Ivy

Ivy, the youngest in a family of thieves, con artists, and roustabouts, seems destined for an unhappy fate—until she and her brother are plucked from their surroundings by a charitable benefactor and sent to school. From the scams of the slums, where Ivy develops an unfortunate taste for laudanum, to the gardens of the most talented artists of the age, where Ivy’s striking hair and incandescent eyes propel her into a career as a model, Ivy is a story of nineteenth-century sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.

Julie Hearn was born in Abingdon, near Oxford, England, and has been writing all her life. A former features editor and columnist, she was studying for a teaching degree when she decided to take a class with Philip Pullman. “You don’t want to teach,” Pullman told her. “You want to write.” She took his advice and became a children’s book novelist.