#BlogTour ‘The Smallest Man’ by Frances Quinn

About the book…

When should my story begin? Not when I was born, a butcher’s son, in a tiny cottage just like all the other tiny cottages in Oakham. Who’d have thought then that I’d ever have much of a story to tell? Perhaps it starts when people began to nudge each other and stare as I walked with my mother to market, or the first time someone whispered that we were cursed. But I didn’t know then. No, I think my story begins on the day of the Oakham Fair, in the year of 1625. When I was ten years old and I found out what I was.

Nat Davy is a dwarf. He is 10 years old, and all he wants is to be normal. After narrowly escaping being sold to the circus by his father, Nat is presented to Queen Henrietta Maria – in a pie. She’s 15, trapped in a loveless marriage to King Charles I, and desperately homesick.

Nat becomes a friend to the woman who’ll become the power behind the throne and trigger the Civil War, but in the eyes of the world he’s still a pet, a doll to be dressed up and shown off. Nat longs to ride and hunt like the other boys at court. The real boys. But he will never be accepted. Loosely based on a true story, this epic tale spans 20 years; during which the war begins, Nat and the queen go on the run, Nat saves the queen’s life, falls in love with the most beautiful girl at court, kills a man, is left in exile.

Told from his unique perspective as the smallest man in England, with the clever and engaging voice of a boy turned man yearning for acceptance, this story takes us on an unforgettable journey. He’s England’s smallest man, but his story is anything but small

Giant sized thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the blogtour invite, and publishers Simon and Schuster for my gifted review copy of ‘The Smallest Man’ by Frances Quinn, which is available in ebook and audio book on January 7th 2021, and hardcover on February 6th!

This is a book which will be talked about, handed to friends and raved over for it’s pureness if heart, clearness of vision and first person narrator, Nat Davy.

His unique perspective on the turbulent times that he lives in comes through so succinctly that from page one you can ‘hear’ his voice clear as a bell.

As a small confession, I find historical fiction a bit hit and miss, it’s an area I am trying to read more from to try and pinpoint what I do and don’t like as a reader. And I think it’s because some writers are so keen to overfill the details that they leave little room for the imagination of the reader to wander freely. It’s a hard juggling act to sustain, in creating a historically realistic atmosphere and re-jigging figures which are often well known to the public. This is why, for example, I cannot get to grips with ‘Wolf Hall’. With ‘The Smallest Man’, however, Nat’s adventures are so organic that you find yourself mesmerised, it took me back to being a child read a bedtime story, it has that type of magic which suspends belief and makes you not want the book to end.

Further to his adventures in the England of Charles First, Nat presents an interesting conundrum-he is unique in his stature, and it takes a look at ‘otherness’ which feels quite modern. He is aware he is not like the rest of the family, and the notion that as less than a full size human he can be exploited, bought and sold as curiousity, causes you to examine your humanity and the way that you ‘other’ those who do not resemble yourselves.

Add in a love story and strong visuals which I believe would translate well to a film screen, and you have a classic in the making.

About the author…

Frances Quinn read English at King’s College, Cambridge, and is a journalist and copywriter. She has written for magazines including Prima, Good Housekeeping, She, Woman’s Weekly and Ideal Home. She lives in Brighton with her husband and two Tonkinese cats. The Smallest Man is her first novel.