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. 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. Philippa Gregory is a well-known author mainly for her Tudor Court series which is a favourite time period in history for me. I have read all the Tudor novels and loved them immensely like many others, so I thought I would give her earlier books a try. 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.

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

I was extremely disappointed in the pace of this novel and the slipshod character development. Gregory had ample opportunity to really get into the meat of the era, yet fell short in so many ways. The ending left me feeling that the main character, Frances, escaped making a life changing decision or even facing her own demons. The reasons for Mehuru's devotion were sketchy at best. Sarah's one-dimensional character was tiresome and Josiah came across as nothing more than a careless merchant who sought approval from everyone - very unlike the seasoned businessman that the author tried to portray. 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.Admittedly, I was most interested in what was happening whenever Josiah was interacting with the Merchant Venturers, or even when Frances was "entertaining" because I'm just fascinated by the social norms of this time period but I agree with a lot of readers who said that the book could've done without the romance. It absolutely could've. It made me despise Frances and made me incredibly irritated with Mehuru. To the point that the ending was kind of a relief for me. Because it meant that Frances couldn't treat Mehuru like shit anymore, nor continue to take him for granted. While this setting of late 1700’s England, deeply immersed in the time of slave trade, is unnerving to a modern reader I believe the story is told as well as could be done. There is no “soapbox” preaching of good vs evil. I appreciate the story told from a candid point of view, using that time period’s vernacular and attitudes to let the reader decide for themself the right and wrong of the slave trade/working situations and not have it pushed on to the reader via the telling of the story. Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II. 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 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?

A Respectable Trade | Philippa Gregory

As to Settlements and Dowry – these certainly should be Arranged between his lordship and myself – but may I Assure you that you will find me Generous if you are Kind enough to look on my Proposal with favour. Writer: Philippa Gregory (from her novel) / Music: Julian Nott / Costume Design: Frances Tempest / Production Design: Anthony Ainsworth / Producer: Ruth Baumgarten / Executive Producers: Kevin Menton, Nigel Warren-Green, Ruth Caleb, Michael Wearing / Director: Suri Krishnamma Fallen Skies is an extraordinary story of the turmoil and ugly legacy of the First World War from the bestselling author of Wideacre. this book is about a topic so important to me that I wanted to emphasise some of the historical facts". In four part period BBC drama A Respectable Trade, adapted by Philippa Gregory from her own novel, it is 1788 in Bristol where governess Frances Scott (Emma Fielding) finds her life undergoing a dramatic change when she marries ambitious ship owning slave trader Josiah Cole (Warren Clarke).

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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. Philippa is a member of the Society of Authors and in 2016, was presented with the Outstanding Contribution to Historical Fiction Award by the Historical Writers’ Association. In 2018, she was awarded an Honorary Platinum Award by Nielsen for achieving significant lifetime sales across her entire book output.

A Respectable Trade (BBC Drama, Warren Clarke) - Memorable TV

Frances and Mehuru are the main characters, but we also follow the Cole family's story. Josiah Cole is gullible and ambitious. Unlike Frances, he is morally ambivalent, desperate for ready cash, and prepared to gamble everything to join the big players of the city. But both he and his sister had very humble beginnings. Their father was a collier, and his older sister Sarah has worked hard all her life to establish a firm base for their trade,

The great roar and sweep of history is successfully braided into the intimate daily detail of this compelling and intelligent book’

A Respectable Trade - Where to Watch and Stream - TV Guide A Respectable Trade - Where to Watch and Stream - TV Guide

I also liked seeing Mehuru and his interactions with the other slaves. I wish they had a bit more development though, especially Mehuru, seeing as how he was one of the main characters. 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. Then one day she finds her growing friendship of her "pupils" developing into something more when she falls in love with the enigmatic yet charming Mehuru. She had no notion of Africa before the coming of the British, of a huge continent populated by a complex of different peoples and kingdoms, of trading and barter stations, of caravans of goods which crossed from one nation to another; of men and women, some living like peasants working the land, some living in towns and cities and working in industries, some established in hereditary kingdoms seated on thrones of gold and ivory and living like gods. She had no interest in the slaves as people who had come from a living and potent culture." 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.

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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.