It’s hard to believe that A Net for Small Fishes by Lucy Jago is based on a true story. An incredible seventeenth-century tale of female friendship against the odds, it’s packed full of court secrets, scandal, power struggles, love, sex and death.

Frances Howard is beautiful and was born into a powerful family but is extraordinarily unhappy. Anne Turner is older and very talented but has little money or influence to speak of. When the two women meet under very strange circumstances an unlikely yet strong bond forms between them, and together they seek to gain some happiness and security for themselves. But as people begin to notice them they gain enemies. And suddenly they find themselves in danger of losing everything.

I found this book completely fascinating, and am in awe at the enormous amount of research that has surely gone into it. Jago gives Anne a chance to retell and reframe the women’s histories from her own perspective, in a way that feels to me pretty plausible. The writing is as beautiful as the story is emotional, and I had to read slowly in order to savour it. However, though I totally understand the reasons behind it, I did think the pace was quite slow in parts, and I found myself almost skimming some sections.

This is the kind of book that demands total immersion in the politics of the Jacobean court and the atmosphere of 17th century London. Total escapism from 2021 for a few hours and much needed!

If you love historical fiction and don’t mind a slower pace then this could definitely be a book for you!

Anne Turner, mother of six children, becomes dresser and confidante to the much younger and wealthier Frances Howard, Countess of Essex. Frankie, as she insists Anne call her, is unhappy in her marriage and wishes an annulment so she can marry Robert Carr. Anne finds herself increasingly drawn into Frankie's world and the women become close.

Scandal and intrigue are never far from the surface, nor the salacious underbelly of life in the early 17th century, and this is vividly brought to life. Some of the details are quite graphic but this gives an air of authenticity to Lucy Jago's narrative.

Sir Thomas Overbury dies in the Tower of London, but it is only two years later that his death is investigated after rumours begin to circulate. When Overbury's death is investigated, the net closes quickly and Anne Turner is implicated. The trial is a public spectacle, but what matters are the events leading to it and the friendship chronicled within.

The events depicted really took place and Lucy Jago lays bare both the opulence and the hypocrisy rife in the Jacobean court of the time. I particularly liked the way clothing is described and the sense that appearances matter above all else is never far from the surface. Yet it is Frankie and Anne's friendship and their determination to forge their own paths that is most intriguing.

Both Anne and Frankie seek happiness and fulfilment and are prepared to take risks to achieve this, defying the held opinions and prejudices of the time. That can be admired, and yet that recklessness is perilous because of what it exposes them to. Not all their choices are wise ones, of course.

It took a while for me to warm to the book but once I got into it and understood more about the events described, it became a compelling read.

I was sent an advance review copy of this book by Bloomsbury Publishing, in return for an honest appraisal.

Thank you to the publisher for providing a review copy of this book.

'A Net for Small Fishes' is a tensely-wrought political intrigue set in the Jacobean court. Frances and Anne are women with very different life experiences and social statuses, but both share a desire to climb the social ranks, find love and keep their heads above water in a society dominated by the whims of men.

I loved the quote promising this would be the 'Thelma and Louise of the seventeenth century' and couldn't request a review copy fast enough. Because of the comparison, I was expecting a little more action and bloodshed - but once I realised that this wouldn't be the case, I still settled into enjoying the story greatly. Jago does a wonderful job of imagining the inner lives of these historical figures, creating compelling motivations and backstories that change the narrative of received events.

I don't know much about this time period beyond King James' lovers (Robert Carr and George Villiers both feature as characters), but this novel has made me curious to read more around it.

My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing U.K. for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘A Net for Small Fishes’ by Lucy Jago in exchange for an honest review.

“This be a net for small fishes, that the great ones swim away.” Confession of Richard Weston, 1615.

This outstanding work of historical fiction is based on the Overbury Scandal that in 1615 rocked the Court of James I. Within its pages Jago has given voice to two women portrayed by history in a villainous light: Anne Turner and Francis (Frankie) Howard.

Anne Turner serves as the novel’s narrator, so we experience people and events through her awareness.

Lucy Jago researched and wrote ‘A Net for Small Fishes’ over a ten year period, drawing on a wealth of primary and secondary sources. Her writing is gloriously rich and totally immersive. The language used in the novel feels authentic, which may seem archaic to some readers, but I found that it deepened my engagement.

She also recreates the powerful sense of religious conviction felt by those living during the period, alongside a tangible belief in magic, witchcraft, and various superstitions.

On a side note, the cover design is stunning, utilising the striking saffron yellow that Anne Turner had made fashionable for a time.

This is historical fiction at its finest and one of the best that I have ever read. It is a astonishingly good debut novel that I recommend highly. I immediately bought both its beautifully presented hardback and audiobook editions.

