Book description
In 1774, Josiah Wedgwood, master craftsman possessed with a burning
scientific vision, embarks upon the thousand piece Frog Service for
Catherine the Great. Josiah's nephew Tom journeys to America to buy
clay from the Cherokee for this exquisite china. Tom is caught up in
the American rebellion, and falls for a Cherokee woman who will come
to play a crucial role in Josiah's late, great creation: the Portland
Vase. As the family fortune is made, and Josiah's entrepreneurial
brilliance creates an empire that will endure for generations, it is
his daughter Sukey, future mother of Charles Darwin, who bears
clear-eyed witness. A novel of epic scope, rich in warmth, intellect
and humanity, The Potter's Hand explores the lives and loves of one of
Britain's greatest families, whose travails are both ordinary -
births, deaths, marriages, opium addiction, depression - and utterly extraordinary.
A. N. Wilson grew up in Staffordshire, where his father was
Managing Director of Josiah Wedgwood & Sons. He was educated at
Rugby and New College, Oxford. A Fellow of the Royal Society of
Literature, he holds a prominent position in the world of literature
and journalism. He is a prolific and award-winning biographer and
celebrated novelist. His most recent novel, Winnie and Wolf, was
longlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize. He lives in North London.
