A Powerful Authoress (The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton)

Member Name: villager90

Product:	The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton
Date:	05/07/08 (342 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: descriptions, characters, plot

Disadvantages: a little bit long winded

Kate Morton returns this summer with her second book; The Forgotten Garden. Morton became a bestseller last year when The House at Riverton won the Richard and Judy Summer Read aswell as other awards. This new book follows the similar style that her previous book had with a secret continuing throughout the story.

This book is split into 3 time periods.
1913 where a little girl is found abandoned at a port in Australia after being on a boat from England. She can only remember a woman called the Authoress, and the Authoress had promised to look after her but she had vanished.

1975, An old Lady, Nell, travels to Cornwall to discover the truth about her parentage. Her quest leads her to Cornwall and a big estate called Blackhurst Manor, previously owned by the Mountrachet family.

2005, on Nell's death her granddaughter Cassandra has a surprise on her inheritance, (Cliff Cottage on the grounds of the Manor). It is notorious with the locals for the secrets it holds. It is the forgotten garden, abandoned for years where Cassandra will uncover the truth about the family and why the young Nell was abandoned all those decades before.


The Forgotten Garden was a book I did enjoy. I found the way Morton was able to create such memorable characters was something special. I was able to really feel sorry for the characters and desperately wanted to help, but as soon as the book progresses, sympathy leaves and then you resent a characters, and vice versa. Clever stuff from a really good author.

The writing style is similar to the House at Riverton as is the general layout. I found the plot a little bit weaker than the House at Riverton and I wasn't completely hooked like i was but I still found the book a really good read. The Forgotten Garden is very descriptive. There is great imagery in her description of the Manor house, the garden and all aspects that the reader encounters.

Again Morton manages to create early 20th century life in a spell binding way. The way she creates dirty London streets is really good and you can really feel the danger and air of suspense in the book.

Like the House at Riverton, this book has a lot of characters which may become confusing if you haven't been concentrating. The book does flit about between time periods and some people are not keen on this style.

The book i clearly about family and secrets, I think if anyone is really into Family history and genealogy then they will like this book. I enjoy family history and that was one aspect of the book i really liked.

The book may have been a little hard to get into at first but after a few chapters I became engrossed in the story. I am sure a few chapters could have been deleted, a bit of unnecessary description here and there, but HEY! I'm nitpicking her.

One thing I really liked about Morton is that in her acknowledgment page she thanked the Children's writers for opening a world of incomparable terror, joy and excitement. A very worthwhile thank you and without thoser writers many of today's authors would not be here.

If you fell in love with The House at Riverton you need to read this. If you are a Morton virgin you should really lose it soon! But don't expect this book to reach the heights of Riverton, it so nearly does, but the book is still a wonderful read.

Bound to be one of the books of the summer!

amazon has the book for £3.86
and WHSmith has the book on 3 for 2 special offer at the moment.

The book is 644pages long.

Summary: fan of riverton read this!