When she turns sixteen, Harriet, known as Harry in the factory, decides that she has had enough and leaves her job, much to the disapproval of her mother who promptly organises an arranged marriage for her daughter. Harriet's parents have misled her new husband into believing that she is an expert jam maker who will be an asset to his small jam making enterprise.
Fortunately Harriet is willing to learn all she can about jam making and eventually helps her husband's business to expand. Meanwhile Henry Jones' career is progressing as he takes on higher positions in the jam making business. Henry marries Alice who becomes a friend of Harriet.
The novel follows Harriet's progress as a jam maker and the success of Sprouts Jams as she and Ruth experiment with making specialist jams with flavours not available elsewhere. However when her husband dies Harriet's life involves challenges she had not anticipated.
The Jam Maker, set in the years from 1874 to 1926, covers a range of events and issues affecting life in Tasmania including the economic depression of the 1890s, trade tariffs, the Boer War, Federation, The First World War and the rights of women to be financially independent. The novel is also the story of the development of the firm IXL - the firm developed by Henry Jones.
However this work of historical fiction is also the story of a determined woman fighting for the life and recognition that she wants for herself and her family. The book also interweaves references to the author's to previous historical novels - The Last of the Apple Blossom and The Chocolate Factory.
Sir Henry Jones - Australian Dictionary of Biography
Henry Jones IXL - Wikipedia
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