Rigg and Lydia are trapped in a broken marriage, mired by politeness. They live in Bath, where for centuries, the hot springs have cured all sorts of illnesses. But not always. The more Rigg comes to understand the waters and why they can be so fickle, the more Lydia fears he’s losing his reason, fears intensified by the way he treats their only child – the son she bore after taking the waters…
Based on the contemporary writings of John Wood and Philip Thicknesse, After Taking the Waters captures the age. Some of it might even be true…
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Paul Jackson now lives in Bath, but was fascinated by its past long before he moved there. "it was not an easy book to write," he says, "because I was determined to make it rigorously authentic. The strong ending was my starting point; then an original beginning, with a narrative in between that keeps the reader wanting to know what happened next. I had to double check my facts as I went along, and had to tweak the text when I spotted an anachronism."
