4. How does the appearance of the singer Le Sphinx contribute to the overall story?
5. Do you think Julie means it when she tells Mary Kinnaird she wants to be like her? What about Mary might Julie admire?
6. Some of the characters can ‘switch on’ a heavy Scottish accent. How do they use this ability in different social situations?
7. The Travellers face terrible discrimination from a number of characters in the novel, but are accepted by others. Who accepts them and who doesn’t? Why do you think this might be?
8. Julie bonds with a number of people in the novel who are ‘outsiders’ – Ellen and Euan McEwen, Frank Dunbar, Mary Kinnaird and Le Sphinx. Do you think Julie is an outsider in some ways?
9. How did you feel about Frank Dunbar at the end of the novel?
10. The idea of violation comes up many times in the story: violation of privacy, of bodies, of land, of history and of law. What are the weapons that the women in the book can use to fight back against these trespasses? Are they different to those available to men?
11. How are some of the issues experienced by The Pearl Thief’s characters in 1938 relevant to us today?
First published in Great Britain in May 2017
This electronic edition published in 2017 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Text and illustrations copyright © Elizabeth Gatland 2017
Map illustration © Patrick Knowles 2017
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Quote from Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie © is reproduced by kind permission of Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity
All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages
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eISBN 978 1 4088 6662 7
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