The Blacksmith's Wife

County Armagh, 1845. Married to the local blacksmith, young Sarah Hamilton spends her days looking after John and his apprentices at the forge, and her happiness is strengthened by the steady love of her husband and the beautiful green landscape of her home on Drumilly Hill. But when tragedy strikes, her life is changed forever. As the crops across Ireland begin to fail and the textile industry struggles to adapt to new methods, Sarah isn't the only one enduring hardships. Along with her friends and neighbours, Sarah lives through loss and disappointment, but ultimately discovers courage, love and the longevity of hope.



Anne Doughty was born in Armagh. She is the author of A Few Late Roses (longlisted for the Irish Times fiction prize), Stranger in the Place and Summer of the Hawthorn. After many years in England she returned to Belfast in 1998 and wrote the first of a series of stand-alone novels that make up the Hamiltons sequence.