The Fever and the Flame

It is 1665 and Hannah is full of excitement at the prospect of her first trip to London. She is going to help her sister Sarah in her sweetmeats shop, 'The Sugared Plum'. But Hannah does not get the welcoming reception she expected from her sister. Sarah is horrified that Hannah did not get her message to stay away - the Plague is taking hold of London... In the second of the two stories, Hannah returns to her beloved London to re-open her sweetmeats shop with her younger sister Anne. Londoners are reeling from the plague epidemic of the previous year, but Hannah and Anne are keen to start enjoying everything the bustling city has to offer. But this is 1666, and it has been prophesised that terrible things will happen, and on Pudding Lane, a fire has started that will engulf everything in its path. Through Hannah's eyes, Mary Hooper brilliantly recreates the smells, sounds and sights of seventeenth-century life in London. Hannah's excitement at coming to the big city is vividly evoked, as is the terror of these momentous events.