Everything about Adeline Copplefield is a lie . . .To the world, Mrs Copplefield is the epitome of Victorian propriety: an exemplary society lady who writes a weekly column advising young ladies on how to be better wives.Only Adeline has never been a good wife or mother, she has no claim to the Copplefield name, and she is not an English lady . . .Now a Black woman, born in Africa, who dared to pretend to be something she was not, is on trial in the English courts with all of London society baying for her blood. And she is ready to tell her story. . .The Manual for Good Wives is a historical novel about love, generational trauma, second chances . . . and hope.