Burning Bright

In 1792, the Kellaway family leaves rural Dorset after a death and settles in Lambeth, where chair-maker Thomas Kellaway has found work connected with Philip Astley’s circus. His quiet son Jem befriends Maggie Butterfield, a streetwise London girl who guides him through markets, workshops, pleasure gardens and the dangers of the city. Their new neighbour is the poet, printer and artist William Blake, whose unconventional household fascinates both children.

As Blake creates Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Jem and Maggie encounter the poverty, sexual danger and political suspicion hidden beneath London’s spectacle. News of the French Revolution makes the government increasingly hostile to radicals, and Blake’s ideas expose the children to questions about authority, freedom and exploitation. Their friendship is tested when adult violence forces them to understand the difference between innocence protected and innocence deliberately destroyed.