The Camomile Lawn

Author/Guide: Mary Wesley

Why a Booktrail?

1939: The annual ritual of a holiday, the last flush of youth

ISBN: 978-0671504618
Genre: Fiction, Historical

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What you need to know before your trail

Here, in the dizzying heat of August 1939, five cousins gather at their aunt’s house for their annual ritual of a holiday.This is, for most of them, the last summer of their youth, a chance to be themselves, their free selves before the onset of war.

Although the cousins part ways and many move to London , they will never forget those carefree days on the Camomile lawn, this becomes a symbol of something good, something lost but something always remembered.

But then war does come and the consequences are devastating

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Travel Guide

Cornwall – The Camomile Lawn

`Helena Cuthbertson picked up the crumpled Times by her sleeping husband and went to the flower room to iron it’

In one sentence we are thrown into the fine life and the life of rest and relaxation these people enjoy in Cornwall. All of this peace and tranquility however is on the cusp of WW2.

Ah but it’s that fragrant Camomile Lawn which stretches down to the cliffs in the garden of their aunt’s house. Memories of the Roseland Peninsula?

Parts of the book were based on Mary Wesley’s early life. The house in Cornwall was based on Boskenna, the seat of the Paynter family, where Wesley stayed as a child. She also used the death of a coastgyard near here which she suspected was foul play, in the novel.

London in the blitz.

The novel i a study of war time Lonond and what war does to some people. It traps some but sets others free. Everyone’s life changes and the novel draws the characters into the activitites of thee war office and war intelligence. Having lived with two Jewish refugees, their expereince and reaction to the war is tested.

London in the Blitz – those blackout curtains came in quite handy for some secret sexual shenanigans