Why a Booktrail?
2000s: Can antique dolls see into a person’s heart and indeed their soul?
The Dollmaker
What you need to know before your trail
Stitch by perfect stitch, Andrew Garvie makes exquisite dolls in the finest antique style. One day he answers the enigmatic personal ad in his collector’s magazine.
Letter by letter, Bramber Winters reveals more of her strange, sheltered life in an institution on Bodmin Moor, and the terrible events that put her there as a child. Andrew knows what it is to be trapped; and as they knit closer together, he weaves a curious plan to rescue her.
On his journey through the old towns of England he reads the fairytales of Ewa Chaplin. When Andrew and Bramber meet at last, they will have a choice – to remain alone with their painful pasts or break free and, unlike their dolls, come to life.
Locations
Reset- England - Cornwall
- A: Bodmin Moor - "Tarquin's End"
- B: Bodmin Moor Station
- C: Truro - Truro Cathedral
- England - Sussex
- D: Bramber Castle
- England -Berkshire
- E: Reading - Reading Abbey Ruins
- F: Reading station
- G: Friar St
- England - London
- H: British Library
- I: Asylum Road
Travel Guide
Travel to Cornwall BookTrail style
Bodmin Moor
Where the whole novel unfolds, when Bramber Winter writes to someone through the Ponchinella magazine which is all about dolls and doll making.
The whole industry of doll making in this novel is creepy yet fascinating at the same time. Do dolls have souls, and do they have a future life?
“ A great deal has been written on dolls. There are volumes on the history of dolls, the provenance of dolls, the value of dolls, heavy catalogues filled with lavish illustration, images that quicken the blood and stimulate desire.”
Tarquin’s End (close to Padstow)
The main setting in the novel which is fictional. This is in the middle of the wild moors, remote country and desolate landscape.
“The landscape was stark and barren, the heathery scrubland frequently pierced by outcrops of rough granite.”
This is the place of red brick houses, weeds, a duck pond with dead bullrushes. Not like the granite houses and moorland of Bodmin.
And at the centre of it all – West Edge House, a house which has seen better days.
The rest of the locations are only briefly visited and don’t play a really significant role in the story. This is the story of Bodmin and the world of dolls.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Dollmaker
Destination: Bodmin Moor, Reading, London, England Author/guide: Rebecca Griffiths Departure: 2000s
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