The Butcher’s Hook by Janet Ellis review – the ex-Blue Peter presenter’s gothic debut

A bloody-minded 18th-century heroine is brought vividly to life in this dark domestic drama

The legacy of Blue Peter runs deep: perhaps in an internet age of lost innocence, the presenters of that iconic children’s programme stood for a generation as the last bastions of wholesomeness and incorruptibility. Whatever the reason, it is clear from the advance publicity that Janet Ellis, who fronted the much-loved show in the mid-1980s, caused a sensation when news broke of her darkly gothic debut. There is nothing wholesome about The Butcher’s Hook.

Set in London in the 18th century, the novel tells the story of Anne Jaccob, the eldest daughter of comfortably-off parents. Girls then were in many ways freer than their counterparts 100 years later: in the 1760s, they could at least venture out without a chaperone and spoke with a candour that would have scandalised a Victorian drawing room. But those like Anne led lives that were for the most part stiflingly narrow and sequestered.

Continue reading...