The relationship between mother and daughter is at the heart of this story. How does Kate Beaufoy explore the different roles a mother can have in a daughter’s life?

How did the structure of this book and its unusual timeframe affect your reading of it? Were you surprised to learn how the three different stories were linked?

Before her baby is born, Jessie proclaims, ‘I hope it’s a boy! . . . Men can do whatever they like in this world, it seems to me.’ What do you think this novel tells us about the changing role of women in society?

Jessie is an artist’s muse, Lisa is an actress and Cat is a photographer. How is art and creativity explored in Liberty Silk?

Both Jessie and Baba adopt new names, as Perdita and Lisa La Touche, in order to make their way in the world, and Cat lies about her age to do the same. How important do you think a sense of identity is to each character?

War affects all three women in Liberty Silk, in different ways. Why do you think Kate Beaufoy chose to set her novel during such turbulent times?

Both the desperation of poverty and the opulence of wealth are described in this book. How are our heroines affected by them?

How does Kate Beaufoy evoke the different time periods and places in her novel? Did you get a real sense of a different era?

Letters written by Kate Beaufoy’s grandmother, to whom the novel is dedicated, provided the author with a narrative framework for the book. Has letter-writing has become a lost art?   

Which character do you most identify with? Why?