Penhaligon's Attic by Terri Nixon ** Blog Tour**

    I am delighted to be part of the Blog Tour to celebrate the publication of the paperback edition of Terri Nixon's Penhaligon's Attic, on December 1st 2016. 

A close-knit Cornish fishing village is divided by the arrival of a troubled young widow. What is Anna Garvey running from, and is she all she seems?

1910. Anna Garvey arrives in Caernoweth, Cornwall with her daughter and a secret. Having come from Ireland to take up an inheritance of the local pub, she and her eighteen year-old daughter Mairead are initially viewed with suspicion by the close-knit community.

Anna soon becomes acquainted with Freya Penhaligon, a vulnerable girl struggling to keep her family business afloat in the wake of her grandmother’s death, and starts to gain the trust of the locals. As their friendship deepens, and Freya is brought out of her shell by the clever and lively Mairead, even Freya’s protective father Matthew begins to thaw.

But when a part of Anna’s past she’d long tried to escape turns up in the town, she is forced to confront the life she left behind – for her sake and her daughter’s too . . .

My thoughts 

    I always enjoy historical fiction and this is set at such an interesting period in history. The period in the years before the First World War always seems so poignant. The role of women and their status within marriage was being questioned by some yet there were many who retained firm ideas as to what was right and proper for a woman and what was not. Anna comes to the village in Cornwall as an outsider and as the story develops we see her adapt to the community and they to her. She seems to have a sense of her own ability to get things done and does not rely on others to make her decisions. She stands up to people and there is a subtlety in the way she seems able to get round people to get what she wants. I was always aware that she was harbouring a secret but when the reveal came, it was something of a surprise.

    Several of the people Anna met in Caernoweth had their own interesting back story which gave them a certain depth. The differing family dynamics made sense of some of the decisions which they made. Anna's relationship with her daughter, Mairead, is complicated, but she is protective of the misunderstood girl, from the beginning and we see that she is not the simple girl many believe her to be. 

     We appreciate that Caernoweth is a place at the mercy of the elements. Men's livelihoods are risked at sea in the fishing boats. The sea always seems to be present within the story and the beaches seem to be dangerous places where people feel afraid and at risk. The village is a haven of security where people close ranks and trust is hard won. I look forward to following these characters through the Penhaligon Saga.

In short: a story of family relationships and secrets from the past set against the beautiful but dangerous Cornish coast.

                                                                      The Author 

 

Terri Nixon was born in Plymouth in 1965. At the age of nine she moved with her family to Cornwall, to the village featured in Daphne du Maurier's Jamaica Inn – North Hill – where she discovered a love of writing that has stayed with her ever since. Her first commercially published novel was Maid of Oaklands Manor, published by Piatkus in 2013. She has since published two more novels in the Oaklands Manor trilogy: A Rose in Flanders Fields and Daughter of Dark River Farm.

Connect with Terri Nixon on Twitter  and her website here

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Thanks to Clara Diaz at Piatkus Books for a copy of the book and a place on the Blog Tour.