A gripping new historical saga rooted in real family history is set to capture the attention of Birmingham readers, as debut author Sara Fox launches A Legacy Forged — a powerful, Peaky Blinders–esque tale of survival, ambition and ultimate betrayal in the race to build the city we know today.
Set against the smoke, steel, and shadowy undercurrents of 19th-century Birmingham, A Legacy Forged tells the story of Matthew Seller, a ten-year-old boy who flees an abusive home in rural Shropshire in 1822 and walks headfirst into a city on the brink of explosive transformation. As Birmingham rises to become the “Workshop of the World,” Matthew builds a life, a business and a legacy from nothing.
But this is no simple rags-to-riches tale. As the Seller dynasty grows, a rival family takes notice. The MacCarthy cousins are businessmen of a particular kind. They are men who have engineered the ruin of families like the Sellers before, bought the wreckage for nothing, and walked away rich. In Matthew’s final years, their attention turns to everything he has built. Matthew Seller forged his legacy against every obstacle. Whether his descendants can hold it is another story.
Inspired by true ancestral stories, Fox delivers a saga that blends the grit and tension of Birmingham’s industrial past with the emotional weight of family loyalty and sacrifice. Through found family, fierce love, and unforgiving ambition, A Legacy Forged paints a vivid picture of a city and a family forged in fire.
“The story of Matthew Seller is the story of Birmingham itself — raw, ambitious, bruised and magnificent,” says Sara Fox.
From the back-to-back slums to the clanging factories and expanding canal networks, the novel captures a city in motion, where fortunes are made, but never without consequence. The intertwined lives of the Seller family and the Irish immigrant Cahills reflect the real communities that shaped Birmingham’s identity, while exploring timeless themes of trust, power and the cost of success.
At its heart lies a question that echoes through generations: how far would you go to secure your legacy, and what are you willing to sacrifice along the way?
“Writing this novel has made me fall in love with Birmingham and the family businesses that made it great,” Fox adds. “In many ways, A Legacy Forged has become my love letter to the city, its history, its people, and its unbreakable spirit.”
With echoes of classic family epics and the raw intensity of modern Birmingham storytelling, A Legacy Forged is the first in a sweeping trilogy charting the rise and potential fall of a dynasty built on ambition, integrity and ultimately, betrayal.
A Legacy Forged is available in paperback and eBook formats on Amazon.
About the Author
Sara Fox is a Birmingham-based debut novelist drawing on her own family’s history to bring the past vividly to life. A Legacy Forged marks the beginning of an ambitious trilogy exploring legacy, identity and the forces that shape both families and cities.
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