Hist Fic Saturday ~ The Secret of Summerhayes by Merryn Allingham

I am delighted to introduce a new regular feature

His Fic Saturday will focus on all the lovely historical fiction which comes my way. 

There will be novels which are newly published, others which have been published in the last twelve months, and some which have lingered on my book shelves for far too long.

 A real mixed bag ranging from historical sagas, romances, and adventure through to the pageant of  medieval worlds with kings and queens. From the Battle of Hastings ...to WW2.


Let's go back in time....

HQ
27 July 2017

What's it all about..

Summer 1944: Bombed out by the blitz, Bethany Merston takes up a post as companion to elderly Alice Summer, last remaining inhabitant of the dilapidated and crumbling Summerhayes estate. Now a shadow of its former glory; most of the rooms have been shut up, the garden is overgrown and the whole place feels as unwelcoming as the family themselves.

Struggling with the realities of war, Alice is plagued by anonymous letters and haunting visions of her old household. At first, Beth tries to convince her it’s all in her mind but soon starts to unravel the mysteries surrounding the aristocratic family’s past.

What did I think about it...

When Canadian soldier, Jos Kerrigan arrives at Summerhayes in April 1944, he and his fellow officers are preparing for a secret invasion of France. Living in basic conditions at this beautiful old country house estate in Sussex and walking in its overgrown gardens offers Jos an antidote to the terror of what is happening just across the English Channel in Northern France.  When Jos meets Bethany Merston, a spark of attraction is lit between them but in these dark and gloomy war time days, romance is far from either of their minds.

What then follows is a continuation of the story which began in The Buttonmaker's Daughter and reintroduces us, several years on, to some of the characters who we first met in that novel. It was interesting to see how time had left it's mark on Summerhayes and for those who haven't read The Buttonmaker's Daughter, the author fills the gaps really nicely so that the two stories continue to develop quite seamlessly.

The Secret of Summerhayes is  a lovely story written by an author who is able to carry her readers into a forgotten age with comparable ease. There is much to like about how about the story develops, with interesting descriptions of the soldiers preparing for the invasion of France on D-Day and of the shadow of  uncertainty that everyone lived in during these momentous late days of WW2. Within the story there are some quite dark moments but these are combined with lovely romantic interludes which help to give the story its light and shade.

There is certainly scope for this series to continue as I would love to be able to meet up with the characters in peacetime to see how Summerhayes survives in post war Britain.

A lovely summer read, perfect for an afternoon in the garden.


You will find my review of The Buttonmaker's Daughter by clicking here

More about the author can be found on her website 

Twitter @MerrynWrites

Facebook

My thanks to Phoebe at Midas pr for my review copy of The Secret of Summerhayes

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Blog Tour ~ The Buttonmaker's Daughter by Merryn Allingham

Jaffareadstoo is thrilled to be part of the blog tour for

The Buttonmaker's Daughter

I am delighted to welcome the author, Merryn Allingham who is sharing her thoughts about the inspiration for her novel.

The Lost Gardens of Heligan

I visited the Lost Gardens of Heligan two years’ ago, ‘lost’ because they were only rediscovered in 1990 and since that time have been lovingly restored. The gardens’ heyday was the late Victorian/Edwardian period when owners spent a great deal of money, time and effort in creating a beautiful and exotic paradise. But, when in 1914, war came to England, everything changed. Over half the staff perished in the mud of Flanders and the gardens were left to a slow disintegration.

The buildings the gardeners had known in 1914 – the bothy, the melon house, the pineapple pit, among others – remained untouched. They had crumbled but stayed essentially the same. It was as though the gardens had slept for eighty years. Lead and zinc Victorian plant tags lay buried in the soil. A giant vine weaved its way through broken panes of glass in the walled garden. True romance! Not quite so romantic were the effects of requisitioning. In 1916, Heligan became a military hospital and during the Second World War housed the American army. The beautiful lawns, or what was left of them, were concreted to provide hard standing for tanks and jeeps, and the trees, many of them rare, used as target practice.

But what set me on the path to writing The Buttonmaker’s Daughter were the human stories. One that affected me greatly concerned the ordinary men whose labour created this beauty. One day in the summer of 1914, every gardener on the estate downed tools and walked together to Redruth, to enlist at the local recruiting centre. Most of the men never returned. A Day Book that listed every job completed, carried that day’s date but the rest of the page remained blank and poignantly, was never used again.

It was the image of those men, honourable and courageous, walking together to enlist in what they saw as a just cause, that stayed in my mind, and I knew I had to record that moment in a novel. My fictional estate, Summerhayes, is nestled in the Sussex countryside, rather than Cornwall, but it offers the same perfect idyll. And like Heligan, that idyll is disrupted by a war that looms ever closer, but disrupted, too, by conflict nearer to home - between neighbours and within the family itself. The summer of 1914 will change everything for the Summer family, as indeed it did for so many.

HQ
12 January 2017

May, 1914. 

Nestled in Sussex, the Summerhayes mansion seems the perfect country idyll. But with a long-running feud in the Summers family and tensions in Europe deepening, Summerhayes’ peaceful days are numbered.

For Elizabeth Summer, the lazy quiet of her home has become stifling. A chance meeting with Aiden Kellaway, an architect’s assistant, offers the secret promise of escape, but her marriage to a man of trade has no place in her father’s plans. In the ensuing conflict, Elizabeth along with her family faces a dangerous future.

As the sweltering heat of 1914 builds to a storm, she faces a choice between family loyalty and an uncertain life with the man she loves.One thing is definite: this summer will change everything.

The Buttonmaker’s Daughter by Merryn Allingham is published on 12th January (HQ, £7.99) If you would like to keep in touch with Merryn, sign up for her newsletter at 

www.merrynallingham.com

Twitter @MerrynWrites

My thanks to the author for her delightful guest post and to the publishers for their invitation to be part of this blog tour.

Blog Tour runs 9th - 15th January.

Do visit the other blog stops for more author content.

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