Ghost Portrait - Hardcover

'A fascinating insight into an England torn apart by war.' -- Western Mail 'An intimate drama that wears its learning lightly, written with great clarity and the minimum of narrative fuss ... a timeless story of professional compromise and personal betrayal ... With delicate, economical strokes, Norminton has created characters who strain against their historical circumstance without ever jarring into anachronism. Each is drawn with a skilful sympathy that resonates beyond the page ... Suffused with desire and regret, this beautiful, understated novel is a moving meditiation on change and compromise' -- Justine Jordan, Guardian 'Norminton's prose is as lyrical as ever, at its best in his wonderfully bucolic realisation of the Diggers' doomed utopian community ... Deller's daughter and his erstwhile apprentice make a tantalising couple ... Anything by Gregory Norminton is a pleasure to read - the pages skip by in his light, cadenced style' -- Paul Fairclough, Time Out 'An elegant, convincing historical novel whose setting complements rather than engulfs the human drama' -- David Horspool, Times Literary Supplement

This intimate and compelling novel deftly interweaves three periods in the life of 17th-century painter Nathaniel Deller: in 1650, just after Charles I's execution, the young Deller joins a political group too radical even for the Roundheads; ten years later, on the night of Charles II's return from exile, Deller is accused by his former friend Thomas Digby of betraying their ideals; and in 1680, the increasingly blind painter commissions his former pupil William Stroud to finish the portrait of his late wife, knowing this could reignite the romance between Stroud and the daughter he tyrannises. Offering a vivid picture of England during a period of great turmoil, "Ghost Portrait" explores the conflict between public duty and private desire, idealism and ambition.