Gillespie and I

Product DescriptionAs she sits in her Bloomsbury home, with her two birds for company, elderly Harriet Baxter sets out to relate the story of her acquaintance, nearly four decades previously, with Ned Gillespie, a talented artist who never achieved the fame she maintains he deserved.Back in 1888, the young, art-loving Harriet arrives in Glasgow at the time of the International Exhibition. After a chance encounter she befriends the Gillespie family and soon becomes a fixture in all of their lives. But when tragedy strikes - leading to a notorious criminal trial - the promise and certainties of this world all too rapidly disintegrate into mystery and deception...Review'A chilling tale reminiscent of both The Suspicions of Mr Whicher and Arthur & George.' -- Financial Times 'Nothing is as it seems in this book ... it hooks the reader in with great, demented power.' -- Evening Standard 'Compelling, suspenseful and highly enjoyable.' -- The Times 'A story that holds you in its grip and makes you skip ahead but circle back again for more of the same - literary crack cocaine.' -- Scotland on Sunday 'Harris has pulled off that only too rare double whammy - a Booker-worthy novel that I want to read again.' -- Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times 'An absolute belter.' --Bidisha 'A fine storyteller.' -- Guardian 'Gripping ... the pace of the narrative is tantalisingly controlled.' --Times Literary Supplement 'Evocative ... will you plunge you straight back into 19th-century Glasgow ... it's perfect for a long winter evening.' -- Erica Wagner, Books of the Year, The Times 'The novel I enjoyed the most this year ... combines an involving first-person narrative voice, a crime mystery and an alert evocation of the late Victorian Glasgow of those celebrated painters, the Glasgow Boys. It s a sustained and subtle page-turner. -- Robert Crawford, Books of the Year, The Herald 'Quite a