{"product_id":"foundling-girls-in-the-chapel-mary-rose-tobin","title":"Foundling Girls in the Chapel - Mary Rose Tobin","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eLondon, 1877\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBehind the high walls of the Foundling Hospital, girls kneel in the chapel each morning, uniformed, disciplined, each carrying the quiet mystery of where she came from. Among them is Lucy, a bright, determined girl with a gift for music and a longing to understand her own beginnings. In the dormitories at night, the girls whisper about the tokens left with them as infants: buttons, ribbons, half-coins, scraps of fabric; tiny promises that somewhere, someone once cared.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen the celebrated Victorian artist Sophie Gengembre Anderson arrives to paint a new work for the Hospital chapel, Lucy and four of her closest friends are chosen to sit for the portrait. For the first time in their lives, someone looks at them, truly looks, and sees not foundlings, but girls worth remembering. The sittings change everything.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eLondon, 1909\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNow a celebrated soprano who has sung to packed houses at the Royal Albert Hall, Lucy stumbles upon Sophie's finished painting hanging quietly in a South Kensington gallery. The sight undoes her. She recognises the faces: Polly, Hetty, Sarah, Clara. With them comes the weight of a promise she never spoke aloud. She sets out across England to find what became of each one.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhat she discovers is a story of survival and sorrow, courage and reinvention, and the unexpected ways a broken childhood can shape an extraordinary life.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWoven throughout with the soaring music of Handel's \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eMessiah\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and inspired by a real painting held in the collection of the Foundling Museum, London, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eFoundling Girls in the Chapel\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a richly imagined, deeply human novel about friendship, art, identity, and the unbreakable bonds forged in childhood. At its heart lies a single, timeless question: what makes a family?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003e'Let them see us. Let them remember who we were and who we became.'\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Trade","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57227390976380,"sku":null,"price":12.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0746\/8767\/6718\/files\/71czlb5b-_L._SY466.jpg?v=1785316707","url":"https:\/\/shop.foundlingmuseum.org.uk\/products\/foundling-girls-in-the-chapel-mary-rose-tobin","provider":"Foundling Museum Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}