“At once the easiest truth to know, and the hardest to realise”

Thea Morell, Georgian heiress and eligible lady, is not normal. At least, that’s what she has come to believe. She loves nothing more than spending hours at the study of natural history, collecting fossils, insects, dead fish, bones and even the odd spider. Up to now, she has held off her mother’s entreaties to marry, but this year something has changed and the pressure is growing.
While observing and experimenting in her search for scientific truth, Thea also begins to acknowledge a truth about herself. A most inconvenient one which sparks at the lips of the electrical venus and bursts into flame in the presence of the very proper Lady Eleanor Harrington. Has her obsession with the male-dominated world of natural history caused the unnatural tendencies she can’t seem to control? And more importantly, what is she going to do about it?

Readers who enjoy books by Julie Cohen, Sarah Waters, Olivia Waite and Marianne Ratcliffe may enjoy this.

Suzanne Moss is a historical researcher fascinated by women’s historical journeys through science and sexuality.