Why a Booktrail?
1890: Ill-fated love affairs can change lives in very unexpected ways
Snow Angels
What you need to know before your trail
Abby Reed, grieving after the loss of her mother, finds an unexpected source of comfort exploring the rugged, snowy countryside with the brooding Gillan Collingwood, son of a local shipping merchant. It isn’t long before she begins to hope that she and Gill might someday be more than friends . . .
But then Gill meets his elder brother’s new wife Helen, and falls instantly, deeply in love with her. Abby is shattered by the news and throws herself into an imprudent love affair. Her impulse will take her away from the frosty wilds of her homeland to London’s glittering social scene . . . but can she ever forget the boy she left behind?
Locations
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Newcastle 1890s
This is the city that Elizabeth loves and knows so well. She takes us back to the glory days of shipbuilding. The city is evoked in many ways: from the shipbuilding heritage, to the community spirit, the rugged coastline and the family connections. The author herself was born here and still lives in Durham
Jesmond
They lived in Jesmond, on of the most prosperous areas of Newcastle, in a bit semi-detached village not far from the cricket ground
Ship building
William Collingwood was the biggest shipbuilder on the tyne. They sit at the top of Newcastle society but the wife, charlotte sits there in a way that Abbey‘s mother describes like “A fairy with a Christmas tree suck up her arse”
Surtees house
Worth a visit as Charlotte hails from a branch of this family. This is the house where Bessie Surtees lived and she eloped from a window in this very house back in 1772
She eloped with John Scott, a coal merchant’s son who Bessie’s father did not approve of as Bessie was from a prominent family. Ironically, John later became a prominent local and national figure whose name is still well known across the region.
Northumberland – Bamburgh House
Abby and her father drive out to the mansions which William Collingwood had built years earlier when he became rich.
“Abby did not think about the Northumberland countryside; she was used to the big farms and wide fields. Castles were common place here, the kind of fortifications which had helped top keep out the Picts and Scots and Border reivers at different times”
London
The London scene centres around Abby’s new house in Mayfair, but the call of Newcastle comes a callin’
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Snow Angels
Destination: Newcastle upon Tyne, London Author/Guide: Elizabeth Gill Departure Time: 1890
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