The Trespass by Barbara Ewing is a sweeping story of historical fiction about a young woman’s journey to find safety as she desperately seeks to escape the unwanted attentions of her powerful father who is obsessed with her. She runs away to the far side of the earth, from England to New Zealand, little knowing that her father will be following ever anxious to get her back under his control.

Set in 1849 this compelling story brings Victorian England to life as Harriet is sent to the country to live with relatives as cholera is claiming many lives in unsanitary London but when her father realizes that Harriet is becoming too independent she is immediately brought back to London. Realizing her health, her freedom and her sanity are being threatened, Harriet makes desperate plans to run away to join her cousin who has emigrated to New Zealand. Women had virtually no rights in Victorian times, so buying passage and travelling on her own was incredibly difficult.

The Trespass is both an original and enjoyable story, full of detailed descriptions and believable characters, just the kind of historical fiction that I love. Giving the reader a vivid sense of the era, this was a moving, exciting and gripping read. This was the first book that I have read by Barbara Ewing but I am very happy that I have another of her books on my shelf. ( )

With good reason, Harriet is desperate to seek her independence in 1840s England. Her cousin emigrates to New Zealand, and she yearns to make the same escape. A gripping tale with fascinating historical detail, and a reminder of why women needed to fight for their autonomy. ( )

In the London cholera epidemic of 1849, MP Sir Charles Cooper is worried for his youngest daughter, seventeen year old Harriet, and resolves to send her away to the country until the danger has past.



Harriet is pleased to get away from her father, but also worried that he won't send her elder sister, Mary, with her. Isn't she in danger from the cholera too? (More danger than either of them know, for Mary has been helping a doctor treat the cholera patients in the poorest parts of London.)



Harriet enjoys her stay in the country with her cousins, and wonders at the easy way the family has with each other, for there is a dark secret at her London home, one she has no words for, because how can a young lady speak of the unspeakable?



Harriet plans a daring escape to New Zealand, following in the footsteps of her cousin, for surely even her father's reach cannot get so far as New Zealand? This book is excellent, with a little dash of history thrown in now and then, but without turning the novel into a history book. The main emphasis is on the characters, and what characters they were. So realisitic and evolved. I was on tenterhooks the whole time wondering of Harriet could ever escape. At a time when women had no money of their own (unless they were lower class and could work), they were owned first by their fathers and then by their husbands, and were not even allowed to work, how could a young girl escape her terrible fate?



'Everything you say is yours, belongs to me, is provided by me, everything, every breath that you take belongs to me. I am your father. And as you well know you owe me absolute obedience.'



I devoured this book in two days, you just have to keep reading to find out what happens next. With a wealth of historical detail and well drawn characters, it's one you'd want to read again and again.


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Initially I thought this story was a bit silly, but once it got going I was capitivated, especially by the descriptions of the conditions the first British settlers to New Zealand faced before, during and after their journey to New Zealand. And I obviously loved the descriptions of early Wellington. ( )