Why a Booktrail?
2000s: A house full of history is bound to have secrets…
The Girl at the Window
What you need to know before your trail
Ponden Hall is a centuries-old house on the Yorkshire moors, a magical place full of stories. It’s also where Trudy Heaton grew up. And where she ran away from…
Now, after the devastating loss of her husband, she is returning home with her young son, Will, who refuses to believe his father is dead.
While Trudy tries to do her best for her son, she must also attempt to build bridges with her eccentric mother. And then there is the Hall itself: fallen into disrepair but generations of lives and loves still echo in its shadows, sometimes even reaching out to the present…
Locations
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Travel back to the Yorkshire Moors and the inspiration for Wuthering Heights
Ponden Hall, is the real life inspiration for the famous Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. This is the house in the novel and is Trudy Heaton’s family home where she returns to heal. It’s also the place where but she has to deal with and make amends with her mother.
The house has a fascinating history and there are secrets in its walls. and the area, her own love story and that of earlier generations are all interwoven with ghosts, and books and mystery.
Ponden Hall is now a hotel where you can go and stay and really get a sense for the raw landscape that is so well evoked in the Bronte Sisters’ novel such as Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. Emily Bronte used to stay at Ponden herself and this story is woven into the plot beautifully.
The Bronte children were infact regular visitors to the house where they used to play with the real life Heaton family. The library there was apparently the largest private library in Yorkshire. It is a hotel in real life but in this novel it has stayed an old gothic house where secrets still linger…
Booktrailer Review
I love Jane Eyre and the other Bronte novels. I’ve read a few modern adaptations and novels based on the characters and landscapes. However this novel is a real treat and stands out from the crowd. It’s gothic, chilling and very immersive and looks lovingly at the character and literary heritage from where it takes its inspiration.
There’s plenty of gothic delights, paranormal over tones and more to delight Bronte fans. But this novel goes further by bringing new Bronte magic alive. Ponden Hall has so many links to the Bronte story and so to have a modern day novel tied to this and also to its historical ribbons is a nice nod to a literary great. The novel of the Girl at the Window is a mix of all that a novel set here should be – a love story, mystery and of course a gothic one. Agnes’ past and her discovery of it was a strong story and it unravelled some spookily good reveals.
The ending was a bit neater than I had hoped for but then it didn’t overshadow an enjoyable read.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Girl at the Window
Destination : Yorkshire, Bronte Country Author/Guide: Rowan Coleman Departure Time: 2000s
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