Mill on the Floss

Why was this feeling of regret so familiar to her? Why must she always wish she had done something different? Maggie Tulliver and her brother Tom grow up in the Mill on the River Floss. Although Maggie adores Tom, she often finds him cruel and cold. All she wants is for life to be full and warm. The Tulliver family’s traditional way of living is threatened by changes beyond their control. Will the educated world of lawyers and lawsuits destroy what generations have enjoyed? As Maggie grows into adulthood, how can she control her passionate nature? With a destiny like an unmapped river – full, deep and rapid – where will love and desire lead her? Where will it all end?

Real Reads are accessible texts designed to support the literacy development of primary and lower secondary age children while introducing them to the riches of our international literary heritage. Each book is a retelling of a work of great literature from one of the world’s greatest cultures, fitted into a 64-page book, making classic stories, dramas and histories available to intelligent young readers as a bridge to the full texts, to language students wanting access to other cultures, and to adult readers who are unlikely ever to read the original versions.

GEORGE ELIOT was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880), one of Victorian England’s pre-eminent writers of both fiction and non-fiction and translator.

SARAH WIMPERIS began painting at a very early age as a result of family influences and an inability to spell. She studied fine art at Falmouth School of Art, exhibited with the Portal Gallery, then travelled the world, including China, Russia, Israel and Norway, painting all the way. She returned to Cornwall, raised a lot of children, painted murals for a while, then became a professional illustrator. Since 2008 she has exhibited regularly at the Beside the Wave Gallery in Falmouth, which she now manages.

GILL TAVNER was an English Teacher and Head of Department before turning to writing when she had young children of her own. She has also taught English in South East Asia, worked as a personal trainer, been a management trainee in an insurance company, led treks in Africa, run her own business and painted fake tattoos on Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Perhaps it is this variety that makes her such a versatile writer.