A gripping historical novel set in 1900s Vienna, featuring four fiery women

The Flames

A passionately re-imagined historical novel, featuring four unforgettable women, each a muse to the same controversial artist, set in Vienna at the turn of the century. 'A stunning story of love, art and betrayal' RED magazine

MAGNIFICENT. Feels destined to be a classic - exquisitely crafted and so absorbing. I loved it and REFUSE to accept it is a debut. It's simply too good.

As a feminist reworking of Schiele's story, and as an exercise in redressing historical injustice, this novel is a glorious success. Haydock ensures that these women emerge from behind Schiele's gaze, and she also uses them to illuminate a period of seismic change... an impressive and highly enjoyable debut.

Completely convincing and utterly compelling, THE FLAMES gives vivid voice to four muses who refuse to be remembered as just that. Haydock is a writer to watch.

Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies

Confident...urgent...illuminating: you will never again look at Schiele's vivid portraits without wondering about his subjects' lives beyond the frame.

In Sophie Haydock's impressive debut these women leap from Schiele's canvases, becoming fascinating and complex characters.

THE TIMES, 'Best historical fiction books of 2022'

Thought provoking and illuminating and a fascinating - I so enjoyed discovering the world and the women behind works of art I adore.

'A reimaging of the lives of artist Egon Schiele's four female 'muses' it is both fascinating and compelling. I loved all four women...and the final scenes with Egon himself were truly extraordinary.'

The four women who loved Schiele come back to life, combining an exquisite sense of place and era with a passion and sensuality that transcend time altogether.

'I knew nothing of Egon Schiele. I'm now obsessed, and heartbroken for all four women. An unforgettable book about wanting more for ourselves than we are told we are allowed.'

An intoxicating and evocative read full of controversy and drama. We loved it.

Impressive...one of the great joys of reading The Flames is looking again at the women's portraits and letting them be animated by Haydock's careful, vibrant animation

Readers are going to fall very hard for this one.

For anyone who enjoyed Girl with a Pearl Earring, Sophie Haydock's debut novel will delight and entertain....an intoxicating and evocative read full of controversy and drama. We loved it.

Enthralling and utterly captivating! Sophie's prose is as evocative and beguiling a the stories it tells. Prepare for The Flames to become your next obsession.

Laure van Rensburg, author of Nobody But Us

A stunning story of love, art and betrayal

'In The Flames, Haydock turns a forensic eye on the loves, fears, hopes, and heartbreaks of four extraordinary women who might otherwise have been swallowed by history...a beautiful and timely narrative, which focuses its lens on the closest details to reveal an understanding of the most profound human emotions and behaviour.'

Costa shortlisted novelist,  Rebecca F John

We learn more about great figures in time by watching the spaces around them. The Flames paints a history so detailed and vivid that we feel we were there in the flesh. A book to get lost in, a great feat of a debut.

'Full of scandal, love, betrayal, and heartache ... Adele, Gertrude, Vally and Edith are given voices loud and clear'

The untold stories of four women depicted in the paintings of artist Egon Schiele ... are brought to life in this mesmerising debut... movingly told'

'Exhilarating... a dynamic, vivid debut pulled off with considerable élan'

Enlightening and impeccably researched ... Haydock perfectly captures the spirit of the era. [The Flames] is moving, illuminating and evocative

A drama of love, loss, rivalry and betrayal. A terrific debut, brilliantly imagined.

Story by story, woman by woman, The Flames is kindled by mystery, desire, and Haydock's own resonant prose.

Alison MacLeod, Booker longlisted author of Unexploded

Absolutely loved this one....As rich, dark and delicious as a piece of Sachertorte.

Julie Owen Moylan, author of That Green Eyed Girl

Fascination and authenticity shines through on every page...the prose is light and fluid and reads like a contemporary novel.

Katie Khan, author of Hold Back the Stars

Each of the muses had an extraordinary story to tell... I was utterly absorbed from beginning to end.

Sophie Haydock is an award-winning author living in east London. The Flames is her debut novel. She is the winner of the Impress Prize for New Writers. Sophie trained as a journalist at City University, London, and has worked at the Sunday Times Magazine, Tatler and BBC Three, as well as freelancing for publications including the Financial Times, Guardian Weekend magazine, and organisations such as the Arts Council, Royal Academy and Sotheby's. Passionate about short stories, Sophie also works for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award and is associate director of the Word Factory literary organisation. 
Her Instagram account @egonschieleswomen - dedicated to the women who posed for Egon Schiele - has a community of over 100,000 followers. For more information, visit: sophie-haydock.com.

'Fascinating & compelling. I loved all four women' ELODIE HARPER, author of THE WOLF DEN 
 
'MAGNIFICENT...It's simply too good' KATIE LOWE, author of THE FURIES 
 
'Utterly compelling' KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE, author of THE MERCIES 
 
___________________________________________ 
 
Vienna, 1912. Behind every painting, there is a story... 
 
A new century is dawning. Vienna is at its zenith, an opulent, extravagant city teeming with art, music and radical ideas. It is a place where anything seems possible... 
 
Edith and Adele are sisters, the daughters of a wealthy bourgeois family. They are expected to follow the rules, to marry well, and produce children. Gertrude is in thrall to her flamboyant older brother. Marked by a traumatic childhood, she envies the freedom he so readily commands. Vally was born into poverty but is making her way in the world as a model for the eminent artist Gustav Klimt. 
 
Fierce, passionate and determined, none of these women is quite what they seem. But their lives are set on a collision course when they become entangled with the controversial young artist Egon Schiele whose work - and private life - are sending shockwaves through Viennese society. All it will take is a single act of betrayal to set their world on fire... 
 
