A story of slavery, freedom and the wonderful and dreadful secrets bodies give up under the cover of darkness, Sara Collins’ stunning debut moves from the plantations of Jamaica to the fetid drawing rooms of London. Echoing the gothic thrall of Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, The Confessions of Frannie Langton is an unforgettable novel from a major new literary voice.
Shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize 2020
Winner of the Costa First Novel Award 2019
Shortlisted for the British Book Awards Debut Book of the Year 2020
Our Fiction Book of the Month for August 2019
'They say I must be put to death for what happened to Madame, and they want me to confess. But how can I confess what I don't believe I've done?'
1826, and all of London is in a frenzy. Crowds gather at the gates of the Old Bailey to watch as Frannie Langton, maid to Mr and Mrs Benham, goes on trial for their murder. The testimonies against her are damning - slave, whore, seductress. And they may be the truth. But they are not the whole truth.
For the first time Frannie must tell her story. It begins with a girl learning to read on a plantation in Jamaica, and it ends in a grand house in London, where a beautiful woman waits to be freed.
But through her fevered confessions, one burning question haunts Frannie Langton: could she have murdered the only person she ever loved?
A beautiful and haunting tale about one woman's fight to tell her story, The Confessions of Frannie Langton leads you through laudanum-laced dressing rooms and dark-as-night back alleys, into the enthralling heart of Georgian London.