It was such a luxury to enjoy reading a historically factual
novel without realising it. Tracy Chevalier transported me back to the early 1800's in Lyme Regis, along the southern English coastline. I enjoyed her
interacting story of 2 women of different ages and social classes, united by their love of fossil hunting. For Mary Anning, the fossils were her survival as she sold them as curios to passing travellers. Elizabeth Philpott had been sent to the coast with her 2 sisters by her brother upon his marriage. They were quite physically dislocated from London and socially disconnected as none of them had ever married. Elizabeth genuinely enjoyed collecting and categorising objects of difference. So as they gathered fossils of increasing magnitude, they both began to question the traditional view of creation in their very conservative society. So while it was fun to read the alternating chapters in the language of their heroine, the great challenge was in how the two ladies reacted to the attention and perhaps love of a passing gentleman. The personal and class differences were so powerful yet the personal courage and integrity of Elizabeth in requesting credit for the discovery work by Mary was impressive, by any time or standards. A totally captivating read.
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