Wow - what a delightful book. The story will keep you turning pages, glued to your seat and staying up all night. The book is a keeper! Madame Ellen Gowan is owner and operator of Chez Miss Constance, Modiste & Mantua Maker. Her establishment is located in a fashionable part of town -38 Berkeley Square, London - a tall and elegant building among a row of similar mansions. This is a place of trade, not a family dwelling. Life was not always this good to Ellen.
The Dressmaker
by Posie Graeme-Evans
Atria
October 2010
Ellen Gowan's childhood was poor but blessed with affection. She lives in the village of Wintermast within distant sight of the Norfolk Broads. She is the only child of Reverend Edwin Gowan. Curate of Wintermast and Connie Gowan. Today is her thirteenth birthday - she has a special new dress and a great feast has been planned to celebrate her birthday and the final day of the term for her father's pupils. Ellen is so excited - she can hardly wait for the day to begin. Things did not turn out as she had anticipated. Ellen is involved in a scandal with one of her father's students through no fault of her own. Reverend Gowan is truly upset by turn of events and goes to the church to pray. Ellen is so depressed that she must get out of the house, so she too goes to the church.
Reverend Gowan enters the church and goes directly to the alter where he falls on his knees asking the Lord to speak to him. As Ellen walks towards St. Michael's, suddenly, like a snake, a tremor ran across the ground towards her, passing under her boots and on towards the church. Next came the sound of something being torn apart, followed by a tremendous noise - the tower is falling. The church gaped open as the bells fell , crushing her father. Ellen's father is dead. She needed to go home and tell her mother the horrible news. Ellen's world is turned upside down and will never be the same.
After the funeral, Ellen and her mother were informed they could no longer live in their home. The place was needed for the new Reverend. Now what were they to do and where would they go. Connie's older sister had married well and had been very generous in the past. Ellen told her mother they would travel to Richmond - to Aunt Daisy - and seek refuse. Daisy was delighted to share her home with Connie and Ellen. Things were going along fairly well until Ellen's cousin Oriana got into a little trouble and Ellen was accused of stealing her Uncle's prize book. It was time to leave - to journey to London where they would start fresh. Aunt Daisy recommended they go to her dressmaker Madame Angelique.
Connie's health is slowly deteriorating and soon she passes away. Ellen is now truly on her own. At fifteen she falls for Raoul de Valentine, Madame Angelique's son. He is the dangerous descendant of French aristocrats, Raoul only marries Ellen for her brilliance as a designer, but abandons her when she becomes pregnant. Ellen is determine that she and her daughter will survive and began the long climb to success. After working in sweatshops and barely getting by, she finally opens her own salon in Berkeley Square. Times were not easy for Ellen, but one single ball gown for the Countess of Hawksmoor transforms Ellen's fortune. She became Madame Ellen - dressmaker to the nobility of England - the Great Six Hundred.
Highly recommended. You will thoroughly enjoy Ellen's journey from the small village of Wintermast to the street of London where she became the most highly recommended dressmaker the city had ever known. Posie Graeme-Evans is an excellent writer. I loved it - it was intriguing - filled with betrayal, lust and secrets.
