The Journal of Dora Damage
Belinda Starling2006

In the tradition of Sarah Waters, a rich, sweeping historical novel set in Victorian London, about a bookbinder's wife who, to save her family, must take over her husband's business.

"As the Winter of 1860 Descends Upon London, Peter Damage's small bookbinding shop is bordering on ruin. With his arthritic fingers failing him, he can no longer do the delicate, painstaking work of bookmaking. By the time his wife Dora discovers that there is something wrong with her husband, the Damages are already in danger of entering the poorhouse. Summoning her courage, Dora resolves to rescue herself and her epileptic daughter at any price. She soon learns that her husband isn't the only one with a talent for bookbinding. But just when she's making enough money to feed her family, she finds that she has been lured into illegally binding expensive volumes of pornography commissioned by aristocrats. And when a mysterious fugitive slave from America arrives at her door in need of work, Dora realizes she has become entangled in a, dangerous web of sex, money, deceit, and the law. Now the very family she fought so hard for is under threat from a host of new, more dangerous foes.".
"Belinda Starling's debut novel is a startling vision of Victorian London, juxtaposing its filth and poverty with its affluence and corruption. In Dora Damage we meet a daring young heroine, struggling in a very modern way against the constraints of her day, and whose resourcefulness and bravery have us rooting for her all the way."