Wow, what a book! I don’t usually go for historical fiction, but after reading an interview with the author, it went straight to the top of my to-be-read pile. It did not disappoint.
Based around the real lives and close friendship of Frances Howard and Anne Turner, the author deftly weaves impeccably researched facts into an enthralling work of fiction. I knew nothing of the history surrounding The Overbury Scandal before starting and I was immediately engrossed. The faultless writing was so evocative without being overly descriptive.
Utterly brilliant and deserving of many awards. A bestseller for sure.

This was an exceptional example of a very well-written historical novel that keeps the reader engrossed in a similar fashion to Hilary Mantell. The characters are excellently defined and their interaction well crafted. The love of the two main characters in the book was tangible as was the dreadful infighting in the Court at that time.
The latter part of the book was read at a very fast pace such was the need for urgent knowledge of the outcome which was handled in a very moving and sympathetic manner.
This was a thoroughly good read and I applaud the author.

In post-tudor England, Anne Turner is talented with a flair for fashion, without a leg to stand on in her class. Frances Howard is powerful, rich, and miserable. As the two cross paths, an unlikely yet powerful friendship is formed. But in a society where anyone can fall as quickly as they can rise, everything is all to play for.
After a really slow start, I blasted through the last two thirds of the novel in one sitting. You naturally root for Anne and Frances, and although their wealth gap is impossible to ignore, you can't ignore their devotion to each-other.
I would recommend this to any fan of historical fiction, female friendship and society-based fiction.
Content warnings: TTC, Rape, Violence, Death

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for an e-ARC. All views are my own.

Sorry, but I just can't get on with the writing at a sentence level:

'The servant led the way as if into battle' - (he's simply lighting the way to a bedchamber).

'I twisted my head about like a pigeon'

'the Countess, her face glistening, hard as a sugar sculpture'

'Her feet, young enough that the bones did not show, were pretty as ducklings.'

'Awe possessed me like a devil, jumping on my organs, pulling the strings of my eyes'

'Our monarch felt as vulnerable as his elfin hound'

I was sent an uncorrected advance proof copy of A Net for Small Fishes by Lucy Jago to read and review by NetGalley. This is an historical novel based on real events set in the reign of King James I. The story centres around two women, Anne and Frankie, and their unlikely friendship - unbreakable despite tremendous challenges. Full of Court intrigue and politics of the time, the author has managed to really capture the flavour of the age. Very much character led and told in the first person by Anne Turner, the older of the two women, the novel tackles the injustices and expectations of women in the 17thcentury. Thankfully we have come a very long way since then!

An absorbing story, based on a fragment of an actual historical incident in the court of King James, that Lucy Jago brings alive with such vividness and immediacy it was a joy to get lost in Jacobean England for a few hours.

Frankie Howard, high-stakes beauty from a family close to the King, suffers abuse from her young husband and falls in love with the King's favourite. She becomes friends with Anne Turner, a dressmaker wife of a respectable doctor, and together they navigate a divided court that is dangerous for all and especially treacherous for women.

The friendship and love between the two women is at the core of the book, and written from Anne's perspective it shows the horror of the times, as women we re considered worthless at the same time as being worth everything in their ability to breed and the power of their family connections.

Both Frankie and Anne show how women suffered at the whim of men whose weaknesses and ambitions all to often affected their lives in catastrophic ways.

The basic story promised to be interesting, but the style of writing make it hard to get into. There was lots of dialogue and it was over-long. I skipped much of it, trying to get the gist of the story but I did not feel much sympathy for any of the characters despite their plight.

Whilst many books have been centered around the Tudor court, I, personally, have read less books about the Stuarts, so this intrigued me, along with the description explaining it was based on a true story. And I really enjoyed this book and was totally immersed in the retelling of the Overbury Scandal, and the history of the friendship between the Countess of Essex and Mistress Anne Turner.

The Countess of Essex (Frances Howard or Frankie) was a young and unhappily married woman. Her husband was an unpleasant character and engaged in what today would be regarded as domestic abuse. The novel contains graphic descriptions of abuse, including physical and sexual, but they give necessary context to the story, which is written in the first person by Mistress Anne Turner. Mistress Anne Turner was the wife of a doctor who attended James I and has access to the court and went to dress the ladies including Frankie. She and Frankie formed a close friendship, initially to help Frankie have a happy marriage, but as the abuse continued they set about using all means possible in a bid for the Countess of Essex to be parted from her husband. Whilst the Countess of Essex was eventually able to remarry the man she loved, it came at great personal tragedy.

I was a little hesitant about reading A Net For Small Fishes because it’s historical fiction. After years of loving the genre, I had been giving it a bit of a break. But this is quite different from the historical fiction I have read in the past. Though it’s set in a similar time period, the 17th century, to the Tudor novels of Philippa Gregory, it is a completely different type of story.

