Less than 24 hours after she has given birth to her illegitimate daughter, Clara, Bess Bright gives her up at London’s Foundling Hospital. Bess’s only link if she ever wants to reclaim Clara is the token she leaves: half a heart-shaped whalebone, with the initials B and D carved into it. Six years later, after saving every spare penny from her job as a shrimp seller, Bess returns to reclaim Clara. She dreads that her daughter may have died in care but what she finds is far worse: Clara has already been reclaimed – by her. A bewildered Bess is determined to find Clara, no matter the cost.

A doctor at the hospital takes pity on Bess and finds her a job as a nursemaid to Charlotte, the daughter of Alexandra, a young widow who has not left her house for years. Alexandra paces the floors of her tightly shut-up townhouse, frightened of her past catching up with her. She and Charlotte are like two birds trapped in a golden cage, trying to keep themselves safe from the world, and blissfully unaware that Bess will shatter their lives.

Power, class inequality, secrets and the meaning of motherhood are explored in this gorgeously written story, where Georgian London is alive on the page, from the busy streets and smells of the fish markets to the elegant townhouses. Is a woman a lesser mother because she is poor or the child is illegitimate? Could a state institution offer a better life for their children, as these desperate mothers believed? There is plenty to ponder in this enthralling read.

Reviewed by Melinda Woledge