Why a Booktrail?
1958 – A Cornish holiday and a secret hidden amongst the orange groves of Italy…
Sea of Lost Love
What you need to know before your trail
The summer of 1958.
A rich aristocratic family live in Pendrift Hall with gorgeous gardens close to the Cornish coast. Summer here looks set to be a daze of sun, aromas of jasmine and other flowers and a playground for maybe an illicit affair or two.
But when one of the family disappears, everything changes. A note has been found with the words ‘Forgive me’ written on it. But what exactly does this mean?
Celestria heads down the path of discovery which takes her from the Cornish coast to the orange groves of southern Italy and what she finds there will be the biggest surprise of all.
Travel Guide
Puglia, southern Italy.
Montefiore writes on her website that she researched this novel in Puglia itself and visited an old monastery that a lady has converted into a hotel with her husband. Calling it ‘delightful, charming and magical’, you can see how this formed the inspiration for this novel as every emotion jumps off the page and all your senses are brought alive.
Cornwall was important to the author due to her childhood spent there and ‘the windy rugged beaches’ that are still so vivid to her
It is this period of the 1950 which is so lovingly captured here and seems so realistic even if we and the author are not that old! For example the elderflower cordial they have on the patio – is this old or just quaint? It paints a picture of happy family times and carefree days spent in the sunshine.
So by the time the action moves to Italy, there is a lot of backstory for us to understand Celestria’s reasons for her search and why she gets drawn into situations involving ‘ deception, masquerades and mirrors’ .
Puglia had refashioned her so that now her shape no longer fitted the old mould. She felt at odds with her London life.
A place and location can do that to you.
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