The House on Bellevue Gardens

Author/Guide: Rachel Hore

Why a Booktrail?

2000s: Sometimes a house is just as much a character as the people who come to live there

ISBN: 978-1471130786
Genre: Fiction

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What you need to know before your trail

There’s a tranquil garden square in North London by the name of Bellevue Gardens where Leonie has felt became her refuge and place of safety after life treated her badly. Now, she opens up her home to the waifs and strays of the city in order to show her gratitude. There’s Rosa who has come from Poland looking for her missing brother, Stef who is running from her abusive boyfriend and Rick who is sheltering from the world in many ways. Bellevue Gardens may be their sanctuary but when the house itself needs rescuing from, what is to become of those who need it most? Can Leonie save the house that saved her?

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Travel Guide

Sometimes a house can be as much a character as the people who live there and if the walls of fictional Bellevue Place could talk, it would have so many stories to tell. A home in a nice and popular place in London, but the shabbiest house on the street, is a haven for those lost and alone in the city. London may be a draw for many but it can also be the lonelist place in the world if your world is another country such as Rosa or another world.

(Fictional) Bellevue Gardens is in North London – Camden way – and represents a new start. It apparently has literary links such as being the street where Oscar Wilde visited and where a blue plaque marks its literary leanings. Rosa arrives at Victoria bus station searching for her brother. The city is dark and unwelcoming but the Black Cat Cafe offers her hope and shelter. Stef has witnessed the high life of the city’s smart apartments but it’s Bellevue Gardens’s shabby nature which is the most comforting.

Appearances can be very deceptive and the importance of community, a house you can call a home and a bunch of people from many walks of life sharing one common experience makes for a house that not only talks but remembers, shares and needs a little care of its own.