Lying With Lions by Annabel Fielding

 

Lying with Lions by Annabel Fielding.

Published 15th June 2021 by KDP.

From the cover of the book:

Edwardian England: Agnes Ashford knows that her duty is threefold: she needs to work on cataloguing the archive of the titled Bryant family, she needs to keep the wounds of her past tightly under wraps, and she needs to be quietly grateful to her employers for taking her up in her hour of need. 

However, a dark secret she uncovers due to her work thrusts her into the Bryants’ brilliant orbit - and into the clutch of their ambitions.

They are prepared to take the new century head-on and fight for their preeminent position and political survival tooth and nail - and not just to the first blood. 

With a mix of loyalty, competence, and well-judged silence Agnes rises to the position of a right-hand woman to the family matriarch - the cunning and glamorous Lady Helen. But Lady Helen's plans to hold on to power through her son are as bold as they are cynical, and one day Agnes is going to face an impossible choice...

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This is the story of self-taught archivist Agnes Ashford, who has somehow blagged her way into being employed to catalogue the history of the lofty Bryant family. She spends her days sifting through papers and an odd collection of items gathered by the family throughout history, in the catacomb of tunnels that lies under Hartfell House. She is strangely positioned somewhere between the staff below stairs and the family in the splendid rooms above, which keeps her at a distance from those around her, but at least her task keeps her busy and her mind off her own unfortunate past.

When Agnes discovers evidence of shady happenings around the time of the death of the Bryants' eldest child, and confronts Lady Helen Bryant with what she has found, she finds herself being taken into the confidence of Lady Helen, and her position gradually shifts to one of companion and trusted secretary to the woman she has admired from afar. 

An unlikely love affair blossoms between Agnes and the Lady of the house across the class divide, and between them they forge a partnership that creates the power to ensure Lady Helen's schemes come to fruition - the inheritance of Lady Helen's surviving son must be held in tact whatever the cost. Agnes is a woman with many talents who holds all the dark secrets of the Bryant family close, and she has gone to great lengths to ensure they remain under wraps, but eventually the loyalty she owes to Lady Helen is called into question to protect a pawn in her lover's schemes. How far will Agnes go to protect the innocent?

Lying with Lions is an engaging one volume family saga that has Annabel Fielding combining a series of intriguing factual scandals and historic moments in time into the life and times of a fictional wealthy Edwardian family. There are so many lovely elements here, cleverly woven together into a sweeping story that encompasses forbidden romance; dark secrets; Machiavellian manoeuvres of daring proportions on both family and political fronts; and the position of women in Edwardian society.

Fielding covers a lot of ground here, moving locations from a gorgeous Gothic backdrop of a stately home, and the sinister tunnels that lie underneath it; to splendid 'Grand Tour' locations in Europe and Egypt; to the turmoil of an Ireland torn apart by civil strife; to glamorous pre-war London; all the way to the horror of the trenches in the Great War - all vividly described and clearly based on solid historical research. 

Inevitably, the story does move fast as it cover as lot of years, focussing on pivotal events and moments of great emotional weight for various characters to move the story along, and there were times when I felt it would have been nice to linger a little longer here and there, particularly to build some slow-burn into the budding relationship between Agnes and Lady Helen which happens a little too fast to ring true. However, Fielding does give you a lot to think about in the telling, and I really enjoyed how the story turns full circle by linking the beginning and ending to fateful events in the tunnels under Hartfell House.

There is a delicious thread of subversion that underlies this novel, and little echoes of Thackeray's Vanity Fair set on an Edwardian stage that I found very entertaining. It's a well written tale, and the original mix of themes, locations, characters, and direction of the story, offers a very wide appeal to lovers of many aspects of the historical fiction genre too. This is promising stuff and I am very interested to see what Annabel Fielding writes next.

Lying with Lions is available to buy now in ebook and paperback formats from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to Annabel Fielding for inviting me to take part in this blog tour. My copy was obtained via Netgalley.

About the author:

Annabel Fielding, having graduated from the University of Arts London with an MA in Public Relations, is a PR assistant by day and a novelist by night. Being a self-professed history geek, she dedicates her free time to obscure biographies, solo travel and tea. She also posts a mix of book reviews and travel photos on her blog at historygeekintown.com. She can also be followed on Twitter as @DearestAnnabel.