Shortlisted for the Winston Graham Prize for Historical Fiction 'This book is a rarity - a
novel as remarkable for the vigour of the storytelling as for its literary ambition. Kim
Sherwood is a writer of capacity potency and sophistication' HILARY MANTEL A Wild & True
Relation opens during the Great Storm of 1703 as smuggler Tom West confronts his lover Grace
for betraying him to the Revenue. Leaving Grace's cottage in flames he takes her orphaned
daughter Molly on board ship disguised as a boy to join his crew. But Molly or Orlando as she
must call herself will grow up to outshine all the men of Tom's company and seek revenge - and
a legacy - all of her own. Woven into Molly's story are the writers - from Celia Fiennes to
Hester Thrale to George Eliot - who are transfixed by her myth and who over three centuries
come together to solve the mystery of her life. With extraordinary verve and chutzpah Sherwood
remakes the eighteenth-century Heroical novel and challenges women's writing and women's roles
throughout history.
