Helen Dunmore: Birdcage Walk (November 2023)

We know from the outset of the novel that Lizzie Fawkes, recently married so now Mrs Tredevant, is in mortal danger. Diner Tredevant, her husband, had murdered his first wife, Lucie, two years previously and buried her in a shallow grave. He informed everyone that she died whilst visiting her family in France.

He is an architect and property developer, currently building a row of grand houses overlooking the Avon Gorge in Bristol, but it is 1792 and the French Revolution is causing political and financial unease. People are unwilling to invest in his expensive properties so Diner, having borrowed all the money for his project, is facing ruin. Already damaged and unstable, he becomes controlling and violent.

Lizzie’s mother, stepfather and their friends are deeply involved in the Radical Movement, seemingly in favour of the Revolution that will destroy him, so he takes out his frustration and rage on Lizzie. According to custom and law she is his property so her family are powerless to help.

Diner is close to being exposed as Lucie’s murderer and the tension builds to a nightmare scene.

This book is part twisted love story, part Gothic horror and partly a fascinating historical novel rich in detail about both the politics of the time and everyday domestic life.

All the characters are vividly drawn and feel very real. Even Diner is not depicted as a one-dimensional monster, being an excellent architect with vision and a desire to create beauty. Lizzie is warm and passionate and, interestingly, shares some traits with her husband. Both are intense and have insecure jealous natures but Lizzie is able to give love and Diner cannot.

This was, sadly, Helen Dunmore’s last novel before she recently died and we thought we would go back to read her other work.

4/5