The Ruby in the Smoke

The Ruby in the Smoke (1985) is a novel by the English author Philip Pullman. It was also adapted for television in 2006.

Plot summary

This book takes place in 1872. A sixteen year old girl named Veronica Beatrice “Sally” Lockhart goes to visit where her father used to work, a shipping company named Lockhart & Selby. Sally’s father, Matthew Lockhart, died when his ship, the schooner Lavinia, sank when he was coming back from talking to the Dutch shipping agent Hendrik VanEeden. Matthew Lockhart was a former army man, and Sally's late mother was fighter in the Indian Mutiny. On the morning the book begins, Sally received a note in the mail and went to ask her father’s partner, Samuel Selby, what the note meant. Instead she saw Mr. Higgs, Mr. Selby’s secretary, and asked him two things: if he knew of a man named Marchbanks and if he had heard of something called the “Seven Blessings”. After she asked about the letter, Mr. Higgs had a heart attack and died. She tells the porter and finds out that she has to go to the inquest because she was a witness. Sally meets a thirteen year old office boy named Jim Taylor to whom she shows the letter. Jim informs Sally that the letter said that the man named Marchbanks lived in Chatham in Kent. He also volunteers his help, but she doesn’t need it at the moment. Sally goes back to her aunt’s house, where she lives now, and is mocked by her aunt at having no ladylike accomplishments (she CAN shoot a pistol and do financial work). Sally visits a man called Mr Marchbanks, while she is there he gives her book containing information about things which happened when Sally was little. Marchbanks tells her she must leave because there is a woman in his house who is their enemy. The woman follows Sally away from the house but Sally hides from her in the tent of a photographer named Frederick Garland. Before she leaves, he hands her his business card to keep if she ever finds herself in trouble again. She gets on a train and starts to read the book Mr Marchbanks gave her. She falls asleep and when she wakes up the book is gone and the only thing left behind are a few loose pages.

This book is the first of the Sally Lockhart Quartet:

1. The Ruby in the Smoke
2. The Shadow in the North
3. The Tiger in the Well
4. The Tin Princess

TV adaptation

A TV Film adaptation written by Adrian Hodges and starring Billie Piper was produced by the BBC. It aired on BBC One on 27 December 2006 ^[1] and on PBS's Masterpiece Mystery! as The Sally Lockhart Mysteries: The Ruby in the Smoke on 4 February 2007^[2]. The UK broadcast attracted 7.07 million viewers.^[3] It is notable as marking the TV debut of actor Matt Smith, who would later take over the role of The Doctor in Piper's former series, Doctor Who.

All four Sally Lockhart books were expected to be adapted for television; however, as of April 2009 no information has arisen regarding an adaptation of The Tiger in the Well.

Cast

References

1. ^ BBC - Press Office - BBC ONE Transmission Details Weeks 52/1
2. ^ Masterpiece | PBS
3. ^ [1]

External links

• Pullman's page on the book
• Overview and background
• Review of the book, Scotland on Sunday, 10 December 2006
• BBC mini-site
• The Ruby in the Smoke at the Internet Movie Database