Overview

""There had never been a time in her life when Davey hadn't been there. She thought she could remember the full moon of his face peering over the edge of her baby basket, and his hand reaching for hers across Mam's lap as each straddled a knee. He was her other half, her older twin."" Part Two of Ancestral Virgins tells the story of the large and close-knit Hallam family who live and work as waggoners on Lady Celia Mapperley's country estate, Mummersford, in Nottingham. Although the youngest of six siblings, May Hallam grows up having to protect her ""mongoloid'' brother Davey from bullying and the casual cruelty of strangers. On an eventful visit to her sister Lily, in service in Sussex, young May is charmed by her encounters with Lily's employer, Mr. Walter Birmingham, and her eyes are opened to a world far beyond her village. Her fierce loyalty to Davey never wavers, but as World War I begins to take a bitter toll on her family, May starts to realise how much more she's going to have to carry on her young shoulders in the future. Ancestral Virgins will appeal to fans of Sarah Waters and Kate Atkinson and to anyone enthralled by period dramas in film and television.

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Reviews

Move over Downton Abbey! Fiona J. Mackintosh reimagines the family saga with this daring trilogy that puts women in their rightful place at the center of the story. Told with panache and filled with vivid and unforgettable characters, Ancestral Virgins draws you into a bygone world that echoes long after its poignant ending. -Keith Donohue, author of the New York Times bestseller The Stolen Child

Author Information

Fiona J. Mackintosh is a Scottish-American author whose fiction draws from both sides of the Atlantic. Her flash fiction collection, The Yet Unknowing World, was published by Ad Hoc Fiction in 2021, and her debut novel Ancestral Virgins will be published in 2026. Her flashes have been selected for Best Small Fictions in 2023 and 2019, and her short stories have been finalists for the Cairde Word, Colm Toíbín, Bristol, Galley Beggar, Exeter, and Fish Short Story Prizes. She is a proud recipient of an Individual Artist's Award from the Maryland State Arts Council. www.fionajmackintosh.com

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