Mizpah

The Silversmith’s Daughter by Annie Murray is a comprehensive historical novel set during World War I from 1915 in Birmingham. As Birmingham is my home town, I loved knowing the familiar locations. The Jewellery Quarter is well known to me as I have most of my rings and earrings from there!

The Silversmith’s Daughter shows life on the home front. We see the effects of war on the families left behind. World War I was a slaughterhouse of young men who were merely cannon fodder. The grief is palpable. “Her reaching out to God was like a howl that she felt from the very core of her.” The grief hits and never goes away. Communities and families drowned in grief.

There is the theme of single mothers. In 1915 unwed mothers and their children were seen as a source of shame. The Silversmith’s Daughter explodes this myth as a character is surrounded by love. “This is a child, not a dirty secret.”