At the Sign of the Sugared Plum - Mary Hooper

You be going to live in the City, Hannah?’ Farmer Price asked. pushing his battered hat up over his forehead. Wouldn’t think you’d want to go there… Times like this, I would have. thought your sister would try and keep you away.’

It is 1665 and Hannah is full of excitement at the prospect of her first trip to London. She is going to help her sister, Sarah, in her sweetmeats shop, The Sugared Plum’. But Hannah does not get the welcoming reception she expected. Sarah is horrified that Hannah did not get her message to stay away: the Plague is threatening to take hold of London…

Through Hannah’s eyes, Mary Hooper brilliantly recreates the smells, sounds and sights of seventeenth-century London life. Hannah’s excitement at coming to the big city is vividly evoked, as is the growing terror of a seemingly unstoppable plague that takes hold of the city, street by street, house by house.