The River Sings

Gypsies, princesses, queens, pawn merchants, housekeepers, ratcatchers and thieves - all of life abounds in Sandra Leigh Price's magical second novel, set in early Victorian England, which tells the story of a gypsy girl, Patrin, led astray by love, and her daughter Eglantine's search for the long concealed truth about her mother, as well as a life she can call her own. Eglantine has always had an eye for the shine. Her father, the charismatic, darkly handsome and mysteriously prosperous Mr Amberline Stark, a man of great expectations, makes picking pockets a delightful and amusing parlour game for them both, which they play in their fine house by the River Thames. Eglantine's mother died when she was very young, so her life revolves around her father, their house, the river, and Mrs Makepeace, their housekeeper. It is only when Amberline is shockingly caught stealing another man's fob watch, and transported to the penal colony of Australia, that Eglantine suddenly has to grow up...