WIN $150 GIFT VOUCHERS: ALADDIN'S GOLD
Lesley McDowell's debut novel The Picnic came out in 2007. In 2010 she published Between the Sheets: The Literary Liaisons of Nine 20th-Century Women Writers, which was shortlisted for the non-fiction prize in the 2011 Scottish Book Awards. Her second novel Unfashioned Creatures, about Mary Shelley's Scottish childhood friend, was published in 2013. Lesley was a literary critic for The Herald, The Scotsman, The Independent, TLS and others. She has a PhD on the work of James Joyce, and has won three Creative Scotland writers' bursaries. Clairmont is her third novel.
Beautifully written, Clairmont tells the sensuous hidden story of an influential historic woman. * Sara Sheridan * A novel that captures feverish infatuation, devastating betrayal and the glimpse of a legendary moment in history; Clairmont is an absorbing, intoxicating page-turner about a woman who deserves to be remembered. * Jennifer Saint * Clairmont is an intimate and enlightening tale of one of Romanticism's forsaken muses - artfully told in beautiful prose, a story that lingers in the mind far beyond the last page * Susan Stokes-Chapman * A sensitive, beautifully told fictionalisation that gives a voice to one of literature's greatest muses. * Laura Shepperson * Clairmont is a fascinating journey into the dark underbelly of Romanticism. I was gripped, horrified and enlightened - and in awe of a woman who risked such pain and sorrow to 'mix in the throng' * Meg Clothier * Clairmont is a beautifully written unveiling of a character who deserves to be as remembered as Byron and Shelley. A delightfully haunting gem of a story. * L R Lam * A must for all lovers of historical fiction. Clairmont is a true-life story of hope, passion, and regrets with Claire Clairmont (step sister of the writer Mary Shelley) enduring against all odds after an ill-starred affair with the poet, Byron. * Essie Fox *
