will poison us forever." this book is about a topic so important to me that I wanted to emphasise some of the historical facts". This was a totally different direction for her, and I think it payed off fairly well. Instead of writing of the intricacies of the Tudor Court, she instead heads forward in time to write about the brutality of the Bristol slave trade and the romance between a noblelady and one of her slaves. Philippa Gregory is one of the world’s foremost historical novelists. She wrote her first ever novel, Wideacre, when she was completing her PhD in eighteenth-century literature and it sold worldwide, heralding a new era for historical fiction.Spoilers: I felt like Frances and Mehru falling in love was entirely unrealistic. It was apparently love at first sight, which is completely implausible. Frances was accustomed to slaves and was only slightly upset when two of them died, yet managed to fall in love with one? Mehru, a leader in his own country, managed to fall in love with the women who owned him, permitted him to be whipped, and eventually agrees to sell him. Only made it through 60 percent of the book because I found that match so unbelievable. It was not at all well developed, just seemed to appear. So I gave myself until the end of this month to finish this and Lord have mercy I was actually able to finish but reading this book was HARD WORK. I don't know if I'll ever read another Philippa Gregory book and if I do it'll only be because I want to see if it's just as poorly written as A Respectable Trade. Speaking to the press Emma Fielding felt that the affair between Frances and Mehuru was key to getting across some important facts about the slave trade saying “the love story is a more acceptable way of showing slavery. This way it’s not just a history lesson.” Fundamentally Philippa Gregory's interest lies in the realms of highly-coloured speculation and romance. A popular English historical novelist, she has written a couple of historical novels set during the English Civil War, a 17th century trilogy about the love of land and about incest, novels about the Plantagenets, ruling houses which preceded the Tudors, and also novels about the Wars of the Roses. In recent years Philippa Gregory seems to have cornered the market in these novels set in the Tudor period, with "The Other Boleyn Girl" being such a runaway success, that it was dramatised both for televison and also made into a film, spawning many sequels, and many further very popular series on television.

A Respectable Trade by Gregory Philippa - AbeBooks A Respectable Trade by Gregory Philippa - AbeBooks

A Respectable Trade is not what you expect from Philippa Gregory, but I think it showcases her talents and abilities a lot better than her more recent poolside-type historical fiction (based on the one Tudor book I’ve read).The conflict between the two forms an interesting dynamic. Also involved is a pro-abolitionist Dr. Stuart Hadley. The author explores the moral quandry of people such as this doctor, who feels trapped by the knowledge that he has also benefited by the very trade he now despises, It was a life that turned in tune with the earth, that followed the rains, that chimed with the seasons. It was as alien to slavery as a silver-winged flight of cattle egrets to a moulting hen in a coop." Softcover. Condition: Good. 4 books by Philippa Gregory: Earthy Joys, 2005; The Queen's Fool, 2004; The Cousin's War: The Red Queen , 2010; A Respectable Trade, 2007. All books are used in good condition, spine creases, edge wear.