Brenda Jagger

Background

Brenda Jagger was born on September 7, 1936 in Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

Career

A prolific writer of historical romances, Brenda Jagger’s novels span centuries — from ancient Rome to early twentieth-century Britain. Some of her novels are set in England during the Industrial Revolution (a period of social and economic change resulting from large-scale industrial production) and before the period of factory reforms. Reviewers have generally admired Jagger’s attention to detail and her historical accuracy.

Two of Jagger’s novels, Antonia and Daughters of Aphrodite, are set in ancient Rome. In Antonia, the heroine is an heiress whose money puts her in the midst of political scheming following Nero’s death. Daughters of Aphrodite features Danae, a seductress from the ghetto of Subura, who rises to a position of power. The Clouded Hills, Flints and Roses, and The Sleeping Sword, titles in Jagger’s Barforth trilogy, chronicle the good and bad fortunes of the Barforth family, mill owners in nineteenth century England.

The first novel in the series, The Clouded Hills, published as Verity in the United States, relates the story of Verity Barforth, who is an eyewitness to the murder of her father and brother by disgruntled hand weavers. Verity’s grandfather, eager to increase the family’s holdings, compels sixteen-year-old Verity to marry her cousin Joel. The second book of the series, Flints and Roses, published in the United States as The Barforth Women, continues the Barforth family saga in Victorian England. The story focuses on Verity’s sons, Blaize and Nicholas, and their cousins — Faith, Prudence, and Celia. With Faith as its narrator, the story examines the role of women during the Victorian era amid mounting class tensions among a growing middle class and the landed gentry.

Third in this trilogy is the novel The Sleeping Sword, Published in the United States as An Independent Woman. The Sleeping Sword features Grace Agbrigg tvho takes a husband as required by her position in life, but flouting tradition, divorces her husband to become the sole divorcee in her Yorkshire home of Cullingford. Days of Grace, set in Paris and London in the early twentieth century, chronicles the life of Olivia Heron, the female heir to a deteriorating family estate. Returning from Paris to claim her inheritance, Olivia takes on the responsibility of overseeing the family and its estate. The novel follows her family as they have out their lives.

A Winter's Child features heroine Claire Swanfield who has married hastily and gone to France to nurse the wounded during World War I. Widowed, she returns home to West Yorkshire in 1919 and becomes involved in the lives of the family she never knew. Jagger’s final novels, A Song Twice Over and Distant Choices, are set in nineteenth-century Yorkshire, England. A Song Twice Over explores the plight of working class women through the character of Cara Adeane, a dressmaker who has sole support of her son. Jagger’s final novel, Distant Choices, examines the sometimes pretentious upper class of the Victorian era. The story features two characters, Matthew Sangway and Evangeline Slade, who have a daughter out of wedlock.

Achievements

• Brenda Jagger was greatly famous as the author of books "Antonia", "A Winter's Child", "Flints and Roses", and "The Sleeping Sword." Her work has been praised for its compelling plots and moving storylines as well as its exacting emotional descriptions.

Works

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  • Flint and Roses

    (The rival passions of the Barforth brothers for the allur...)

    1981
  • A Winter's Child

    (The war was over, and Jeremy Swanfield’s family were eage...)

    1984
  • A Song Twice Over

    (At the height of the Industrial Revolution, two women str...)

    1985
  • The Clouded Hills

    (At sixteen Verity Barforth becomes sole heiress to a fort...)

  • Days of Grace

    (Olivia Heron’s vagrant Parisian childhood ended on the da...)

    1983
  • Distant Choices

    (Katharine was dark, rebellious and unruly. Oriel was fair...)

    1986
  • Daughter of Aphrodite 1981
  • Antonia 1978
  • Verity 1980

Views

Jagger’s powerful writing brings to life the often agonizing and painful choices inflicted upon Victorian women from all social backgrounds, and offers a picture of their emotional plight.

Connections

Brenda was married, and had three daughters.