Tower and Town, September 2024 (view the full edition)Sarah Perry - EnlightenmentFrom the author of The Essex Serpent and Melmoth comes a story of love, a ghost and a blazing comet told over the course of 20 years, through the lives of two improbable friends, Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay, who have always lived in the small Essex town of Ardleigh. Though separated by more than three decades in age, they are kindred spirits - torn between a commitment to religion and a desire for more. But their friendship is threatened by the arrival of other relationships. Thomas falls for James Bower who runs the local museum. Together they become obsessed with the vanished 19th-century astronomer, Maria Veduva, said to haunt the nearby manor, and whose startling astronomical discoveries have hardly been acknowledged. Inspired by Maria and the realisation that his feelings for James aren't reciprocated, Thomas finds solace in studying the night skies. Meanwhile, Grace meets Nathan, a fellow sixth-former. They are drawn passionately together, but quickly pulled apart, casting Grace into a more uncertain world. In time, the mysteries of Ardleigh are revealed, bringing Thomas and Grace back together with a richer understanding of love and the nature of the world. Prepare to be enlightened in the Town Hall at 1pm on Saturday 28 September. 
Credit Sophie Davidson 
Virginia Reekie |