Tulip Fever - Deborah Moggach

Next week the painter will arrive. My husband is a connoisseur of paintings, our house is filled with them... He lifts a fish on to his plate. He is a collector of beautiful things.

Seventeenth-century Amsterdam, a city enslaved by madness, a city on the brink of disaster.

The city is caught in the grip of tulip mania, basking in the wealth it has generated. Sophia's husband Cornelis, an ageing merchant, is among those grown rich from this exotic new flower.

To celebrate, he commissions a talented young artist to paint him with his young bride. But as the portrait grows, so does the passion between Sophia and the painter; and as ambitions, desires and dreams breed an intricate deception, their reckless gamble propels their lives towards a thrilling and tragic conclusion.

‘It happened like this: I had bought, at auction, a painting by a minor Dutch artist. Dated 1660, it depicted a young woman getting ready to go out. She gazes at us with an enigmatic expression, and, as I gazed back I wondered: where is she going? Should she be going there? She hung in my living room, silent with her secrets.’ – Deborah Moggach