Brigid The Girl from County Clare by Vicky Adin

To tell you much more would spoil the story.

Before you know it, you are settling with Brigid in her new home. including the meeting of a man who was to change her life, and not in a good way.

There is so much that holds your attention. Her beautiful lace atracts attention and compliments set her dreaming of her future, in between reliving all that has passed before she came to the decision to leave her beloved Ireland. Brigid's fellow passengers are portrayed in such a manner that you feel you are getting to know them as well as Brigid is. The voyage seems to take an interminable time, as you would expect in that era. Not that they would be together too often, as the passengers were segregated. At least she wasn't to be alone, as her cousin, Jamie, was to travel on the same ship. The heartbreaking decision made, and the awful sad farewells made, Brigid finds herself in the turmoil of London, wondering just what had she done. the need to leave home, as there was simply not enough food, resonated with the story of my own family, who did this from two countries, one being Ireland. I was absorbed in the story from the beginning. With all that in mind, I wondered if I was expecting too much, though reminding myself that this is a book of fiction. It also helped that I am named after my Irish grandmother, Bridget, who was a native of Co Clare. The title attracted me as well as the description of a lacemaker, being a family historian and a craftswoman. 'Like making lace – she pieces together a new life from a single thread of hope.'

Brigid The Girl from County Clare by Vicky Adin