“I will make you the greatest living artist in all of England! But you must work very hard at your art, and you must decide between your art and your work with the poor." This was the choice that John Ruskin, the celebrated Victorian art critic, presented to the young Lilias Trotter. With a storyteller's eye and ear, Sally Oxley traces the steps that led up to this turning point in Lilias Trotter's life and the amazing adventure that followed as she turned her back on worldly fame and set out in faith for the mission work in North Africa. Readers young and old will be stirred by the enchanting pictures and lean, moving prose and will come away with a renewed vision of the world and their role in it.

Lilias Trotter's full story can be seen in the documentary film Many Beautiful Things, available at manybeautifulthings.com.