A Respectable Trade, Philippa Gregory
A Respectable Trade, Philippa Gregory
2 Rating(s)
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A Respectable Trade

Author: Philippa Gregory

Narrator: Adjoa Andoh

Unabridged: 17 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/30/2019

Synopsis

From #1 New York Times bestselling author and “queen of royal fiction” (USA TODAY) Philippa Gregory comes a story about the devastating consequences of the slave trade in 19th century England.

Bristol in 1787 is booming, a city where power beckons those who dare to take risks. Josiah Cole, a small dockside trader, is prepared to gamble everything to join the big players of the city. But he needs capital and a well-connected wife.

Marriage to Frances Scott is a mutually convenient solution. Trading her social contacts for Josiah's protection, Frances finds her life and fortune dependent on the respectable trade of sugar, rum, and slaves.

Into her new world comes Mehuru, once a priest in the ancient African kingdom of Yoruba, now a slave in England. From opposite ends of the earth, despite the difference in status, Mehuru and Frances confront each other and their need for love and liberty.

About Philippa Gregory

English born author, Philippa Gregory, received her degree in History from the University of Sussex, followed by a PhD in 18th century literature from the University of Edinburgh. Along the journey of her education, she discovered that she had an uncommon interest in the Tudor period. Using her history background, she first wrote The Other Boleyn Girl, which to her credit, was made into a TV drama, and followed by a major film.

Gregory has put much of her effort and personal money into a 20 year old charity that she founded. It is Gardens for The Gambria, that teaches school children to plant market gardens which are irrigated by the almost 200 wells that the author has funded. She is also a patron of The UK Chagos Support Association, a displaced people in the Indian Ocean.

Gregory was selected as the 2008 Edinburgh University Alumna of the Year. She lives with her family on a small farm in Yorkshire.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bionic Jean on April 15, 2025

If your view of Philippa Gregory is of an English historical novelist with a romantic slant, that is a fair description. She has won the "Romantic Novel of the Year Award" among others. But with A Respectable Trade, published in 1992, she was aiming for something a little different. It is an histori......more

Goodreads review by Alison on January 10, 2010

Spoilers (some pretty serious ones): So maybe you're an entitled, upper class lady living in the 1780s. You have an inkling that slavery isn't as morally sound as your church suggests. But what if the slave trade is keeping you in fancy hats? Can you overlook the severe, continuous, dehumanizing oppr......more

Goodreads review by Emma on January 17, 2019

There is so much I could say about this book and about the Black Slave trade, that I feel defeated before I’ve started. Frances the main character evoked many feelings in me- contempt for her attitudes to ‘being a lady’- sympathy for her own status without money or power of her own- disgust for her......more

Goodreads review by Bookish Ally on August 26, 2019

My least favorite Philippa book - albeit a good first half. Abandoned at just over half way because: 1. The romantic love interest was so far fetched and so completely irresponsible of one of the main characters (Francis) that I just couldn’t ! 2. I’m getting older and I read for pleasure. Why should......more

Goodreads review by Holley on February 19, 2008

I wouldn't exactly call this a romance. More of a historical account of the horrors of slavery. Francis Scott marries a man that does not suit her at all. Considered old and impoverished, her new station in life is to teach the people her husband and his sister kidnap from Africa to sell as slaves -......more

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