Synopsis: Two plausible documents have been imagined: Constable’s Painting Journal and the Diary of Archdeacon John Fisher, the artist’s closest friend.
Upon retirement, Elizabeth Roberts, Constable family nurse for almost forty years, is inadvertently given these documents. Reading them, she realises her singular perspective on a unique family. Inspired, she writes her own & Constable’s story, supplemented with extracts from the documents. This book is that story.
Her voice, retrieved from the scree of history and never before heard, observes events with a clear-eyed, feminine sensibility. Occasionally, she quotes real letters.
The writing employs the freedoms of a novel to imagine into the cracks between the established facts, drawing the reader close to the emotions & motives of the characters as their lives unfold.
Elizabeth Roberts steps from the shadows and fleeting references in Constable’s letters to reveal her unique viewpoint. She relieved the parents’ anxieties over the children when Constable’s wife, Maria, was frequently unwell. Here, she tells Constable’s story: a self divided between Family and Art.
Synopsis: Two plausible documents have been imagined: Constable’s Painting Journal and the Diary of Archdeacon John Fisher, the artist’s closest friend.
Upon retirement, Elizabeth Roberts, Constable family nurse for almost forty years, is inadvertently given these documents. Reading them, she realises her singular perspective on a unique family. Inspired, she writes her own & Constable’s story, supplemented with extracts from the documents. This book is that story.
Her voice, retrieved from the scree of history and never before heard, observes events with a clear-eyed, feminine sensibility. Occasionally, she quotes real letters.
The writing employs the freedoms of a novel to imagine into the cracks between the established facts, drawing the reader close to the emotions & motives of the characters as their lives unfold.
Elizabeth Roberts steps from the shadows and fleeting references in Constable’s letters to reveal her unique viewpoint. She relieved the parents’ anxieties over the children when Constable’s wife, Maria, was frequently unwell. Here, she tells Constable’s story: a self divided between Family and Art.