An Impossible Dream

Willow Riches has never told her parents that the was offered higher education, for there is no money to spare, and she has worked since she edus thirteen as a runabout in a corset factory. She dreams of making beautiful garments like those in the shops in Park Street where smart Bristol people go.

When Willow saves the child of a wealthy family from a car accident, he is rewarded with a job in the Maddisons’ country house. But she chafes against the narrow restrictions of life in the kitchen. Her ambition is to become a lady’s maid, and eventually her skill as a seamstress is recognised and she achieves her goal.

During a visit to London with her mistress, Willow is embroiled in a Suffragette demonstration and sent to prison. At the end of her sentence, with no job and little money, she sets out to break into the world of fashion. Her road to success leads her into a world of highly unconventional clients, one which she must keep secret from her family. But her attention is diverted by two men: Steven Kerslake, the former bootboy, who has himself struggled to achieve respectability; and Edgar Maddison, the spoilt son of her employers, who is attracted to her independent spirit, but is trapped in the conventions of his class.