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I started The Lady Brewer of London on an afternoon where I had just a few minutes of free time between errands – a grievous mistake. This is an epic, set in fifteenth-century England, and not easy to put down. Between the romance, intrigue, and historical detail, there’s a lot to enjoy in this story.
Anneke Sheldrake is content in her life as a merchant’s daughter in the town of Elmham Lenn, and keeps busy running her household and looking after her younger siblings while their father is away. That whole life is put at risk, however, when her father’s ship goes down at sea and Anneke is informed that all his possessions – house, warehouse, everything – were rented to him by Lord Hardred Rainford only for the duration of his life. With her father dead, Anneke has changed from a desirable young woman of status to a pauper whose only option is to be taken in by her mean-spirited cousin as a ‘companion’ (i.e. indentured servant).
Or at least, servitude to her cousin is Anneke’s only obvious choice. Never one to back down from a fight, Anneke goes over the household books, considers her talents, and then makes Lord Rainford an offer: rent the house and servants to Anneke so that she can become a brewer. She learned the art of making ale from her mother, and is confident she has the skills to turn a good profit. She also knows that her middle brother Tobias, who is currently apprenticed to Lord Rainford’s youngest son Leander, is in fact a Rainford – so between blackmail and good business sense, Anneke is able to secure a lease and an opportunity to make a new life for herself and her siblings.
Although normal for married women and widows, brewing is seen by most of Elmham Lenn as unacceptable for an unmarried woman like Anneke. More importantly, the idea of a new commercial brewer is viewed as a threat by the nearby St. Jude Monastery, where the monks have a large operation with a monopoly on the ale market in the surrounding towns. Between social norms and vicious competition, Anneke has a steep uphill battle into her chosen profession. She faces challenges in finding suppliers, finding employees, and even getting her ale certified. While it is obviously superior, the ale-conners (men who taste and determine what ale is fit to be sold) are very much in the pockets of the monastery, and hesitate to approve Anneke’s product.
A big point in Anneke’s favor when the ale-conners visit is the support of Leander Rainford. The youngest son of Lord Rainford, his opinion holds weight in the community and convinces the ale-conners to act justly. Leander begins to visit the Sheldrake household with Tobias (who is unaware of his relationship to the Rainfords), and a strong affection builds between him and Anneke. As the monks plot against Anneke’s brewery, ultimately forcing her out of Elmham Lenn to Southwark and then London, Leander remains stalwart in his support for Anneke and the pair’s romance builds in a sweet way.
Far too much happens in this book to easily capture in a review, so I shall simply say that Anneke must go through many trials before reaching a satisfying ending. Her strength and endurance through situations where all seems lost are impressive traits which only grow over the course of the book. Anneke is unflinching in her assessment of her own faults, acknowledging the times when she acts without heed for the consequences, or when she doubts herself unnecessarily. Her inner strength and good humor make her easy to like and certainly easy to root for.
The one issue I had, however, was the frequent appearance of ‘white knights’ in the story. Both Leander and a family friend, Captain Stoyan, rescue Anneke from more than a few scrapes where she seems unable to rescue herself. As a woman of the twenty-first century, this felt frustrating, because I’m used to seeing women solve their own problems. However, Anneke does prove herself remarkably capable and skilled throughout the book; the situations where she needs a white knight are typically when dealing with corrupt men in various positions of power (such as the ale-conners) who are inclined to impede her simply because she is a woman. While they may detract slightly from the overall image of independence Anneke is trying to achieve, it didn’t feel wrong to emphasize the difficulty of running a business as a woman in the fifteenth century.
One important note for potential readers is that there is some violence in this story, which takes place both on and off the page. The level of detail felt appropriate to the story, and while difficult to read, these scenes didn’t affect my overall enjoyment of the book. However, I don’t think this review would be complete without mentioning their appearance.
In summary, I thoroughly enjoyed The Lady Brewer of London. Ms. Brooks delivers a wonderful tale of despair, triumph, and personal growth here. I learned many things I never knew about ale and beer production, and will definitely be seeking out this author’s backlist.
Buy it at: Amazon or your local independent retailer
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Grade: B+
Book Type: Historical Fiction
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 21/01/21
Publication Date: 11/2020
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
College student by day. Book enthusiast around the clock. With any luck I'll eventually be able to afford food AND books. But I've got my priorities straight.
Related Reviews
Has anyone else read this? Finished it last night and have mixed feelings. Would love to discuss. My initial thoughts:
I actually gave up on this book for your last bullet pointed reason: it was way too long for what it was. Plus, the writing style at times felt a little “off” to me. I realize that’s totally subjective but it wasn’t engaging enough to sustain my interest beyond about a third or half of the book. Unfortunately, I can’t really put my finger on what it was that bothered me about the writing style.
Having said that, it’s not a bad book by any means. I think there are a lot of readers who would enjoy it. But for whatever reason, I got tired of it and found myself skimming parts. Plus, I started noticing a pattern of more and more “awful circumstances for the heroine to overcome” and I thought, “Eh… I’m not really in the mood for a Medieval version of The Perils of Pauline.” In short, it just didn’t work for me.
Thanks for your comments! I lasted much longer than you (I did finish the book) but I began skimming towards the end as well – 75-80% in. One too many (ok, 2-3 too many bad things to survive).
I did read this several months ago, so my memory isn’t very fresh. I felt similarly about it. I thought the period details were good. It was descriptively lush, and I enjoyed all the parts about the craft of making beer and ale (and their differences, which I hadn’t put much thought into before). Made me want to drink beer while reading it! The first person narrative made it feel heavy on the telling rather than showing ,and the pacing was uneven (or maybe my interest waxed and waned, with some sections being more interesting to me than others). The main villain came across as one-dimensional to me, and I felt several other characters lacked a personality. They were simply what the author needed them to be for the story but didn’t really leap off the page. This was a new-to-me author. The setting and story were immersive enough that I’d try another book by her.
Thanks for you comments as well! I’d love to see this author develop as a fiction writer as well.
For anyone interested, this is on sale today for $1.99 at US Amazon.
Added to the wishlist. Wow. It really is epic, coming in at 814 pages (according to details on Amazon).
Great review, this sounds right up my alley. It reminds me a bit of A Vision of Light by Judith Merkle Riley as Margaret is known for brewing excellent ale.
This one’s on my TBR pile!
Wow! This sounds fantastic! My poor TBR list has one more entry. Thanks for the review, Alexandra.
Interestingly enough, I was reading about alewives/brewers a while back. It turns out that a lot of our modern day images of witches (pointed hats, black cats, brooms, cauldrons), originate from historical brewers. Those would have been the tools of their trade: the tall, pointed hats were for nabbing customers’ attention at the marketplace, cats would have been used as mousers to protect the grain, brooms were not only a cleaning product but were used as a kind of flag post to announce when the brew was ready, cauldrons for brewing, etc. Most brewers used to be women as making ale was considered an extension of hearth and home duties. Then, like this book demonstrates, they got shoved out by church authorities- and eventually vilified. A really fascinating history!
“Witchcraft” is alluded to in the story but is only one of the heroines problems to deal with. And author notes include the observation that (as was/is typical of many jobs/trades) women were the principal brewers for home consumption and small local barter/sales, but as soon as resources/infrastructure made it possible to scale up enough to make a real business from producing brewing, men organized themselves to push women out.