Though it does focus quite a bit on court politics, it doesn’t focus on the King or the royal family. Instead, we follow Frances Howard, whose family is quite close to the throne, and Anne Turner, the daughter of minor nobility, and wife to a physician. She meets Frances, referred to as Frankie throughout the novel, through a connection with Frankie’s mother. The two then build up a friendship, and this friendship proves the pivot on which Anne’s life swings.

A Net For Small Fishes is based on a true story, which makes it all the more impactful. Without going into spoilers, it made me angry and sad. Women in this time period were treated terribly, and Lucy Jago doesn’t shy away from that fact. Instead, she highlights it. This book is firmly about women, and the horrid ways men have treated them.

I really enjoyed Frankie’s character the most. She swings from down and dejected, to angry and fierce throughout the book. Jago does a good job of showing the extremes of her character, and the power she grows into throughout the novel. I loved her fierceness, and the way both she and Anne refused to conform to the standards the men around them had set for them.

We see the story through Anne’s eyes, in a first-person narrative that flows smoothly throughout the novel. We see her moments of despair, and her moments of triumph, all described with words that Jago chooses with care. So I felt for Anne, and Frankie, every step of the way, and it really did feel like I was walking in Anne’s shoes.

From what I know of the time period, the novel seems really well researched. So it has made me want to learn more about the time period, and about the facts that the story is based on (as most historical fiction does).

It’s a steady novel that carries the reader slowly to its conclusion. The first 20-30% particularly are quite slow, but it’s worth persevering through those plodding first chapters for the tension that mounts steadily from that point on.

I would recommend A Net For Small Fishes to fans of historical fiction. Also to those interested generally in the ways women have been treated (and mistreated). I’ll be looking out for more by Lucy Jago.

A Net for Small Fishes by Lucy Jago
Lucy Jago is a biographer and this is her adult fiction debut is a wonderful historical novel rich with detail. It concerns the life of Frances Howard and her marriage to the abusive Earl of Essex. She has an affair with the King’s favourite, Robert Carr and is implicated in the poisoning of the poet Sir Thomas Overbury and the subsequent trial.
Frances is a member of the Howard family who find ways in which to advance themselves at court. Frances forms a relationship with Anne Turner and it is through this relationship that what goes on at court is revealed.
In the opening scenes the author describes Anne dressing a weeping Frances ready for an appearance at court. They both hope that the rich clothes will make her splendid enough to inspire respect which she can use as a shield against her husband’s assaults. Clothes are seen as a woman’s armour; she is not able to openly express her dignity and courage, so Anne tries to “display these qualities on her body”.
Lucy Jago conveys a brilliantly how precarious the position of women was during the17th century - it was terrifying how swiftly you could fall from your position in society through bereavement, bad luck or the caprice of a man.
The author’s brilliant descriptions enable you to almost smell the foul-smelling Thames, and the stench rising from the dirt strewn streets. The novel demonstrates the strength and loyalty of true friendship between Anne and Frances as well as their courage when they are maligned.
I would definitely recommend this entertaining and unusual story and would like to thank the publisher, the author and Net Galley for the opportunity to read the book in return for an honest review.

O thoroughly enjoyed this book- set in a period which seems to get passed by- stuck between the Tudors and the Georgians.
I never thought of King James being seen as a foreigner, and his Scots friends and courtiers viewed in the same way.
This book is about friendship, power and desperation, London in its glory and its squalor..

*A big thank-you to Lucy Jago, Bloomsbury Publishing, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
The portrait of two women from two different classes, whose friendship seemed impossible, is beautifully depicted in this fine historical fiction. The well-known mysterious case of King James''s favourite death is the background for presenting Frances Howard and Anne Turner's bond. I liked Ms Turner who is determined to survive all hardships and who developes special feelings towards Frankie, an aristocratic lady suffering abuse in her marriage. Two women who have courage to seek what they believe is the happiness and safety, and who remain loyal to each other until the end.
Ms Jago did tremendous research into the period, and the court's politics. The times were not lenient on women who wanted to be independent and express their voices. The justice, 'the net for small fishes' was harsh and followed the king's views and prejudices.

