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by C. A. Hope (Author)
Spinning New Lives is the first historical novel of the New Lanark Trilogy, sharing the true story of the creation of the 18th Century cotton mill village of New Lanark (now a UNESCO WHS) where the Co-Operative Movement was born. Meticulously researched to faithfully portray the dramatic formative years of the village built by David Dale to harness the power of the River Clyde and later managed by Robert Owen, the radical social reformer. The narrative swings between the brutal reality of abject poverty to the flaunted wealth of Glasgow's industrial barons by following three young people bound together by the mills. Joe, a labourer, frantic to save his mother and siblings from the Poor House; Fiona, a victim of the Highland Clearances, sent by the orphanage to work in New Lanark's mills, and Anne Caroline, the mill owner's daughter. Set against the turbulent backdrop of the French Revolution and Scottish Enlightenment, the story involves famous Scots such as Robert Burns, Thomas Hardy and Thomas Muir. Book Two: New Lanark Living With a Visionary, Book Three: New Lanark In Search of Utopia.
