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By Amanda Roberts
Seventeen-year-old Tilly has been waiting for Nat to return to the secluded barn where they used to meet. He has left England to serve as a soldier in Jamaica, promising that he will come back for her. But promises offer little protection when Tilly discovers that she is pregnant, and the people responsible for her welfare have very different ideas about what her future should hold.
Sent from Islip to Oxford, Tilly finds herself living and working at Cowper’s Coffeehouse. Here, scholars and gentlemen gather to drink coffee, exchange news and argue about the affairs of the country. It is a world quite unlike anything she has known before, and despite the circumstances that brought her there, Tilly begins to discover that she has abilities worth recognising.
In 2025, Amy and her husband, Gareth, buy an old building on Oxford High Street with plans to turn it into a coffee shop. While Gareth concentrates on renovations and roasting beans, Amy uncovers a mural beneath the wallpaper of an attic room. The paintings appear to record the experiences of a young woman who once lived there, but uncovering her story proves rather more unsettling than Amy could have anticipated.
‘Secrets of the Penny University’ by Amanda Roberts is an absorbing dual-timeline novel about motherhood, trust and a woman whose private history has survived upon the walls of her former home. Roberts brings together seventeenth-century Oxford and a modern couple’s ambitious business venture, allowing the same building to connect lives separated by hundreds of years.
The historical narrative is particularly compelling. Tilly is young and frightened, but she is also observant, capable and determined to have some say in what happens to her. Her pregnancy places her in a vulnerable position, and the threat of punishment and disgrace gives considerable power to those who claim to be protecting her. Her wishes are heard, but that does not necessarily mean they will be respected.
Roberts handles this imbalance effectively. Tilly’s aunt and uncle are people she has relied upon since childhood, making their decisions all the more difficult for her to challenge. Affection and authority sit uncomfortably beside one another, especially when concern for a young woman’s future becomes entangled with concern for the family’s reputation. Tilly must try to distinguish between the help she needs and the conditions attached to receiving it.
Her arrival at the coffeehouse introduces a welcome change in her circumstances. The work is demanding, but it gives her responsibilities beyond those of the household and opportunities to use her good head for figures. Watching her become more confident is one of the pleasures of the novel. She learns how to manage customers, recognises ways of improving the business and begins to feel that she has a place within the busy life of the city.
The coffeehouse itself is an engaging setting. Tokens, dishes of coffee, roasting beans and circulating pamphlets all contribute to the sense of a working establishment. The customers bring their opinions through the door with them, and their debates reveal a country still struggling with questions of government, loyalty and the promises of the Commonwealth. These conversations also carry news that matters deeply to Tilly, whose hopes remain connected to a soldier far from home.
The chapters set in Jamaica give another perspective on those hopes. Nat has left England expecting adventure and the possibility of making his fortune, but the conditions he encounters are considerably less inviting. Disease, shortages and frustration undermine the confidence with which he departed. His experiences give substance to the troubling reports discussed in Oxford, while showing the distance between a young man’s expectations of military service and the reality of it.
Tilly’s relationship with Albert, whom she comes to call Bertie, is especially touching. He is a lonely child who needs attention, and their shared interest in drawing gives them a means of reaching one another. Roberts allows their affection to develop through small, ordinary moments. His companionship becomes an important part of Tilly’s life, and his needs sometimes reveal things that the adults around him would rather overlook.
The mural is an imaginative and effective link between the two periods. Unable to read, Tilly records her experiences in paint, preserving moments that might otherwise leave no trace. The pictures are deeply personal, but their meaning is not immediately clear to those who discover them. A face, a piece of jewellery or a scene beside a river may carry enormous significance for the artist while presenting a puzzle to someone looking centuries later.
Amy’s attempts to interpret these images give the modern narrative its strongest thread. Her research involves incomplete records, uncertain connections and questions that cannot be answered simply by finding a name or a date. The reader knows more of Tilly’s experiences than Amy can recover, which makes the process particularly interesting. Amy’s research shows that discovering evidence of a life is not quite the same as understanding everything the person endured.
The supernatural encounters add an unsettling dimension to that search. Amy’s experiences involve changes in sound, smell and atmosphere as well as glimpses of the woman she is trying to identify. The building becomes a place where the past feels increasingly close, and Amy’s curiosity is complicated by her own pregnancy and her husband’s concern.
At times, however, the modern storyline becomes repetitive. Amy and Gareth return frequently to disagreements about the mural, her health and the people helping with the coffee shop. Although these exchanges establish the pressures within their marriage, some cover familiar ground without adding much to what has already been said. Certain developments within the modern suspense plot are also more strongly signposted than the revelations in Tilly’s story, reducing their element of surprise.
Nevertheless, the emotional strength of the historical narrative carries the novel through these quieter stretches. Tilly’s experiences are often painful, and Roberts gives her losses lasting consequences. Her resilience does not mean that she can simply put everything behind her; it lies in her ability to continue making a life while carrying what has happened.
‘Secrets of the Penny University’ is a moving and atmospheric novel about the choices available to women, the trust placed in those closest to them and the fragments through which a life can be remembered. Tilly is a memorable central character, and the mural provides a compelling reason to follow both her story and Amy’s search for it.
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See you on your next coffee break!
Take Care,
Mary Anne xxx