The Blessing of Burntisland
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Joe Fairlie is a treasure dowser. As the novel opens, he locates The Blessing of Burntisland, a seventeenth-century treasure barge sunk in the Firth of Forth off Scotland. The treasure of King Charles I has lain in the sea for centuries; but so it seems have the spirits of two of the ship's survivors. At his moment of greatest triumph, Joe is assailed by the first of many waking dreams that plunge him into the life of one of the wreck's survivors, the court doctor, Thomas Newbolt, who is the antithesis of Joe. The other survivor is the magical boy, Robbie.
In this picaresque novel of possession, Jenny Stanton, formerly a medical historian, shows how the past is both vivid and unknowable. If there are messages in Joe's waking dreams, they are not what he is seeking, just as the messages that Robbie provided for King Charles were ones that he would not hear.
Joe finally has a chance of realizing his errors. Before this, however, he has to pass through fire in an exciting, disorienting world in which the past clashes with the present.
Reviews and Endorsements
'Original and unpredictable - Jenny Stanton pulls moments of the seventeenth century towards the present delicately, on thin threads of emotional silk, touching what it was like to feel like a person caught up in the throes of Charles I's reign. The result is a haunting book that overlays the everyday modern world with the spiritual and emotional importance of the past, and constantly tempts the reader to read on. And it raises hairs on the back of the neck in the moments where the past and the present collide - always with surprising results.'
- Ian Mortimer, historian, author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England
'Highly imaginative and deftly plotted, once started, The Blessing of Burntisland is very hard to put down. Stylishly written and peopled with richly drawn, unusual characters; it is suspenseful, inventive, and often dryly funny. A wonderful debut novel. I loved it.'
- Lucie Whitehouse, author of The Bed I Made
About the Author(s)
Jenny Stanton grew up in Leicester, Portsmouth, and Birmingham. As a student at the School of Oriental and African Studies, she visited Ghana, and travelled to Timbuctu. She taught in Cape Town, London, and Oxford, then worked in the history of medicine at Oxford and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, publishing academic articles and books. She moved on to writing fiction and poetry in 2001. Jenny Stanton lives in Oxford.
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