I must confess that for many years I have had an irrational prejudice against your books.
You see, back when I was living and working in London I developed an eye problem. I had to take quite a bit of time off work and – disaster – I had to stop reading.
The book I had to put down, and take back to the library unfinished, was ‘The Shadowy Horses’.
And so – even though my doctor and I soon worked out that I had developed a bad intolerance to sunlight and put things right with a course of steroids, eyedrops, and tinted glasses at all times – the unhappy association remained.
Unfair I know, but there it is.
But as the years passed those feelings faded. And I was visiting a lot of bloggers – Danielle, Staci and Eva, to name just a few – who were saying wonderful things about your books.
When I saw that ‘The Rose Garden’ was
set in Cornwall I knew that I had to find a copy.
The emotion of the opening chapter captured me.
And when I turned to the second chapter I realised that you understood the Cornish psyche:
“Crossing the Tamar for some reason made me feel different inside. It was only a river, yet every time I crossed it I felt I had stepped through some mystical veil that divided the world that I only existed in from the one that I was meant to be living in.”
- The Tamar Bridge
I have crossed the bridge that links Cornwall to Devon and the rest of the country so many times, and those words capture the sensation perfectly.
I’m afraid there’s a slip in the next paragraph. Daphne du Maurier lived on the north coast, not the south. As a native of the south coast I’d love to claim her, but I can’t. Though I can say that she was living just a few miles away when I first fell in love with her books.
But I’m rambling. What I meant to say is that I can easily forgive a few little inaccuracies if the spirit of the story is right. And the spirit is.
So I’ll go back to reading …
Fleur in her World 
I love your comments – and your taste in reading! Maybe you’d enjoy my latest novel. It is called IN A PLACE APART.
How lovely: someone new to explore AND a story set in Cornwall.
Yay! I hope you continue to enjoy it. 🙂
The Shadowy Horses is available in my library so I am going to reserve that one. I just got Mariana but The rose Garden will have to wait for a bit. Its on order and going to take a looong time to get here!
Oh how funny, I’d never heard of this author until I was looking at The Shadowy Horses earlier today and wondering if I would like it! I think I shall read it. or maybe start with The Rose Garden…they both sound appealing.
I’m reading The Rose Garden at the moment too and enjoying it so far. I love the setting, though I’m not familiar enough with Cornwall to notice any inaccuracies. I hope the rest of the book lives up to the promise of the first few chapters!
I love when an author gets a second chance! I don’t know much about Kearsley, but I see that her books are very popular in my library system – every last one checked out!
I’ve enjoyed all SK’s novels & recently read Rose Garden. I loved it. I think she gets the tone of the historical sections just right. The characters speak in a slightly antiquated way so you immediately know they’re not modern but there are no thees & thous, no “talking forsoothly” as Josephine Tey said.
I have The Rose Garden on my Wish List (well, I think I have!) so perhaps time to dig it out and make it a reality!
I think we all love books in the county in which we live or were born. I love books set in Devon because I live in Devon, just as you love the books set in Cornwall. Yes, Cornwall is magical, but so is the county on the other side of the Tamar!