Words leave imprints in your mind like footprints in the sand...
1920s: A fictional mill village of Bridgestead, Yorkshire, but based on the real life village of Cottingley. And it’s always a treat going back to Yorkshire – God’s country – especially during the 1920s. Smell the crumpets and pop the kettle on!
In the fictional Yorkshire village of Bridgestead – there is a real sense of beauty and calm and you would expect from God’s own country. Sheep in the fields, babbling brooks and rolling hills. oh not to mention the working mill at the heart of the community.
But one day the master of the mill Joshua Braithwaite goes missing in dramatic circumstances, never to be heard of again.
Years later and Joshua’s daughter is getting married and so desperately wants her father to come to the wedding or at least to make contact with her. So she makes one last attempt at finding out what happened.
It wasn’t peace and calm in the village that made life quiet – it was the confines of a conspiracy of silence.
The charm of the Yorkshire way of life really shines through and it’s a pleasure to read of the farming community, the way people natter rather than talk and the woolen blankets and warm food that Kate likes to eat. the weather is also a strong evocative point –
Aah skedaddle – there are many more localisms like this which really add to the charm and authentic environment of the novel.
A lot of history and cultural history in particular in this book is reminiscent of the times such as the sandwich boards, the telegram boy on his bike, an emptying the contents of the chamber pot. A history lesson in a lovely cosy novel which brings Yorkshire to life.
Cottingley on which the village of Bridgestead is based is also famous for the story of the Cottingley fairies back in1917, when cousins Elsie Wright, age 16, and Frances Griffiths, age 10, said they had photographed fairies and were able to provide ‘proof’ which even Arthur Conan Doyle was interested in.
