Meridon (Wideacre Trilogy 3)

As the nineteenth century opens, the Industrial Revolution is gaining momentum and driving significant economic and social change throughout Great Britain. This combined with the ongoing expansion of the British Empire has led to the United Kingdom becoming the richest and most powerful country in the world. As a result, it is facing threats from its old enemies - Napoleon's France and Spain. Within England, the Industrial Revolution is transforming the economy and leading to a widening gap between the rich and poor. Social dissatisfaction and unrest is increasing. Meridon, a desolate Romany girl, is determined to escape the hard poverty of her childhood. Riding bareback in a travelling show, while her sister Dandy risks her life on the trapeze, Meridon dedicates herself to freeing them both from danger and want. But Dandy, beautiful, impatient, thieving, grabs too much, too quickly. And Meridon finds herself alone, riding in bitter grief through the rich Sussex farmlands towards a house called Wideacre – which awaits the return of the last of the Laceys. Sweeping, passionate, unique: Meridon completes Philippa Gregory’s bestselling trilogy which began with Wideacre and continued with The Favoured Child.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.