Why a Booktrail?
1931, 1962: A marsh house on the Norfolk moors has secrets from the past and it’s ready to tell…..
The Marsh House
What you need to know before your trail
December, 1962
Desperate to salvage something from a disastrous year, Malorie rents a remote house on the Norfolk coast for Christmas. But once there, the strained silence between her and her daughter, Franny, feels louder than ever. Digging for decorations in the attic, she comes across the notebooks of the teenaged Rosemary, who lived in the house years before. Though she knows she needs to focus on the present, Malorie finds herself inexorably drawn into the past…
July, 1931
Rosemary lives in the Marsh House with her austere father, surrounded by unspoken truths and rumours. So when the glamorous Lafferty family move to the village, she succumbs easily to their charm. Dazzled by the beautiful Hilda and her dashing brother, Franklin, Rosemary fails to see the danger that lurks beneath their bright façades…
As Malorie reads on, the boundaries between past and present begin to blur, in this haunting novel about family, obligation and deeply buried secrets.
Locations
Reset- England - Norfolk
- A: Stiffkey
- B: Stiffkey river
- C: Cromer
- D: Holkham - Holkham Hall
- E: Salthouse
Travel Guide
Discover Stiffkey in Norfolk and its marsh house
Stiffkey is a village on the north coast of Norfolk. It is located 6 km east of Wells-next-the-Sea and 40 km north-west of the city of Norwich.
Stiffkey is noted for cockles which still retain the old name of ‘Stewkey blues’. These are stained blue by the mud in which they live.
An interesting snippet of information from the novel too!
“…time is different up there in a village like mine, on a forgotten bit of the coast, isolated from day trippers and city ways and the so-called march of progress. There are still people there who follow a different lore to those of commerce and man-made time. There are ways older than motor cars and electricity and telephones that persist, like the black layer of mud on the marsh, concealed beneath the top layer of rationality. I’m not saying those ways are better, but they are there, whether you like them or not.”
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Marsh House
Destination/Location: Stiffkey, Norfolk Author: Zoe Somerville Departure: 1931, 1962
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