Doubting Thomas a historical novel by Charlotte Graves Taylor, is based on hitherto unpublished documents and tells something of the lives of Thomas Graves Law and his wife Wilhelmina Frederica Allen.

Thomas (known as TGL), a grandson of Lord Ellenborough, and Wilhelmina (Wilfrid), a great-granddaughter of Admiral Duncan, meet for the first time in a confession box at London’s Brompton Oratory, where Thomas has spent twenty years as a priest. She is escaping from an unhappy relationship and he is having doubts about his vocation.

TGL and Wilfrid start a new life together as man and wife, but soon obscure legal questions are raised about the nature of Wilfrid’s former relationship and the validity of her marital status.

Set in Perthshire, Edinburgh and London, the drama which overtakes TGL and Wilfrid, in a social circle that includes William Gladstone, Cardinal Manning and many eminent scientists and intellectuals of the day, exposes them to some of the legal, religious and social pressures of the late nineteenth century, which they reflect, react against and ultimately transcend.

Paperback, illustrated, 206 pp.