Gentle Things

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17th century
17th century London
A01=Danielle Giles
atmospheric
Author_Danielle Giles
body horror
body medicine
cannibalism
Category=FV
deception
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_historical-fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
feminist
folk horror
forthcoming
friendship
historical fiction
Historical Literary Fiction
horror
lesbian
LGBTQ+
mystery
relationships
romance
sapphic
secrets
Women's Fiction

Product details

  • ISBN 9781035051274
  • Dimensions: 135 x 216mm
  • Publication Date: 23 Jul 2026
  • Publisher: Pan Macmillan
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Hardback
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'Gentle Things is a daring and devouring gothic gem of a novel' – Lucy Rose, bestselling author of The Lamb

The plague has passed, the fire has cooled, and Lucy North is in desperate need of a husband . . . From the acclaimed author of Mere comes a thrilling new tale of medicine, marriage and madness set in seventeenth-century London.

London, 1668.
Though the streets hum with promise following the restoration of the crown, Lucy North is trapped. Her father's recent death has left her mother saddled with debts she cannot pay. Lucy must marry the first man willing to take her without a dowry.

So when she meets Thomas Ashwell, a young and charming apothecary, Lucy quickly identifies an attractive route out. She falls in love easily, and when Thomas proposes she believes her future is finally secured.

But when Lucy falls and injures her head during their wedding party, things start to warp. Confined to her bedroom her dreams refuse to leave her at daybreak, and the voice in her head no longer sounds like her own. As Thomas plies her with tinctures and cures, a creeping fear takes root: Has this marriage saved her? Or will it bring about her end?


'One of the best things I’ve read in ages' – Liam Higginson, author of The Hill in the Dark Grove

'A
stunning fever dream of a book . . . one of my favourite books of 2026 so far' – Cathryn Kemp, author of ???????A Poisoner's Tale

Danielle Giles is a writer and researcher based in Bristol. She has been published (writing as Danielle Vrublevskis) in Extra Teeth and Dear Damsels, shortlisted for the Bristol Short Story Prize and the Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize and longlisted for the Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize. She won the Local Prize in the 2023 Bath Short Story Award. Mere, her debut novel, was published by Mantle in 2025. Gentle Things is her second novel.

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