Bloodwood [Hardcover]

Gillian Bradshaw (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2007

A dying woman with nothing to lose takes on ruthless enemies . . .When Antonia Lanchester is told she has only months to live, she decides to blow the whistle on her employers. Masterpiece Home Design, an upmarket home furnishing company, has links to an atrocity committed by illegal loggers in Borneo. Antonia hands incriminating files over to an environmental campaign group. Suddenly powerful interests find themselves threatened with exposure. Antonia is out of her depth, forced to struggle not only against her enemies but also against the weakness of her cancer-ridden brain . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Antonia Lanchester is understandably stunned when she learns she has an inoperable brain tumor that will kill her in six months. How to spend the rest of her limited life? She has abandoned her family and friends, her marriage has failed, and she has no social life or hobbies. The only constant is her high-powered job as PR director for Masterpiece Home Design, a company that sells furniture made from illegally logged timber from the world's rain forests. So Antonia decides to turn whistle-blower and expose MHD's involvement not only in destroying the rain forests but also, indirectly, in the killing of several environmental protesters in Malaysia. Antonia's decision has dire personal consequences, but as her death approaches, she finds herself feeling fulfilled, proud of making a difference and with a whole new circle of kind, generous friends. In less-capable hands, this story could have been smarmy and sentimental, but Bradshaw injects dignity and joy into a movingly told, heartwarming book that delivers a powerful punch. Emily Melton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Gillian Bradshaw's father, an American Associated Press newsman, met her mother, a confidential secretary for the British embassy, in Rio de Janeiro. She was born in Washington DC in 1956, the second of four children. They didn't move around quite as much as one might expect after such a beginning: Washington was followed merely by Santiago, Chile, and two locations in Michigan. Gillian attended the University of Michigan, where she earned her BA in English and another in Classical Greek, and won the Hopwood Prize for fiction with her first novel, "Hawk of May," She went on to get another degree at Newnham College, Cambridge University, England in Greek and Latin literature, and she sold her first novel while preparing for exams.
She decided to stay in Cambridge another year to write another novel and think about what to do for a Real Job. However, while there, she discovered she could live on her income as a novelist and also met her husband, who was completing his doctorate in physics. Between books and children she never did get a Real Job, and she's been writing novels ever since.
She and her husband now live in Coventry. They have four children and a dog.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 184 pages
• Publisher: Severn House Publishers (June 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0727864203
• ISBN-13: 978-0727864208
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #946,110 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born 1956 in Arlington, Virginia (i.e., Washington DC); grew up there, in Santiago, Chile, and in East Lansing and Mount Pleasant Michigan; educated University of Michigan (Classics and English) and Newnham College, Cambridge (Classics). I published my first novel while I was supposed to be revising for my final exams; the exams suffered, but I still managed a 2.1. I decided to take another year in Cambridge to work on the next novel, and Met a Man, like many a woman before and since. We got married in Paris, where he had a post-doc position and I had discovered an urgent need to learn French. He continued research and teaching, first in Santa Barbara, then back in Cambridge, and finally at the University of Warwick; I continued writing. A lot of my work has used my background in classical Greek and Latin, but I've occasionally branched out into the high middle ages, contemporary, and sci-fi. We have four kids, now grown up, and so far one grandchild.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Difficult Subject Matter, but Well Written, January 3, 2008

By 

J. Chippindale (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bloodwood (Hardcover)

Gillian Bradshaw was born in the US and was brought up in Washington, Santiago, Chile and Michigan. She is a classics graduate from Newnham College, Cambridge. She has won much acclaim as an historical novelist. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and their four children.

This book isn't exactly laugh a minute in fact it is quite dour in places, but also thought provoking. Plus it features something that most of us would love to do, or is that just my warped mind. What am I talking about. Blowing the whistle on a multi-national company, or in this case the main character of the book, Antonia Lanchester, is trying to expose her employers.

Being told she has not long to live has encouraged her to pass incriminating files to an environmental campaign group. The files link the swish furnishing company that she is employed by to n atrocity committed by illegal loggers in Borneo. However Antonia is soon out of her depth and she has to struggle against unseen enemies, as well as the cancer that is eating away at her brain.

The author, Gillian Bradshaw shows that she is equally at home in the 21st century as she is in the fourth, or whenever her historical novels take place. Her attention to detail is second to none and her writing style makes for easy reading, even with such a difficult subject matter.