Book Review: Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor

I have finished Forever Amber, all 972 pages of it! It is the lengthiest book that I have read in a long while and I loved every page of it.

Written by Kathleen Winsor and published in 1944, Forever Amber was considered extremely racy and was banned in 14 US states, however it remains a classic and has gone on to sell over three million copies.

Winsor tells the story of Amber St. Clare, she is 16 and pregnant when she finds herself penniless and abandoned on the unfamiliar streets of London. It is the time of the Restoration, Charles II is in power and London is going through many changes. Amber finds herself alone in the city after following the dashing Lord Bruce Carlton, leaving behind the quiet village life that she had known. Lord Carlton is a constant figure throughout the book, the only man who Amber loves but will never be able to possess fully. Amber has to use her feminine charms and beauty to rise from her sorry state and secure her own future. We follow her through Civil war, the bubonic plague and the great fire of London as she pursues the title of Charles II's favourite mistress and therefore security and wealth.

Kathleen Winsor was American and she had never visited London when she set out to write this great book. She undertook painstaking research over six years in order to recreate the atmosphere of Restoration England. Her thorough research is evident on nearly every page and this is the main reason that I loved the book. I felt as though I had learnt so much and her obvious enthusiasm for the time period is infectious.

Amber St. Clare is a thrilling character, there were chapters where I greatly admired her and others where I would happily have given her a good shake. Amber does everything she can to secure wealth and respectability, however, it is meaningless to Lord Carlton who will never make an honest woman of her due to Amber's lowly position of birth. As a character she embodies the fragile position that women held at the time compared to men. Amber is very cunning and clever yet time after time she suffers set backs due to being female.

The book must have been extremely shocking at the time of publication yet it would be considered mild by today's standards. There are no graphic sex scenes in the book but the behaviour of the characters as they plot and scheme is still shocking to the modern reader.

The descriptions of the Great Fire of London and the Plague are spectacular. Kathleen Winsor captures the terror, pain and sheer stench of death as she describes the impact on the country through the eyes of Amber and those around her.

Forever Amber will now always remain on my book shelf as a firm favourite. I was worried that I would lose interest due to it being so long but I simply could not put it down and I was very disappointed to reach the final page.