William Hogarth’s iconic Four Times of the Day painting is brought to life in this feminist murder mystery.

When Kitty falls to her death in one of Covent Garden’s seedier tenements at the end of 1735, it’s seen as an unfortunate accident. But the memory haunts the nightmares of Kitty’s neighbour, Jeremiah Potts. Jeremiah scrapes his own poor living by running errands for local artists, the most famous being William Hogarth – seemingly unstoppable since the success of his Harlot’s Progress. Hogarth has started work on a new painting that shows a woman walking across Covent Garden Piazza. The image raises immediate questions for the artist’s wife, Jane – but also appears to hark back to something in her husband’s past.

A similar, half-forgotten history torments another local resident, Prudence Hyssop, who is determined that the New Year of 1736 should signal a fresh start. Meanwhile, gentleman-painter Jonathan Smallow has one thing only in mind. Murder.

In a fast-moving tale of lost innocence, thwarted ambition, artistic skulduggery, and blind passion, the lives of Jeremiah, Prudence, Smallow, and the Hogarths are thrown together in new and unforeseen ways. Set against the vibrant backdrop of Covent Garden, Mr Hogarth’s Morning paints a compelling picture that blends dark desires with colourful comedy to create a totally new and unforgettable view of eighteenth-century London.

Thom Braun has been an academic (with two PhDs), international marketing director, creative strategy consultant and part-time parish priest. His publications range from a literary biography of Benjamin Disraeli to The Philosophy of Branding (published in ten languages) to a satirical novel about the commercialisation of the Church of England.

Thom explains: “One of my PhDs was all about pictures of eighteenth-century Covent Garden. A particular favourite image by William Hogarth is ‘Morning’ – from his London series The Four Times of the Day – which shows a woman crossing Covent Garden Piazza. Hogarth, of course, always brought a biting wit and satirical eye to such images. Nevertheless, I’ve always been frustrated by the relentlessly negative and dismissive comments that have been made about the woman depicted – mainly by male commentators – over the last two hundred years.

I therefore decided it was time to redress the balance by trying to set the image within a more obviously sympathetic and feminist fictional context – a context within which the female characters in the novel can achieve a series of small victories over their (mostly) arrogant and controlling male counterparts. Doing that within the framework of a murder-mystery was, I thought, a way of turning a largely literary idea into a more accessible ‘page-turner’.”

RELEASE DATE: 28/11/2024 ISBN: 9781836280767 Price: £12.99