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Set in the 1970s in the summer of Charles and Diana’s wedding, I found it unusual that the ‘present day’ was still fifty years in the past. On reflection, I think this is intended to highlight the limited choices that women still faced with employment. Attending secretarial school and being office assistants was still an accepted role with the men usually in more dominant careers. Being a woman in the 1970s still meant being there for the husband and creating the perfect family home. Therefore, when Libby’s engagement ends along with her self-employed business share with her ex-best friend, she finds herself drawn to Bess and Elfrida, the constants in her life. You really get a sense with these women that they're having to deal with losing trust in people and are fearful of being deceived again, which makes it very difficult to move on and trust new people that come into their lives. I really loved the setting as the house and gardens are very much part of them as people and a place where they feel safe to start the trust process and dealing with the personal tragedies that they have faced.
A Secret Garden Affair - Historical Novel Society A Secret Garden Affair - Historical Novel Society
But for lifelong friends Bess and Elfrida, Libby’s arrival has stirred up the ghosts of the past. And before they can help her rebuild her shattered future, they must confront their own unspoken secrets, lost loves, and tragedies… This enticing cover had me excited to read this new release from Erica James. The books I have read by this author (so far!) have all been really enjoyable, but I found that this one didn’t capture my heart in quite the same way. I wonder if it is because it is a little similar to a recent book I have read: following a family over decades with secrets being revealed along the way. I always know when I open an Erica James book I am going to be charmed with a delicate and charming novel and her new release A Secret Garden Affair is no exception. Appearances were everything. In the past an unmarried mother would be frowned upon. There were some hard choices to be made. The Secret Garden Affair immerses you in the world of beautiful gardens, and difficult family relationships through the eyes of three women - young Libby who has had her heart broken, and the two characters who have been a steady influence on her throughout her life, Elfrida and Bess. Libby heads to Larkspur House looking for stability as a time when she cannot trust her own feelings, but little does she know that former socialite Elfrida and her close friend (and her former lady's maid) Bess have been keeping secrets from her too.Partially set in the early 1980s and with a timeline starting sixty years previous, the story follows several characters. Libby, a woman whose wedding plans are cancelled when she finds out her fiance is cheating on her, and her great aunt, Bess, who has worked for the third main character, Elfrida, for the best part of her life. The author lives in Suffolk and is a keen gardener and this is clearly reflected in her descriptive writing.
A Secret Garden Affair: From the Sunday Times bestselling
A Secret Garden Affair" is another great family drama from Erica James. It is full of family secrets, lifelong friendships, romance and family rifts. The majority of the key characters are female and, as the action covers about 60 years up to 1981, we see the prejudices and constraints they had to deal with in the earlier parts of the last century. This is a thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking read. With an insatiable appetite for other people's business, Erica James will readily strike up conversation with strangers in the hope of unearthing a useful gem for her writing. She finds it the best way to write authentic characters for her novels, although her two grown-up sons claim they will never recover from a childhood spent in a perpetual state of embarrassment at their mother's compulsion. While all this jumping around in timeline and point of view could make, A Secret Garden Affair, more complicated to follow which could have made the layout better for the story arch, at the expense of the reader. I also had to keep reminding myself that Libby's story was set in the 1980s and not 2020s - for me there was not quite enough historical detail other than the reference to Charles and Diana to have that 80s feel to it! I have always enjoyed Erica James's novels - I've found her characters to be well-drawn and warm, realistic and intriguing. This book was no different! Set in varying timelines from 1920s to the summer of the Royal Wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981, it tells the life stories of three women connected by their shared history - Libby, Elfrida and Bess.The story is set in 1981, as Libby flees London to spend time with her great aunt Bess and friend Elfrida, in Suffolk. Whilst Libby stays with them, they remember their pasts full of family secrets and romances spanning 60 years. I loved travelling around the world in the past with Elfrida (and Bess) as she designs the gardens – the glitz and the glamour and the olde world feel. At home, during the war and afterwards, life is harsh but their indomitable spirits get them through. Elfrida is certainly a character who didn’t conform to society’s expectations but carved her own path, whether in the parts of the book set in the past or the relatively more modern 1980s. I thought she was a terrific creation and I loved her feistiness and refusal to do what others expected of her. I particularly liked her friendship with Bess who worked for Elfrida originally as a ladies’ maid. The women had shared many life events and were the keepers of each others secrets. They had become so much more than employer and employee over the years and were a huge support for each other. Libby’s arrival at Larkspur House stirs up the past for its occupants Elfrida and Bess and they must eventually confront their secrets and tragedies. July 1981. As the country prepares to celebrate Prince Charles’ wedding to Lady Diana, Libby flees London – and her cheating fiancé Marcus – for the Suffolk countryside.
