Laura Shepherd-Robinson

THE intriguing title of Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s latest foray into the heart of the Georgian era is taken from a form of cartomancy – divination of the future using playing cards. You do not, however, have to be adept at any form of fortune telling to predict that this superbly plotted, roistering novel will be one of the must-reads of the year.

As a word, “roistering” is rather frowned upon by the intelligentsia and that’s a shame because it perfectly describes the tumultuous, character-packed, picaresque journey of Laura’s heroine, Red, from urchin poverty in Cornwall, to the booths of London’s Bartholomew Fair and, ultimately, to the highest echelons of society.

Vividly alive on the page (and consequently in the reader’s head), orphaned Red discovers that she is the true heir to a vast family fortune and plots to make it her own. The many obstacles strewn across her path to inheritance include her mysterious parentage, her own dubious reputation as a trickster fortune-teller, the cool enmity of her natural mother and a complex legal case with pleasing echoes of Jarndyce v Jarndyce.

Red is never less than a direct and entertaining narrator and her account of her quest to attain what is rightfully hers is a delight. But this is a tale with many twists, secrets and hidden corners – much like the great and ancient Devon house, Leighfindell, where our bold heroine uncovers the truth about the De Lacy family.

“I like to think of it as The Woman in White meets Fingersmith, meets Vanity Fair,” says the Maida Vale-based author, perfectly pin-pointing the admirably ambiguous nature of her principal character.

Red is fearless, determined and loyal, but she also inhabits a morally grey area. As a reader, you find yourself cheering her on, while questioning her motives and modus operandi. Much of her cunning plan depends on the sharp manipulation of the fortune-telling cards she uses to worm her way back into the bosom of her family.

The eponymous Square of Sevens is a mysterious predictive technique where the querent is allotted 21 ordinary playing cards (not tarot cards). The reading depends on the complex placement of the cards and the relationship between them.

Laura explains: “My previous books set in the 18th century were about social change – and murder – very much drawing on the liberal ideas of the enlightenment which spring to mind immediately when we think of the 18th century, ‘the Age of Reason’. But, of course, those ideas were hotly contested – many people believed strongly in both religion and magic. Here I wanted to explore that part of the 18th-century psyche, as well as the battle, and indeed, the overlap, between magic and superstition, and the scientific.”

As part of her research, she read a 19th-century book also named The Square of Sevens, by American journalist E Irenaeus Stevenson, which purported to be a rediscovery of an earlier esoteric guide. It outlined the method of prognostication in great detail, with diagrams of laying the cards and instructions on interpretation. This shaped not only the content, but also the structure of Laura’s novel.

“I soon hit on the idea that it would have four parts,” she says, “each consisting of 21 chapters headed by a playing card – the meaning of the card mirroring the events of the chapter. The four sections would correspond to the four different fortunes told by Red during the course of the story. I laid out those fortunes with the cards as I worked and it was an arduous, and at times frustrating, process!”

Twenty twenty-three has acquired a reputation as the year of “witcherature” in the publishing world with many books featuring (largely) female characters who employ “powers”. Red is not a witch, but both she and her friend Tamson – an astrologer at the Bartholomew Fair – dabble on the darker side. In a strange moment of synchronicity, these books must all have taken shape in their author’s minds at around the same time.

Asked about the coincidence, Laura is thoughtful. “I can only speak for myself, but yes, Square of Sevens was my lockdown book. At a time of fear and isolation in the modern world, I wanted to write something mythical and magical. Those elements became stronger, as did the sense of trickery and the colours in which I painted the world. Tonally it became more fun and I won’t talk about the ending, because it would give too much away, but it shaped that too.”

There is certainly a wild, expansive freedom to the novel which uses the broadest of canvases to bring 18th-century England and all its sights, sounds and smells crashing riotously into 2023.

Laura agrees. “I think all of that reflects my own desire to go on a sweeping epic adventure in my head at a time when I couldn’t.”

Epic? Certainly. This is a book just begging to be brought to the screen. On the inevitable question of casting, she has no doubts. “I think Millie Bobby Brown could play Red. Lazarus Darke in my head is played by Andrew Scott. Julius De Lacy is a young Damian Lewis and Lady Seabrooke is a young Gillian Anderson, but both the characters are in their mid-30s, so I probably need to recast them now!”

Finally, asked if she has ever been tempted to use cartomancy as a predictive tool, Laura is firm. “I have never read my own or anyone else’s fortune in real life. For that, you have to understand the language of souls.”

I hazard that The Square of Sevens proves that she does.

• The Square of Sevens. By Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Mantle. £16.99