Why a Booktrail?
1911 – 2000s: Lucinda Riley is a queen of the evocative and lush landscapes and this is no exception. With a journey across India and Dartmoor, a story spans across the decades..
A Midnight Rose
What you need to know before your trail
Anahita Chavan, is 100 years old and knows that time is running out for her. so she asks her great-grandson Ari a personal favour. For as long as she can remember, she has wanted to know what happened to her darling baby son. Told he had died, she has always ‘known’ that he is still alive. She asks that he find him and find out what really happened.
Ari travels to Astbury Hall where Anahita had close connections. There he meets Rebecca Bradley, an actress who is busy filming her new movie. It is not long before they both become embroiled in the tale of Anahita Chavan, and the Astbury’s. This is much more of an epic story that any film Rebecca has even been in or seen. For this is a tale that spans generations and contains buried secrets that have never seen the light of day until now.
Travel Guide
India – World War I is approaching when we meet Anahita . She is bright and curious and a companion to a royal princess. She is unlike other Indian girls in that she gains access to a world of privilege before being sent to England where she has the chance to become educated.
There she meets young Lord Donald Astbury and they fall in love. However political and social mores at the time means that the two cannot be together and there are forces at work to ensure that they do not. He is forced to marry someone of his own station but is haunted by his true love for the rest of his life.
Then we see her aged 100 looking back on her life –
“As the dawn breaks and the sun begins to rise over Mount Kanchenjunga beyond my window, I lie on my pillows and smile to myself at the utter ridiculousness of the thought.”
Dartmoor –
Rebecca Bradley, an American Actress, is on location in Dartmoor,England at Astbury Hall –which is owned by Lord Anthony Astbury. He is stunned that she looks so much like his grandmother Violet. Whilst filming, Rebecca finds some old papers written by an Indian girl who visited Astbury Hall back in the twenties, and whose story is intrinsically linked to the Astbury family and the house.
The two worlds may collide in ways that no-one could ever have foreseen but the reader is swept up in the elegance and heat of India and the cool breeze and stone walls of Astbury Hall. Traditions, culture and language may be worlds apart but emotions are very much the same and can last a lifetime.
Astbury hall is fictional although it is based on two real houses – Castle Howard, Yorkshire and Seaton Delaval in Northumberland. The author herself shows us a booktrail around the main places in the novel.
Trail Gallery
Booktrailer Review
Susan:
This an epic novel not just for the locations but the sweeping cinematic music and scenes that flowed in my head as my eyes drifted along the words. These two worlds of India and Dartmoor may collide in ways that no-one could ever have foreseen but the reader is swept up in the elegance and heat of India and the cool breeze and stone walls of Astbury Hall and it is an enthralling experience.
Traditions, culture and language may be worlds apart but emotions are very much the same and can last a lifetime.
These two women tell their remarkable stories and as they describe or allude to their world around them you are transported there via the pages of The Midnight Rose – the mountains from Anahita’s room or the lush gardens from the window of Astbury Hall – this is a book written for the delight of all the senses.
India – And the Jaipur residents themselves were colourful; the men wore vivid turbans of yellow, magenta and ruby red
Astbury Hall – …a splendid view of the flower gardens and the sweep of green lawn and parkland beyondThe Midnight Rose is a wonderful book where the settings are characters themselves and you will never forget your journey.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information:
Twitter: @lucindariley
Facebook: /Lucindarileyauthor
Web: lucindariley.com
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