The Garden of Lost and Found: The gripping tale of the power of family love

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In contrast, we suddenly move forward to a typical 21st century family, meeting Liddy’s great grand-daughter, Juliet an art historian, struggling to bring up 3 children in a troubled marriage. The descriptions of a teenager, small girl and a toddler are hilarious and realistic, and I could feel for Juliet as she tried to maintain her professionalism at work with so little support from her husband. Discovering she has inherited Nightingale House changes her life dramatically and is not welcomed by her children. In many ways I preferred reading about Juliet to the story of Liddy and of Stella, Juliet’s grandmother, but they are essential to the person Juliet is, to her love for the house and garden and her intense interest in art. The plot jumps between the past and present, and I adored this, as I found I was trying to work out the links. It all came together really well, and there were no questions unanswered. However, I did find one diary entry confusing as I couldn’t remember this particular character.

The Garden Of Lost And Found is a multi-generational, family saga which has the Horner family’s enchanting family home, Nightingale House, firmly at its centre. The story seamlessly switches between historical events and those in the present gradually building a clearer picture of the events which lead artist Sir Edward Horner to burn his most famous painting, The Garden Of Lost And Found, before bringing it to a climatic end with a final twist. Sir Edward Horner, the most celebrated artist of his day, destroys his world-famous painting, THE LITTLE BIRDS , shortly before his death. But why? Buy this book from hive.co.uk to support The Reading Agency and local bookshops at no additional cost to you.I’m a huge fan of Harriet Evans and having reviewed her last few books here on the blog am delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for the new release, The Garden of Lost and Found – and to be winding up the tour on its final day. My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the tour invitation and to Headline for the review copy.

Despite having had The Wildflowers on my shelf for the longest time, this was my first introduction to Harriet Evans. I really enjoyed her writing style as it’s beautifully descriptive. At times it felt as if I was right there at Nightingale House, hearing the rain patter on the windows, smelling the glorious scents from the garden, maybe even hear a mouse skitter across the floorboards. Overall, I found this book very enjoyable, lovely and gripping to read. It was exactly what I needed from this audiobook, praise to Harriet Evans. I’m definitely going to be looking into other books by Evans, because the writing is stunning in this book.

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Millions around the world once queued up to see the painting that captured a perfect moment: Horner's two children, John and Eliza, playing in the garden of their magical, mysterious Nightingale House, the family home he and his wife created deep in the heart of the English countryside. I really don’t want to give away too much about the plot but this is the story of a famous painting, a grand old house and a family living with secrets and tragedy. It is told mostly through the eyes of Liddy, who is the wife of famous artist Ned Horner and Juliet, her great granddaughter, with some glimpses into the lives of the generations in between. The novel follows the generations of a family from 1880-1918 and then in present day. The bonds between a granddaughter and a grandmother are strong, surviving the grave.

The Garden of Lost and Found is one of those stories that you could lose yourself in for hours. There are family secrets to be discovered and surprises along the way. I loved it and think it’s probably one of my favourite books by Harriet Evans so far. Nightingale House links the generations. It becomes a character in its own right. Harriet Evans painted its picture with her words so that I could ‘see’ the house. Usually when I write a review, I like to give a brief overview of the characters and the synopsis of the book, however I have found it practically impossible to do this for The Garden Of Lost And Found. Using multiple threads intricately woven together Harriet Evans has created a wonderfully complex story that simply cannot be summed up in a couple of paragraphs. I also wanted to avoid talking at length about the story as it would be incredibly difficult to avoid spoilers! Engrossing and clever and funny and beautifully observed . . . I recommend it wholeheartedly' Clothes in Books blogThis sweeping tale is by turns painfully sad and heart-lifting, with characters that stay with you‘ Good Housekeeping descriptions of Nightingale House and the flowers in the garden were enjoyable. However other members thought that the author was over descriptive especially when it came to the flower and plants. Whether Ned’s masterpiece – or, in Juliet’s case, her own children’s happiness. Something shattered this corner of paradise. But what?Harriet Evans brings her readers home:‘Heart-stopping and wonderful’ Sophie Kinsella’Harriet Evans is my favourite author’ Goodreads’Secrets and lies in a gorgeous idyllic setting’ Prima’Reminiscent of Santa Montefiore with the emotional heart of Jojo Moyes. The Macclesfield Reading Group received free copies of this book through the Reading Agency- here are the Reading Group's thoughts:

The characters were confusing, who was related to whom. I didn't particularly like any of them, none of them stood out. All this, my love, darling etc became rather nauseous after a while. I was blissfully carried away by this intelligent (she’s as good as the great Rosamunde Pilcher), classy and superbly executed family saga’ Saga We can see how much work and dedication that must have gone in to this book. This book has alot of sadness and the author expresses emotion well. We felt anger at how certain characters were treated and empathy for the sadness experienced by the characters. Being a mother can be hard. I recognised myself in some of the contemporary breakfast scenes! – Trying to please all but ending up pleasing none.Harriet Evans is an accomplished romance writer, but she also writes chilling characters terrifyingly well from the evil childhood nurse, to the weak father and the selfish, manipulative husband. Humour also shines through with the recognisable tribes of primary school mothers and the sheer insanity of coping with small and strong minded children and troubled teens. I loved both timelines, rooting for both Liddy and Juliet as they dared to reach out for happiness despite the many obstacles in their way.