17th Century Women

Deborah Swift’s 17th Century Women novels follow women whose private choices collide with the religious, social and economic upheavals of Restoration England. The Lady’s Slipper begins in rural Westmorland, where an artist’s attempt to protect a rare flower draws her into a Quaker household and a chain of suspicion, violence and exile. The Gilded Lily moves to London, where two sisters fleeing the consequences of theft discover the dangers hidden beneath the capital’s fashionable surface.

The books are linked by their focus on women negotiating a society in which property, reputation and religious conformity can determine survival. Swift combines domestic drama with crime and social history, contrasting rural dissent with the expanding commercial world of Restoration London.