Emerald Noose
A young adult historical adventure novel
My young adult fiction is published under the pen name Georgie Belmont.
EMERALD NOOSE is a powerful and absorbing adventure. It’s a story of freedom and belonging, and how both can equally constrain you.
‘The highwayman hung from the charred elm. Upside-down he was a lethal branch, thrashing in the glare of the moon...’
Fifteen-year-old Lizzie Greenwood's fate dangles by a thread.
In an isolated hamlet in Victorian England's lake country, Lizzie's ruthless uncle controls every soul; and the mill he took from her missing father. Now she wants it back.
Threatened by her rebellion, Lizzie's uncle will stop at nothing to silence her. In search of allies, she plunges into a hostile world of shifting loyalties, criminal pacts and social unrest.
When she becomes entangled in a larger and more dangerous plot, Lizzie discovers just how far she'll go to fight for what she believes in...
“A beautifully written book and a compelling story. Rooting for plucky Lizzie from the start. Great twists and turns. Fast moving page-turner. Characters are well-developed, likeable rogues that I was genuinely interested in. Instantly submersed into the Victorian north of England through clever - not overbearing - use of dialect. I could hear my forefathers on the page!”
“Wherever I went this book followed, most of my spare time was spent reading it.
I liked how there were many different characters and every single chapter made sense, the imagery helped me picture the setting and I loved the storyline, Lizzie Greenwood is a perfect main character for Emerald Noose.
Maybe one day I can write a book as good as this one! I would like to thank Gayle for sharing this book with me and I can’t wait to read the sequel.”
““Thank you so much for another fantastic study session with your wonderful book, ‘Emerald Noose’. The children loved studying your texts and analysing how you write, it really helped to boost their understanding to use such fantastic writing. The children also absolutely loved your ‘Meet the Author’ session, it was magical. Real life authors to children are a little bit like unicorns! The children loved chatting with you and finding out your life and how you approach writing. Thank you SO much!””
My Inspiration for Emerald Noose
The setting for Emerald Noose was inspired by this picture I took in the Lake District as a student. We rented the university cottage, calling ourselves the Explorers’ Society, heaved all the mattresses off the bunk beds and laid them on the concrete floor downstairs, then all thirty of us slept where we fell.
I love this book so much I recently re-read it (for the millionth time) to prepare for my author talk at a West London study day. The very dedicated students were using the novel as source material to practise for their school entrance exams and I wanted to be prepared for the kind of excellently piercing questions only primary school children ask. I stayed up until 2am reading the book because I found it so thrilling, even though I know everything that happens. I laughed out loud at my own jokes. Then I couldn’t sleep because I was so over-excited.