'The Sealed Letter' is an excellent work of fiction based around real events. Set in the late Victorian period, the story incorporates Women's Suffrage, scandal and the nature of female friendship.

Helen is a woman of 'High Spirits', stuck in a marriage to Admiral Harry Codrington, whom she abhors. Bored and craving excitement, she conducts affairs with young naval officers. Her indiscretions become a catalyst for a devastating court case, where reputations are all but ruined. Her single-mindedness and manipulation puts one in mind of Vanity Fair's Becky Sharp.

Emily 'Fido' Faithfull, Helen's somewhat dowdy, naive friend is pulled into an ever deepening intrigue, all the while trying to maintain her position at the forefront of the Suffrage movement. Her devotion to her friend gradually isolates her from her cause and she begins lose herself in Helen's thrall.

The novel beautifully dovetails multiple POVs, while setting the characters more personal struggles against a backdrop of Victorian social mores and conventions. Is Helen, the married, conventional 'Angel of The House', more forward-thinking in her pursuit of her own desires than the reticent Fido? Is there something more to Fido's unshakable loyalty to Helen?

'The Sealed Letter' is an excellent period piece. Compelling, thoroughly researched and must read for anybody with an interest in Victorian attittudes to women. Highly recommended for readers who enjoyed Michael Faber's 'The Crimson Petal and The White'