Why a Booktrail?
1938, 1997: A secret can set you free….
Vita and the Birds
Why a Booktrail?
1938, 1997: A secret can set you free….
What you need to know before your trail
1938: Lady Vita Goldsborough lives in the menacing shadow of her controlling older brother, Aubrey. But when she meets local artist Dodie Blakeney, the two women form a close bond, and Vita finally glimpses a chance to be free.
1997: Following the death of her mother, Eve Blakeney returns to the coast where she spent childhood summers with her beloved grandmother, Dodie. Eve hopes that the visit will help make sense of her grief. The last thing she expects to find is a bundle of letters that hint at the heart-breaking story of Dodie’s relationship with a woman named Vita, and a shattering secret that echoes through the decades.
What she discovers will overturn everything she thought she knew about her family – and change her life forever.
Locations
Reset- England - East Anglia - Suffolk -
- A: Walberswick - old pub
- B: Southwold beach
- C: Walberswick - The Anchor Inn
- D: Blythburgh - Cathedral of the Marshes
- E: Blythburgh - River Blyth
Travel Guide
East Anglia and Suffolk
The landscape here is beautifully and eerily evoked. There are two main places in important to this novel -Walberswick and Blythburgh. The first is the village which has inspired the author so much over the years and so this is on the map as being possibly the main inspiration and setting for the scenes in the book. Blythburgh is a whole other ghostly matter..
Blythburgh and the devil’s fingerprints.
The author mentions this and says she has taken the name of the real church here but made it her own in the novel. It’s eerily surrounded by marshes and reeds and the river Blyth close by. There is also a true ghostly legend abuot this place – black scorch marks can be seen on the great wooden doors and these are said to be ‘ the devil’s fingerprints’.
Streetview Maps
A) Suffolk - Walberswick
D) Suffolk - The Cathedral of the Marshes
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Vita and the Birds
Destination: Suffolk Author/guide: Polly Crosby Departure Time: 1938, 1997
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