The Black Mountains and the Puzzle Wood
The Black Mountains and the Puzzle Wood
The setting of the new novel by Rosie Andrews really struck me. It’s described in the blurb like this:
“When Miss Catherine Symonds arrives to take up a position as governess at remote Locksley Abbey in the foothills of the Black Mountains, where England bleeds into Wales, she is apprehensive.”
Now that got me VERY interested and so I spent a lot more time looking at this location than I might have normally. What did I find? Well…..
Locations in The Puzzle Wood
Black Mountains and the Puzzle Wood
Locations in The Puzzle Wood
The Black Mountains are a group of hills spread across parts of Powys and Monmouthshire in southeast Wales, and extending across the England–Wales border into Herefordshire. They are the easternmost of the four ranges of hills that comprise the Brecon Beacons.
You can just imagine a governess going to work here and finding that the area is creepy and unforgiving. Imagine living here in a big old house where there is nothing around you and where the walls seem to whisper….
Locations in The Puzzle Wood
In the novel, you arrive at this place like this:
“She looked about her. Steadily over the last few hours, they had climbed from the rolling Herefordshire plain into the hills. Now they were well above the flats sameness of those English fields and rattled through tunnelled lanes lined with hedgerows of shining black bryony and wild rosehips, moving up and down with the shape of the land, but still gradually gaining in height.”
Locations in The Puzzle Wood
Blaen-yr-henbant (C) Wikipedia
Locations in The Puzzle Wood
As the governess reaches the house where she is to work, a few more secrets come out of the page. This got me excited! The location is not as remote as she would have liked it would seem, for she has secrets!!!
“Ten minutes later, they left the old Roman road, turning sharply to the south and the banshee cries of the dogs drifted away as they crested the plateau before the higher peaks. The path became serpentine and overgrown. Then something cut into the silence. A shout. Someone called out a reply, and a dogy yapped. Every reminder that there were other people here, that it was not as isolated as she had thought, brought another stab of fear. Any encounter, no matter how small, meant some new chance of being discovered.”
The Puzzle Wood is an isolated forest – the unsettling, beguiling backdrop to a tale of myths, memory and murder. Would you want to spend time here if not for this book? Are you brave enough?
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Puzzle Wood
Twitter: @rosieandrews22
