Birdcage Walk: A dazzling historical thriller

Product Information

To ensure options were considered with the latest and best information available, the working group commissioned a new condition survey of the building and a complete valuation. Patrick and the working group were asked to explore the full range of options for the Institution’s headquarters and to recommend a way forward to the trustee board. Set in Bristol, England at the end of the 18th century, during the French Revolution, we are introduced to the cast of characters in Helen Dumore's memorable book, of small people with great ideas.

The working group has recommended that the Institution stay in London as the capital is readily accessible, both within the UK and for international members. Lizzie moves between the two worlds, recognising the difference in belief and outlook that separates them. The bulk of the story however did not have anything to do with the Birdcage Walk so I was a bit confused (this happens to me a lot! Lizzie visits her mother who is ill, and tells her of her husband's Diner's plans to build a magnificent new terrace overlooking the Gorge.My mother-in-law bought this for me, so I had absolutely no idea what to expect - but as someone living in the south-west (UK) I was intrigued by the Bristol connection, so was looking forward to getting stuck in. He would watch the boats beating their way upriver, and the white posts that glimmered through the dusk, marking the towpath far below. That precise set up is very difficult to achieve but Dunmore does it with a few deft and apparently effortless touches.

It’s sadly Helen Dunmore’s last and so we’re lucky that she wrote an afterword in which she explains the inspiration behind the story and its characters, giving us a profound insight into what she aimed to achieve by writing this book.

It is is set in Leningrad during the first year of the siege of the city by German forces, which lasted for 880 days from the fall of Mga on 30th August 1941. Sadly it just never seemed to go anywhere or if it did it was in such tiny increments I barely noticed. Her refuge, and her own small rebellion, is to take in her infant half-brother against John’s wishes. There are lots of 'issues' here (social equality, relations between men and women, marriage, love, violence, capitalism) but they feel natural and unforced, an intricate part of the story being told rather than hijacking the tale.