Some readers may have heard of the early 17th century “Overbury Affair” which has found its way into a cluster of popular history books. Jago has decided to use this as the basis for her fictional tale – and has decided to present it largely through the experience of one of the “lesser” characters – a woman to boot - who ended up being hanged. A number of detailed contemporary documents survive and Jago has used these so the vast majority of her book’s characters are named in some or all of these texts.
In the English Royal Court of King James VI/I things were highly competitive if not to say dangerous. Royal courts have very distinct protocols and hierarchies that are jealously guarded, so life is competitive at best and toxic at worse. Access to the better things of life is through patronage of a more powerful person or family, and that hierarchy of power devolves down from royalty through the aristocracy to lesser families and individuals. Jago has a grasp of these things and has researched the scale of privilege (or not) that functioned there.
As James was the newly imported King from Scotland, Scottish/English rivalries overlie and feed animus to the tensions of the “Catholic” v “Protestant” factions. James plays them all, but as he has a penchant for pretty young men another dimension enters into Court life. James’s “latest” is Robert Carr who has a friend and an increasingly erratic admirer called Thomas Overbury. Carr will be promoted through the aristocracy, allowing him to marry Frances Howard, daughter of the Early of Suffolk, when she is annulled from her first marriage to the Earl of Essex. Meanwhile Overbury has been imprisoned in the Tower of London. On his death allegations of poisoning will be made against various people. Poison that has been acquired through associating with sorcerers or apothecaries and which might of course be linked to the dreaded “witchcraft” something punishable by death. Once allegations start to fly, investigations, often backed by torture will start and lurid stories will appear. Deeper rivalries surface and play themselves out. Some people will be executed, others will escape. But as one of the first to die tellingly said “This Be a Net for Small Fishes, That the Great Ones Swim Away”.
Jago has selected one of the lesser actors in this drama, a woman called Anne Turner who has business links with (and is sometimes within the household of) Frances Howard, Countess of Essex as the main character of her story. She creates a very close friendship developing between the two and uses the “experiences” of Anne to bring Frances’ and the wider story forward. Most specifically Frances’ violent first marriage to the very young Earl of Essex; through their annulment, to her later one to Robert Carr. Frances and her family are deeply involved in the Overbury scandal as it was said that Anne was acquiring potions and poisons for Frances to dose both Overbury and her husband Essex. Witnesses will later come forward to the extent of this “behaviour “over several years and the legal consequences will play out.
Jago has decided through her novel to highlight other issues – primarily inequality for women, that leads to a number of risks, including dependence on one’s family, early marriage, children that have to be maintained, and the lack of underlying security. She also seemed interested in “public” diatribes to reflect her concerns; these can seem rather clunky and out of place. But this might be part of an unwitting tendency to create female characters that are rather, in retrospect, incredibly stupid as to understanding and awareness of risk.
Whether you like this novel will depend in main as to whether you feel that Jago has taken extreme, complex political and personal issues and melded them with her personal portraits of the people involved. Personally, I found the characterisation ranged from the extremely casual to somewhat unbelievable. With a deeper concentration on her period and its limitations on people, a little time to sit back and examine the deeper likelihood of what she had written (and a few pithy comments from her editor) this could have been a brilliant novel. Together this made the reading experience disappointing rather than stunning, a pity as Jago had really put the research leg work in.

History from the perspective of 'the little people'

I already knew the basic historical background of this scandal in the court of James I, but only how it affected the upper echelons of society: the rich and beautiful Frances Howard, who was accused with her husband of arranging the murder in the Tower of a hostile courtier, Sir Thomas Overbury, and her husband. I didn’t know anything about the small fry who were caught up in Overbury case and paid the ultimate price for it.

The story of Anne Turner, Frances’s friend, dresser and general fixer, shows us how powerless women were in these misogynistic times, ruled over by the most misogynistic of kings. What a precarious tightrope they walked. Once they lost male protection, women were at the mercy of the worst that life could throw at them and their hard-won respectability could evaporate overnight. Any assertiveness was regarded as an overturning of the natural order and any male courtesy was reserved only for women with untarnished reputations.

For most of the novel, the story is told from Anne’s perspective, and what a lively and engaging character she is. Originally seeing Frances as a route to advancement and a way of promoting her services as a dresser, her loyalty becomes her downfall. We are left thinking that Frances does not deserve such a constant companion.

The backdrop to the story is the court, where sumptuous clothing, opulent furnishings and rich food mask corruption and hypocrisy. Lucy Jago is especially good on clothes, showing the blurring of gender roles the Jacobean court. Clothes are the armour in which Frances can protect herself and try to inspire respect. Conversely, Anne’s descent from middle class comfort to poverty is marked by the deterioration in her clothing.

The book is of its time and yet feels contemporary. The language is modern enough not to interfere with the flow of narrative – there are no artificial ‘thee’s and ‘thou’s. Yet it is authentic enough to create a sense of the period.

I have no hesitation in awarding it 5 stars, which is very unusual for me!

I've read many books about the Plantagenets and the Tudors, so it was good to read one set in this period. I enjoyed it very much and it was fascinating to read the story from the women's point of view - what a hard life they had, whether rich or poor. It was a world in which you needed your wits to survive and had to be ruthless. But, in the end, privilege wins out and the two women face very different consequences for their same actions.

I wanted to love this, but the writing style just didn't agree with me. Perhaps I wasn't in the concentrating frame of mind, but this just didn't keep my attention. I love any courtroom books, and historical fiction so thought I would love it, but it was too much a challenging read for me at the moment.