Book description
It is 1740 and Louise Fletcher, a young dairymaid on an Essex farm, has
been warned of the lure of the sea for as long as she can remember -
after all, it stole away her father and brother. But when she is offered
work in the bustling naval port of Harwich, as maid to a wealthy
captain's daughter, she leaps at the chance to see more of the world.
There she meets Rebecca, her haughty young mistress, who is unlike
anyone Louise has encountered before: as unexpected as she is
fascinating.
15-year old Luke is drinking in a Harwich tavern when it is raided by
His Majesty's Navy. Unable to escape, Luke is beaten and press ganged
and sent to sea on board the warship Essex. He must learn fast and
choose his friends well if he is to survive the brutal hardships of a
sailor's life and its many dangers, both up high in the rigging and in
the dark below decks.
Louise navigates her new life among the streets and crooked alleys of
Harwich, where fine houses concealing smugglers' tunnels are flooded by
the Spring tides, and love burns brightly in the shadows. And Luke,
aching for the girl he left behind and determined to one day find his
way back to her, embarks on a long and perilous journey across the ocean.
The worlds they find are more dangerous and more exciting than they
could ever have imagined, and when they collide the consequences are
astonishing and irrevocable.
A breathtakingly accomplished love story and a gripping search for
identity and survival, She Rises
is a bold, brilliant and utterly original novel. A truly original
debut Kate Worsley was born in Preston, Lancashire, and studied
English at University College London. She has worked variously as a
journalist, a massage practitioner and follow-spot operator, and has an
MA in Creative Writing (Novels) from City University London. She now
lives on the Essex coast. She Rises
is her first novel.
