A Respectable Trade

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Episodes 1 hour ago Bering Sea Gold: Born a Gamblin’ Man (Discovery Channel Friday November 3, 2023) England 1648. A dangerous time for a woman to be different . . . Midsummer’s Eve, 1648, and England is in the grip of civil war between renegade King and rebellious Parliament. The struggle reaches every corner of the kingdom, even to the remote Tidelands – the marshy landscape of the south coast.

A Respectable Trade by Philippa Gregory | Goodreads A Respectable Trade by Philippa Gregory | Goodreads

Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II. 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, 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. 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.

If your view of Philippa Gregory is of an English historical novelist with a romantic slant, that is a fair description. She has won the "Romantic Novel of the Year Award" among others. But with A Respectable Trade, published in 1992, she was aiming for something a little different. It is an historical novel about the slave trade in England, and set in 18th century Bristol. Highly regarded, the script she wrote from it won an award from the "Committee for Racial Equality", and the film was subsequently shown worldwide. Philippa Gregory is an established writer and broadcaster for radio and television. She went to school in Bristol, has a history degree from the University of Sussex and a PhD in Eighteenth-century literature from the University of Edinburgh. She has been widely praised for her historical novels, as well as for her works of contemporary suspense. The Other Boleyn Girl has been adapted for BBC television and is now a major film, starring Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman and Eric Bana. Philippa Gregory lives in the North of England with her family. The romantic love interest was so far fetched and so completely irresponsible of one of the main characters (Francis) that I just couldn’t !

A Respectable Trade (TV Mini Series 1998) - IMDb

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. 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. 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.

The writing is typical Philippa Gregory style, and it's utilized very well in this novel. Everything is descriptive, and it's gritty and realistic. She uses lots of unflinching descriptions in this, and it pays off really well. I liked seeing Frances grow as a character. She starts out being shy and submissive, willing to do whatever people tell her to do without asking any questions, but as the novel continues, she slowly becomes more independent, and realizes that what her husband is doing isn't entirely sound at all. I had an idea Then which I now Communicate to you: Namely that I wish that I might think of you as a Wife. 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 Frances and Mehuru are both, individually, protagonists in their own right, though they have a sort-of romance in common. I think A Respectable Trade begins skewed more towards Frances, but by the end the story and resolution are very much Mehuru’s—which I think is good, because had this become a book about how the noble white woman redeemed herself, we might have had problems. Rather, by the end, Gregory allows Mehuru’s arc to take the spotlight, and his future is the one the reader is most invested in. Which, I think, is as it should be.

A RESPECTABLE TRADE | Kirkus Reviews

He gave a little shiver and turned from the doorway. The dream had been very clear – just one image of a looped rope dropping from a stone quayside and snaking through the water to the prow of a ship, whipping its way up the side as it was hauled in, and then the ship moving silently away from the land. There should be nothing to fear in such a sight but the dream had been darkened by a brooding sense of threat which lived with him still.

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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. Her flair for blending history and imagination developed into a signature style and Philippa went on to write many bestselling novels, including The Other Boleyn Girl and The White Queen.