The Cottingley Secret - Hazel Gaynor

Description

The New York Times bestselling author turns the clock back to a time when two young girls convinced the world that fairies really did exist…

1917: When two young cousins, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright from Cottingley, England, announce they have photographed fairies at the bottom of the garden, their parents are astonished. But when the great novelist, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, endorses the photographs’ authenticity, the girls become a sensation; their discovery offering something to believe in amid a world ravaged by war.

One hundred years later… When Olivia Kavanagh finds an old manuscript and a photograph in her late grandfather’s bookshop she becomes fascinated by the story of the two young girls who mystified the world. As Olivia is drawn into events a century ago, she becomes aware of the past and the present intertwining, blurring her understanding of what is real and what is imagined. As she begins to understand why a nation once believed in fairies, will Olivia find a way to believe in herself?

Review

I am going to begin my review by saying that I found this book to be utterly enchanting - such beautiful and evocative writing made me want to savour every word I read. I am not a fan of flowery descriptive writing normally, as I prefer to get the tale told: but this was so wonderful that I wished I could have framed some of the sentences to read all over again. One of my favourites is right at the beginning of the book "The house stood at the top of a steep hill, at the end of a row of seven or so terraced houses bunched together like books on a shelf, with Number 31 the bookend propping them all up".

The story is told over two timelines which are clearly headed in the book and at no time was it confusing to know which era you were in. One timeline is about the girls and how they came to photograph the fairies and the other timeline is set in the present day in Ireland. The present day timeline is mainly focused around a bookshop and I was in heaven when reading those lovely pages. I also loved the fact that Olivia in the present day was a book binder. I won't spoil the book by describing what the connection is, just to say it is all woven together with a thread that is in itself magical. There is also a sensitivity that the author shows for the subject of dementia and it was portrayed so realistically, as were the scenes in the residential home.  As the book neared the end I found myself crying more than a few tears, as I had become very attached to the characters.

To be balanced in my review, I will say there are some elements of the book that jolt you back to reality and appear unlikely - such as Olivia seemingly cutting herself off from her life in England and her fiance. However, I chose to go with the flow and not worry about such things - after all the book is a little more than a little magical.

I had heard of the Cottingley fairies and over the years each time the story once more came to the surface I was intrigued - did the girls really fake the photographs? Whilst this is a work of fiction I was delighted when I reached the end of the book to find that the author had in fact connected with the daughter of one of the girls, Christine Lynch. She has included at the end of the book a letter from Christine and it just added all the more to the charm of the book. So often a book comes to an end and you are left in a little bit of a quandry as to what just happened? I have so many questions. But, Hazel Gaynor has not only her own "Notes on a Fairy Tale" explaining how she came to write the novel but also the photographs which inspired it. A wonderful finishing touch to the book for me. 

I need to read more by this author. I do in fact now realise that I have one of her earlier books on my TBR list, and that book is now very much at the top. 

I'm giving this book five out of five stars - I wish it could be more! My thanks to Netgalley for a copy of the book for review.