Book description
As she sits in her Bloomsbury home, with her two birds for company,
elderly Harriet Baxter sets out to relate the story of her
acquaintance, nearly four decades previously, with Ned Gillespie, a
talented artist who never achieved the fame she maintains he deserved.
Back in 1888, the young, art-loving, Harriet arrives in Glasgow at the
time of the International Exhibition. After a chance encounter she
befriends the Gillespie family and soon becomes a fixture in all of
their lives. But when tragedy strikes - leading to a notorious
criminal trial - the promise and certainties of this world all too
rapidly disorientate into mystery and deception. Featuring a memorable
cast of characters, infused with atmosphere and period detail, and
shot through with wicked humour, Gillespie and I is a tour de force
from one of the emerging names of British fiction.
Jane Harris was born in Belfast and brought up in Glasgow. In
2007, she was shortlisted for the British Book Awards Waterstone's
Newcomer of the Year and the South Bank Show Times Breakthrough Award.
Her debut novel, The Observations, was shortlisted for the 2007 Orange
Broadband Prize for Fiction. She lives in London with her husband Tom.
