The Paris Winter
"..‘The Paris Winter’ is a great success and confirms Robertson as a shining writer of extraordinary potential"
Synopsis:
This delightful book, set in the Paris of the Belle Époque, uses as a framework a series of paintings by an unknown artist from the collection of a wealthy American art connoisseur. These paintings trace the story of Maud Heighton, a student at the Academie Lafond, who has come to Paris to develop her artistic skills in a respectable women's atelier. At first she seems a very proper if unconventional English lady in Paris but as the story develops her strength of character, her resolve and her ability to cast off the inhibitions of her class shine through. She is preyed upon by an unscrupulous con man who uses her desperation to escape extreme poverty to further his greed.
With the background of the exciting world of Paris in the early twentieth century and the familiarity of the artists and intellectuals of the time, together with the fear and devastation that the Paris floods of 1909 this story has all the ingredients of an exciting tale.
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Review:
This book is beautifully constructed around the device of a series of paintings. The plot starts slowly and gently then gathers pace to become an exciting and tense tale which could twist and turn in any way. The heady atmosphere of artistic Paris with its drug taking, free expression and wonderful talent is so immediate when reading this book which made me love it straight away. The characters are original and evoke a positive response-for good or ill. Maud becomes a very modern woman, and the positive help she receives from all sorts is heart-warming, particularly when the notes tell you that some of the characters are based on real people. This is a departure from Imogen Robertson's love affair with the seventeenth century and her heroine, Harriet Westerman, but I think 'The Paris Winter' is a great success and confirms Robertson as a shining writer of extraordinary potential.