Why a Booktrail?
Destination : Dorset Departure Time:1937
Love can be a wonderful thing or the deepest darkest of obsessions
A Half Forgotten Song
What you need to know before your trail
Fourteen year old Mitzy Hatcher has grown up on the coast of Dorset in a small village and for much of her life has endured her neglectful mother and a lonely existence. When Charles Aubrey, a renowned artist comes to the coast for the summer, he brings with him his mistress the and their daughters. She becomes friends with the family and is excited to have found something, someone she treasures. But she develops an obsession with Charles himself and events start to spiral out of control.
Years later a man walks into an art galley and finds an unusual portrait and wonders who is in the picture and why it was drawn. He starts his journey down to Dorset where the artist once lived…
Travel Guide
The Dorset coast is an apt place for Mitzy to grow up – the landscape is raw, wild and adventurous like she is.
She has lived in Blacknowle all her life. This village is where she was born and where her misery has continued to flourish. Blacknowle is not a real place but is based on the Dorset coast where Katherine Webb has spent much time. IT’s one of the most beautiful parts of England but for Mitzy, it’s a lonely and insular experience as the coast is wild and she has to forage for herself in such a remote spot. She knows the landscape and her flora and fauna well – even picking herbs for cooking and providing home remedies she makes herself.
The arrival of Charles Aubry must have been a day of huge excitement – an author staying here amongst the locals in a house on the cliff edge! Moreover the idea of this artist and his unorthodox living arrangements – with a woman he wasn’t married to – was scandalous for its time. He was inspired by the real artist Augustus John who lived with a wife and mistress and both of their children and drew the women in his life.
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Twitter: @KWebbAuthor
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