Lila Cain – författare

‘Readers are in for a true treat … Dazzling’ PATERSON JOSEPH‘This powerful story is steeped in truth and resonates with humanity. It’s a gritty thriller and a whirlwind adventure, but most of all it’s a tale of love and hope. A beautiful, original and heart-stopping read’ JANICE HALLETT‘I loved this brilliant book about an essential and forgotten piece of our history. Devious plots, secret pasts and forbidden futures. Gritty and thrilling, with vivid and unforgettable characters’ LAURA SHEPHERD-ROBINSONSome things are earned. Some things are worth fighting for…It’s 1782, Daniel and his sister Pearl arrive in London with the world at their feet and their future assured. Having escaped a Jamaican sugar plantation, Daniel fought for the British in the American War of Independence and was rewarded with freedom and an inheritance.  But the city is not a place for men like Daniel and he is callously tricked and finds himself, along with his sister Pearl, in the rookeries of St Giles – a warren of dark and menacing alleyways, filled with violence and poverty.  The underworld labyrinth is run by Elias, a man whose cruelty knows no bounds. But under his dangerous rule is a brotherhood of Black men, the Blackbirds of St Giles, whose intention is to set their people free.  Can Daniel use his strength, wit and the fellowship of the other Blackbirds to overthrow Elias and truly find the freedom he fought for…?‘The novel Dickens didn’t write, but should have done. Simply magnificent’ SEAN LUSK‘Equally thrilling and informative, a journey you won’t forget!’ AJ WEST‘Full of twists and turns, peopled with characters to care about and shining a light on a little-known area of history’ FRANCES QUINN‘Brava! A charismatic cast. A plot to stir your heart’ ESSIE FOX‘Bringing Black Georgian London to life, this is a dark and wonderful tale of a brother and sister finding their feet in an unfriendly city’ LOUISE HARE

‘Readers are in for a true treat … Dazzling’ PATERSON JOSEPH‘This powerful story is steeped in truth and resonates with humanity. It’s a gritty thriller and a whirlwind adventure, but most of all it’s a tale of love and hope. A beautiful, original and heart-stopping read’ JANICE HALLETT‘I loved this brilliant book about an essential and forgotten piece of our history. Devious plots, secret pasts and forbidden futures. Gritty and thrilling, with vivid and unforgettable characters’ LAURA SHEPHERD-ROBINSONSome things are earned. Some things are worth fighting for…It’s 1782, Daniel and his sister Pearl arrive in London with the world at their feet and their future assured. Having escaped a Jamaican sugar plantation, Daniel fought for the British in the American War of Independence and was rewarded with freedom and an inheritance.  But the city is not a place for men like Daniel and he is callously tricked and finds himself, along with his sister Pearl, in the rookeries of St Giles – a warren of dark and menacing alleyways, filled with violence and poverty.  The underworld labyrinth is run by Elias, a man whose cruelty knows no bounds. But under his dangerous rule is a brotherhood of Black men, the Blackbirds of St Giles, whose intention is to set their people free.  Can Daniel use his strength, wit and the fellowship of the other Blackbirds to overthrow Elias and truly find the freedom he fought for…?‘The novel Dickens didn’t write, but should have done. Simply magnificent’ SEAN LUSK‘Equally thrilling and informative, a journey you won’t forget!’ AJ WEST‘Full of twists and turns, peopled with characters to care about and shining a light on a little-known area of history’ FRANCES QUINN‘Brava! A charismatic cast. A plot to stir your heart’ ESSIE FOX‘Bringing Black Georgian London to life, this is a dark and wonderful tale of a brother and sister finding their feet in an unfriendly city’ LOUISE HARE

The compelling new novel from Lila Cain, the pseudonym of two acclaimed authors - one shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.A dazzling, immersive work of historical fiction set in eighteenth-century London, where a young woman on the brink of fame and her father, both fugitives from enslavement, must fight to define – and defend – their freedom.Pearl was only an infant when her father, Daniel, seized a desperate chance and fled with her from a Jamaican sugarcane plantation. Now sixteen, in London, she is on the cusp of something extraordinary: a blossoming career on the stage, where her voice wins admiration, envy and the intoxicating promise of independence.But Daniel knows how quickly fortune can turn. While he works with the Brotherhood of Crows to protect Black men, women and children from injustice, he is determined to shield Pearl from the dangers of public life. Respectability, in his eyes, may be her only protection – especially as he pursues a long-promised inheritance owed to him for saving a major’s life in battle. Yet those who control the courts and the money have no intention of letting Daniel claim what is his. To them, his freedom is something to be challenged, stolen or destroyed.As Pearl resists her father’s fears, she finds a thrilling new family in the theatre: glittering, ambitious and treacherous. Fame and romance seem suddenly within reach, until rivalry, sabotage and a devastating betrayal place her in grave danger.From the shadowed tunnels of the St Giles rookery to the blazing stages of Covent Garden, Pearl must decide what freedom truly means – and what she is willing to risk for a life of her own.In a city alive with opportunity and peril, one choice can change everything.Praise for The Blackbirds of St. Giles:‘The novel Dickens didn’t write, but should have done. Simply magnificent’ Sean Lusk‘Readers are in for a true treat … Dazzling’ Paterson Joseph‘A memorable and thoroughly entertaining narrative’ Sunday Times, Book of the Month‘A beautiful, original and heart-stopping read’ Janice Hallett‘Gritty and thrilling, with vivid and unforgettable characters’ Laura Shepherd-Robinson