Does a cover convince you to read a book or not?

The Diamond of Dury Lane

By Julia Golding @jgoldingauthor

Cover illustration by Tim Spencer

ISBN: 978 1405237581 £4.69

Published: 4th February 2008

First line:

Genre: Fiction- adventure/historical

Age: 9+

Thanks to my former colleague, Daniel, a fellow Year 5 teacher, 15+ years teaching experience and English Lead for recommending and lending me this book. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance some day to return it to you and repay the recommendation!

What’s it all about?

The story is written from the point of view of Cat, a girl who lives, and tries to survive, in a theatre in Dury Lane during the 18th century. She is an orphan who has been taken in by the theatre owner, Mr Sheridan. Cat, and her new friend, Pedro, are tasked with protecting the ‘diamond’ that Mr Sheridan has hidden in the theatre from thieves and brigands. Both have lofty dreams for the future.

Why should I read it?

I have to say, that originally I was not that keen to read the story – to me, the book covers didn’t excite me, as I felt it looked to much like it was going to be a modern theatre story about a young girl trying to become an actress. Then, after reading the blurb, I wasn’t that much more convince, even though I found it to be set in the past. I thought it might still be about a girl trying to become a famous actress. The the first few pages started to pull me in. In some ways it reminded me of Philip Pullman’s stories about Sally Lockhart with all the old fashioned information at the beginning. I really like how the reader is spoken to by the main character, almost as if she is telling you the story firsthand. It’s not an unique idea, but works brilliantly in connecting character to reader and immersing you in Cat’s world. The action slowly and brilliantly increases as you make your way through the story and by the end you are really concerned for the characters and the tumultuous set of events that they have to make their way through. The story takes in all sorts of different interesting characters throughout, from high society to low, from the desperate to the sure, from the free to the slave. But ultimately, its about who can Cat trust and can she help her friends without losing her life?