Title: The Doll Factory, Author: Elizabeth MacNeal, Pages: 384, Published by: Picador, Publication Date: 2nd May 2019, ISBN: 978-1529002393
Iris and Rose spend their days creating dolls for the oppressive and most often comatose, Mrs Salter. Though fortunate to be employed, the passionate and creative Iris longs for more than the monotonous life she currently leads. Iris yearns to escape, to paint more than doll faces. She wishes to paint freely and with no constraints- to be an artist in her own right.
Could a chance encounter with Silas Reed, collector, taxidermist and prop creator for the Pre-Raphealite Brotherhood set Iris on the path to freedom? Will love, life and art blossom? Or is death and decay the only fate for those that wander the dark, dank streets of Victorian London?