The Journal of Dora Damage [Paperback]

Belinda Starling grasps you by the hand and pulls the reader into Victorian London from the very first page of this fantastic story.

Dora Damage takes over her ill husband's book binding business in 1860. Although this is frowned upon by her neighbours and associates, Dora is determined to make a living for her family. She is soon to find herself binding pornographic books on the orders of the aristocracy. Very quickly Dora finds herself caught up in lawlessness, slavery, bare knuckle fighting, sex and money.

Dora's Journal conjures up Victorian London excellently, the filth, the smell, the poverty, the perversity of the rich and the misery of the poor.

The history of book binding is fascinating and well researched. The issues of family values and the freedom from slavery are dealt with sensitively and also with a passion and in vivid explanation.

I devoured this book in three days and truly did not want it to end, but was just as keen to find out the fate of Dora, her daughter Lucinda, Din the negro slave and Lady Sylvia.

It was with real sadness that I read that Belinda Starling died soon after completing the book. This is an excellent first novel, on a par with Sarah Waters, it is a great loss that we will not be able to enjoy further novels from this wonderful author.

This story follows Dora Damage as she takes over her ill husband's book binding business. A woman running a business is very frowned upon by her neighbours and customers but she needs to make a living to support her child. As money becomes harder to come by, she starts binding illegal pornographic books for her wealthier clients. As often happens in illegal business, she finds herself getting deeper and deeper into this new world of slavery, sex and money.
This book really brings you into the sights, sounds and smells of 19th century London. I found the story a bit tricky to get into at first and I very nearly gave up but I am so glad that I didn't. Overall, the characters are very well written but I found Nora's romance a bit unbelievable and very predictable. I found the ending a bit weak but I still enjoyed the read.

If you fancy a satisfyingly thick historical novel of the non-romantic sort that's heavy on detail and atmosphere, with a bit of darkness and naughtiness thrown in, then you should give this a try.
It's a great premise: a woman teetering on the edge of the workhouse when faced with supporting a sick husband and child keeps the family bookbinding business afloat by getting involved in the murky world of Victorian porn.
But am I the only one who found it rather alienating? And, sometimes, downright weird? The lack of focus certainly made me dizzy. The descriptions of life in mid Victorian Lambeth are brilliantly done, and you learn a lot about the world of publishing and the people who worked in it at the time. But then you're whisked from the working class streets to some sort of kinky secret society, a fight club, a Limehouse opium den and tattoo parlour, a political meeting, and an upper class drawing room. Dora's family is straight out of Dickens (was there ever such a sentimental portrayal of a child?) but her friends and associates include a gay bookbinder, a society woman with strange fantasies about black men, various pornographers, a freed negro slave, and a dodgy doctor who also happens to be an explorer. Trying too hard to be interesting, do you think?
Dora is a wonderful creation but I didn't think that any of her relationships with the other characters were particularly convincing. The tone is uncertain (towards the end it's more like a gothic horror story), the prose and dialogue don't exactly flow. And despite the fact that it skipped about so randomly, I found the plot to be predictable (well, maybe not the tattooed buttocks ...) and the themes heavy-handed. And, as always, I could have done without the lazy epilogue tacked on at the end.
But it's different, it's a good idea, and it's readable. If you like a book with the sort of atmosphere that's evoked by Michael Faber and Sarah Waters, then you will like this. It's definitely a book with pretentions. The author was obviously brimming over with ideas and information about Victorian London that she'd researched and just had to cram in. With an editor to give it some much-needed focus, how much better it would have been. There's enough material here for a series (and imagine a tv series!) set in Ivy Street. Sadly, Belinda Starling has died and there will be no more. What a shame, when there are so many authors trading on past success and churning out inferior rubbish, that she only published this one book.