Marchwood

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(33 37 41 1)>1877</strong><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(33 37 41 1)> Seth Marchwood an Essex horse trader and Mary Nolan a Whitechapel orphan raised by London slum prostitutes meet and marry. Both characters are shaped by childhoods steeped in neglect cruelty ignorance and poverty. Together they form a villainous partnership.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(33 37 41 1)>When rural life declines due to industrialisation they move to Limehouse where they grasp opportunities to profit from the vice trade and form lucrative associations with brothel keepers horse thieves and petty criminals. As Jack the Ripper carries out his murderous killings Mary is imprisoned for larceny. Seth takes advantage of the terror on the streets to offer safe night-time travel in horse drawn cabs through Tower Hamlet alleyways.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(33 37 41 1)>Running a Coffee House and Penny Gaff he invests money in property development. His adult sons moulded in criminality are active in the family's fraudulent business practice. During WW1 Seth supplies the military with horses and fodder. His sons enlist and experience the horrors of the Somme. The conflict affects the family's post war choices. Aged forty-two Seth takes a young mistress. But can the pragmatic and resilient Mary find peace and fulfilment in her later years?</span></p><p></p>