The Poet’s Wife

Represented by:
Susan Smith

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
Susan Smith

Represented by:
David Riding

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
Susan Smith

Represented by:
David Riding

Represented by:
Sophie Gorell Barnes

Represented by:
David Riding

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:
Susan Smith

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
David Riding

Represented by:
Susan Smith

Represented by:
Sophie Gorell Barnes

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:
Sophie Gorell Barnes

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:
Susan Smith

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:
David Riding

Represented by:
Susan Smith

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
David Riding

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
Susan Smith

Represented by:
Sophie Gorell Barnes

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:
Sophie Gorell Barnes

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
Sophie Gorell Barnes

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:
David Riding

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
David Riding

Represented by:
Susan Smith

Represented by:
Sophie Gorell Barnes

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
David Riding

Represented by:
Susan Smith

Represented by:
David Riding

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
Susan Smith

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
Susan Smith

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
Susan Smith

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
Sophie Gorell Barnes

Represented by:
Susan Smith

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:
Sophie Gorell Barnes

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:

Represented by:
Sophie Gorell Barnes

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:
Susan Smith

Represented by:
Sophie Gorell Barnes

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:
David Riding

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:
Susan Smith

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:
David Riding

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
David Riding

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:
Laura Longrigg

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Represented by:
Susan Smith

Represented by:
Diana Tyler

Category:
Fiction

Publisher:
Black Swan

Publication date:
Feb-10

Foreign rights controlled by:
MBA

Foreign rights sold:

Poland: Nasza Ksiagarnia

Charlie and Caroline Gladstone

Christopher and Christine Russell

Shortlisted for the East Midlands Book Award Patty is married to John Clare: peasant poet, genius and madman. Travelling home one day, Patty finds her husband sitting, footsore, at the side of the road, having absconded from a lunatic asylum over eighty miles away. Hopeful that his condition has improved, she takes his hands in delight but he fails to recognize her. She is devastated to discover that he has not returned home to find her, but to search for his childhood sweetheart, Mary Joyce, to whom he believes he is married. Patty still loves John deeply, but he seems lost to her, obsessed with the idealised image of a woman that she cannot possibly match. Plagued by jealousy, she seeks strength in memories: their whirlwind courtship, the poems John wrote for her, their shared affinity for the land. She must try to heal John’s turbulent, unhappy soul and restore him to the man she married. But as John descends further into delusion and his behaviour becomes increasingly volatile, hope seems to be fading. Will she ever be able to conquer her own anger and hurt and reconcile with this man she now barely knows? THE POET’S WIFE is a novel about the limits of love. Lyrical, absorbing, deeply moving, Judith Allnatt’s fine sensibility for human complexity and the natural world are hard to forget.

Reviews

"…a beautifully written, poignant novel, lyrically descriptive of the landscape, detailed in the country life of the time and reminiscent of the gentle style of the genius peasant poet."Choice Magazine"Clare often pops up in fiction, but it was high time someone rescued his poor wife from footnote-land. Allnatt (herself a poet) gives her an affecting, beautifully written afterlife."Kate Saunders, The Times