One Girl Began

One Girl Began entwines the stories of three women, separated by history but connected by the same building. For Ellen in 1909, it is a box factory where she finds work and a transformative circle of friendship when her family fall on hard times. For Frances in 1984, it is a derelict ruin, where she joins a group of squatters and is drawn into a coercive relationship. And for Amanda in 2020, it is a gentrified conversion, where she finds herself trapped in a tiny flat and grappling with new motherhood as the pandemic looms into view.

Over the span of 111 years these three women will come to haunt one another backwards and forwards in time, each immersed in the ripples of the lives that came before, and each struggling with the same questions of who to be and how to live.

A beautifully written and impeccably researched tale of three women - Ellen, Frances and Amanda - taking us from 1909 through to contemporary London. The storytelling is so vivid and compelling that I felt as if I knew these women and the details of their lives.  With shades of Life After Lifeit's an engrossing story where the complexities of women's lives echo through the different timelines. I absolutely adored it -- Julie Owen Moylan
A beautiful novel . . . Murray-Browne has a gift for writing the inner life - the thoughts felt deeply but never said aloud, the secret struggles, and the private hopes. One Girl Began charts three lives across time with each storyline deftly asking what it means to navigate life as a woman. And in doing so also reminds us that our streets are thick with history -- Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
I was completely gripped by One Girl Began. Kate Murray-Browne is a fantastic writer - it'srare to come across a voice that's both so bold and so subtle, so detailed and sustained, and to read such a skilfully layered work of fiction. Brilliantly involving, witty and deftly handled . . . I highly recommend this wonderful and moving novel -- Ruth Thomas
With a brilliant concept and a skilful blending of histories, One Girl Began is both moving and addictive -- Joanna Briscoe
I was hooked from the first page - Kate Murray-Browne is a brilliant writer and One Girl Began is startlingly good. I loved the intricately woven spider's web of connections between the three narratives . . . beautifully done -- Emily Howes
A wonderfully textured, truthful, dextrous meditation on the lives of three women grappling with the eternal conundrums of being female. A superb writer, Kate Murray-Browne's beautiful prose is a joy -- Elizabeth Buchan
I lovedOne Girl Began. It got me by the throat from the very first page, and I read it in two glorious sittings, trying to ration it but unable to put it down. I love it for what it says about London, how it brings the past so triumphantly into the present. But most of all, I love how Kate writes about being a woman in the world, then and now. Reading it, I felt seen.I can't wait for readers to discover this book. It seems to me that One Girl Began is both a novel and a kind of companion; astute, funny and wise, and steadfast in its championing of what women want and need. Read it to feel loved, and outraged, and inspired. Read it because it's not just a book, it's a friend -- Marianne Levy
Terrific . . . the kind of book where you miss the characters when you finish it -- Frances Quinn
A total gem. Astounding, immersive storytelling weaving together three moving portraits of women living in Hackney. A book that rocks you and won't let you go -- Polly Ho-Yen
So many moments make you think about women's lives over the decades. A distillation of the challenges and joys women face, brilliantly and cleverly written . . . fascinating, thought-provoking and wise -- Karen Angelico
One Girl Began can be read as a feminist history of the borough in fictional form; it can also be savoured as a set of engrossing stories about women working out how to be themselves. Either way, the book's lively prose and well-paced storytelling are sure to be enjoyed Hackney Citizen

Kate Murray-Browne worked in publishing for ten years before becoming a freelance editor. Her first novel, The Upstairs Room, was critically acclaimed and selected as a Book of the Year in The Times. She lives in Hackney, East London, with her family.

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