Changes

|title=The Book of Fires

|author=Jane Borodale

|date=May 2009

|isbn=978-0007305728

|sort= Book of Fires

}}

Agnes Trussel leaves her home to save her family from the disgrace of learning that she has been raped and is carrying an illegitimate child. With limited options and in despair at her situation she takes money from the home of a neighbour to pay her way to London. Once there, her life as assistant to the dour John Blacklock, a firework maker, gives her security and a sense of worth. But she is sure that all she values is likely to be lost once her pregnancy and her status as a thief becomes known. The crux of her situation, and that of many women like her at the time, is well summarised in her thoughts: ''the child is almost all I have, I think. And its existence will ensure that anything else will be taken away from me.''