📖 Book Review ~ The Secret Photographs by Jacquie Bloese

Hodder & Stoughton
Paperback - 3 October 2024

My thanks to the publisher and Graeme Williams for my copy of this book

 

England, 1895: In the bustling seaside town of Brighton, photography is all the rage. Ellen Harper assists her twin brother running one of the city's seafront studios, where fashionable ladies and gentlemen pose in their finery to have their likeness captured forever in a silver frame.

But behind the façade of a respectable business, the siblings have something to hide. After the studio closes for the day, secret photographs are taken in the back room. There is money to be made from this underground trade, but if exposed to the light of day, these photographs would destroy them...

When newly married Clementine comes to sit for a portrait, Ellen learns she is looking for a lady's companion. Longing for a life of her own choosing and freedom from the deals her brother has made, Ellen accepts the post. The new position transports her to a sweeping white-fronted townhouse on one of Brighton's most prestigious crescents, full of every luxury imaginable.

But Clementine's gilded world hides as much darkness as Ellen hoped to escape... What will happen when the secrets Ellen has left behind finally catch up to her…

📖 My Review..

Despite its elegant facade the seaside resort of Brighton has its seedier side and in the dark and gloomy back room of a respectable portrait studio photographs are being taken of a rather more risqué nature. The Victorian penchant for erotic photographs comes to life as we follow the fortunes of twins Ellen and Reynold Harper who, like the working girls they photograph, do what they must in order to survive poverty and hardship. Ellen’s association both with the wealthy Clementine Brouwer and the poverty stricken Lily March could not be more different and yet this trio of women will take you by the hand into the underbelly of Victorian England.

Beautifully written with vivid descriptions not just about the growing demand for pornography but also of the hypocrisy and double standards of Victorian gentlemen whose clandestine purchases of increasingly explicit photographs kept this trade alive. The story has its dark moments which bring the brooding alleyways and seedy salons to life in such a vivid way that I often felt like a voyeur brushing away the cigar smoke and quietly observing as the scenes unfolded. Ellen, Clementine and Lily each have a powerful story to tell and their voices lends credence as we observe the constraints on women of all social classes, rich or poor they were all the mercy of unscrupulous men. It’s a story of intimate female relationships, of a series of wrongdoings being made right and of a desperately sad tragedy which seemed to take on its own inevitable momentum.

The Secret Photographs, from its exquisite book cover, to the strength of its narrative, there is never a moment when the story doesn’t draw you into a dark and dangerous world where female friendships were forged and strengthened by what they had each endured.

* Previously published as The Golden Hour in hardback.

 About the Author

Jacquie Bloese is a writer of historical book group fiction, originally from the Channel Island of Guernsey. She draws her inspiration from atmospheric locations with intriguing histories, and people - both real and imaginary - whose stories are calling out to be told.

Her first novel THE FRENCH HOUSE, set during the German Occupation of Guernsey in the second World War, was a Richard and Judy Winter 2022 book club pick, and a finalist in the Mslexia Novel Award. Her second novel THE GOLDEN HOUR is inspired by the seaside town of Brighton, where Jacquie currently lives, and tells the story of three women from different classes who become caught up in the underground world of erotic photography in 1890s Victorian England.

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