_______________________________ 
 
'Glorious' Guardian 
 
'Confident...urgent...illuminating' Sunday Times 
 
'Impressive' The Times 
 
'Full of scandal, love, betrayal, and heartache' Cosmopolitan 
 
'Mesmerising' Good Housekeeping 
 
'A drama of love, loss, rivalry and betrayal. Brilliantly imagined' Saga 
______ 
 
DISCOVER MADAME MATISSE - THE BRILLIANT NEW NOVEL FROM SOPHIE HAYDOCK, coming in March 2026

Sophie Haydock

Sophie Haydock delivers another sizzling story of the art world, where sidelined women take centre stage. It’s an immersive tale of muses, betrayal, sex and bad behaviour

Deliciously immersive . . . Think of [Haydock] as the art world’s slightly spikier answer to Philippa Gregory . . . I took Madame Matisse on a wet, grey holiday and it swept me into a world of startling, splashy colour.

A stunning act of literary, historical and artistic reimagining, woven with incredible skill – and so beautifully written. It will stay with me for a long while

Madame Matisse is everything I want in a book: an evocative and thoughtful work, packed full of insights into the tumultuous world of the 1930s French art movement. Most crucially of all, it places the fascinating women who helped shape one of history’s most loved artists front and centre.

Harriet Constable, author of top ten bestseller, The Instrumentalist

Gorgeously evocative, ambitious in its scope, Madame Matisse sweeps through many of the major events of the twentieth century, whilst remaining laudably faithful to the true coordinates of people, places, artworks and events. A nuanced and humane portrait of three very different women who helped the artist achieve greatness.

Madame Matisse is a fascinating portrait of three extraordinary women whose lives were shaped by the conflicts, hardships and upheavals of early twentieth century Europe. Each of these distinctly different women are linked by the man they all loved, Henry Matisse. While he created a new aesthetic, they each carved their own rules, flying in the face of society’s restrictive expectations. Sophie Haydock, in her restrained and precise style, has written a worthy follow up to The Flames.

Elizabeth Fremantle, author of The Queen’s Gambit

Haydock brings to life Europe at the turn of the 20th century seen through the eyes of Madame Matisse. Taking us on a journey starting at the painter's uninspired beginnings to his soaring success and international acclaim. Following her hit novel, The Flames, Haydock brings us her gripping tale of obsession and sacrifice and firmly establishes herself as a novelist of great power and skill.

Haydock turns her penetrating gaze on three formidable women in Henri Matisse’s life . . . A work of vivid imagination, colour and verve

On France's golden Riviera, the wife of an artist gives him an ultimatum: her or me. The dazzling new novel from Sophie Haydock, author of The Flames 
 
'Deliciously immersive . . . Think of [Haydock] as the art world’s answer to Philippa Gregory . . . I took Madame Matisse on a wet, grey holiday and it swept me into a world of startling, splashy colour' The Spectator 
 
'[A] sizzling story of the art world, where sidelined women take centre stage. It’s an immersive tale of muses, betrayal, sex and bad behaviour' Daily Mail 
 
This is the story of three women - one an orphan and refugee who finds a place in the studio of a famous French artist, the other a wife and mother who has stood by her husband for nearly forty years. The third is his daughter, caught in the crossfire between her mother and a father she adores. 
 
Amelie is first drawn to Henri Matisse as a way of escaping the conventional life expected of her. A free spirit, she sees in this budding young artist a glorious future for them both. Ambitious and driven, she gives everything for her husband's art, ploughing her own desires, her time, her money into sustaining them both, even through years of struggle and disappointment. 
 
Lydia Delectorskaya is a young Russian emigree, who fled her homeland following the death of her mother. After a fractured childhood, she is trying to make a place for herself on France's golden Riviera, amid the artists, film stars and dazzling elite. Eventually she finds employment with the Matisse family. From this point on, their lives are set on a collision course.... 
 
Marguerite is Matisse's eldest daughter. When the life of her family implodes, she must find her own way to make her mark and to navigate divided loyalties. 
 
Based on a true story, Madame Matisse is a stunning novel about drama and betrayal; emotion and sex; glamour and tragedy, all set in the hotbed of the 1930s art movement in France. In art, as in life, this a time when the rules were made to be broken...

Sophie Haydock

Praise for Madame Matisse

Sophie Haydock delivers another sizzling story of the art world, where sidelined women take centre stage. It’s an immersive tale of muses, betrayal, sex and bad behaviour

Deliciously immersive . . . Think of [Haydock] as the art world’s slightly spikier answer to Philippa Gregory . . . I took Madame Matisse on a wet, grey holiday and it swept me into a world of start ...

A stunning act of literary, historical and artistic reimagining, woven with incredible skill – and so beautifully written. It will stay with me for a long while

Sophie Haydock delivers another sizzling story of the art world, where sidelined women take centre stage. It’s an immersive tale of muses, betrayal, sex and bad behaviour

Deliciously immersive . . . Think of [Haydock] as the art world’s slightly spikier answer to Philippa Gregory . . . I took Madame Matisse on a wet, grey holiday and it swept me into a world of start ...

A stunning act of literary, historical and artistic reimagining, woven with incredible skill – and so beautifully written. It will stay with me for a long while

Sophie Haydock delivers another sizzling story of the art world, where sidelined women take centre stage. It’s an immersive tale of muses, betrayal, sex and bad behaviour

Deliciously immersive . . . Think of [Haydock] as the art world’s slightly spikier answer to Philippa Gregory . . . I took Madame Matisse on a wet, grey holiday and it swept me into a world of start ...

A stunning act of literary, historical and artistic reimagining, woven with incredible skill – and so beautifully written. It will stay with me for a long while

Books by Sophie Haydock

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