A Secret Garden Affair: From the Sunday Times bestselling A Secret Garden Affair: From the Sunday Times bestselling
It was very timely with the coronation taking place earlier in May and I loved hearing about all the gardens in areas of England where beauty abounds. Libby hopes to find a way forward in the house which has happy childhood memories and the magical garden created and maintained by Elfrida A dual timeline book between the 1980’s & 1920’s, a very well written book which drew me in from the start & had me devouring this engrossing read in two sittings. Dual timelines are not my favourite but the author certainly did a very good job of changing my mind. The characters have depth & were well portrayed &the pace is good. There was friendship spanning decades, tragedy & secrets as well as some twists & surprises. A delightful read which I recommend We are introduced to three strong women whose stories are all entwined, we have Libby who was a bride to be until just before the wedding she walked in on her fiancé and bestfriend. Libby needed to escape and she knew the one place she could find comfort and support would be at Larkspur House with her great aunt Bess and Elfrida. Tragedy , loves and secrets accumulate over the years and when Libby arrives from London in a vulnerable state it seems a good time to try to confront the issues of the past.
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Staying with her aunt Bess and Alfreda, she starts to mend her broken heart, deciding what to do with the rest of her life. July, 1981. The country is working itself into a frenzy in the run-up to the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, but the last thing Libby wants to think about is weddings. Having just discovered, three weeks before their wedding, that her fiancé Marcus has been sleeping with her best friend Selina, Libby heads for the comforting presence of Larkspur House, the home of famous garden designer Elfrida Ambrose and Libby's great-aunt Bess - the only place where she has ever felt truly at home. Larkspur House felt like a character to me. It wrapped its magic around me (much like it did to Libby and Daniel) and I felt sad when I had to say goodbye.
A Secret Garden Affair by Erica James | Waterstones A Secret Garden Affair by Erica James | Waterstones
Elfrida Ambrose has supported heself and the upkeep of Larkspur House designing gardens in England and overseas for many wealthy people , and over the years Bess travelled with her as her ladies maid. When Libby finds her fiance Marcus in bed with her best friend Selina three weeks before her wedding, she flees London for the sanctuary of Larkspur House in Suffolk where her Great Aunt Bess lives with her friend Elfrida. From the Sunday Times bestselling author Erica James comes a captivating story that sweeps through sixty years of history, love, and family drama. Erica James’s 25th novel A Secret Garden Affair publishes at the end of March. Read on to hear how Erica’s own garden inspired the book.Suffolk, 1981: whilst the entire country seems gripped by Royal Wedding fever, Libby, the heroine of James’s 25th novel, wants to get as far away from it as possible, for on the brink of marrying her fiancé, she has discovered him in flagrante with her best friend. Libby takes refuge with two eccentric old ladies one can imagine on screen played by Maggie Smith and Judi Dench. One is her great-aunt Bess, a former lady’s maid, and the other Elfrida, a society beauty in the 1920s but a deeply unconventional one, who eschewed marriage to build a satisfying career as a garden designer, in the footsteps of Norah Lindsay and Gertrude Jekyll. Its blurb describes the novel as a ‘love story from long ago’, referring doubtless to Elfrida’s clandestine relationship with a glamorous White Russian – for this novel is really her story, entwined with that of the loyal Bess, who being of a different social class has had to face threats of another kind. However, it could equally well refer to Libby’s emotional troubles. The story is set in the summer of 1981 when the country was gripped by Royal Wedding fever, and also in the 1920’s moving forwards. We see the action in both the first and third person from alternating points of view.
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