The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton

A Metheringham Readers Group Review

Set within 3 separate time periods during the 20th century in Australia, London and Cornwall, the author captured my interest and imagination from the very first page where an excerpt from a fairy story set the scene. From this moment on I savoured every page as fairy stories intertwined with the actual story as it unfolding.

1913 - Maryborough Wharf, Australia. A four year old girl is discovered abandoned after a voyage from England. She doesn't know her name or remember anything from her journey, only that a woman she calls the Authoress was supposed to look after her - but the authoress is nowhere to be seen.

1975 - Cornwall, England. The four year old girl is now an old lady and determined to find out what happened to her all those years ago. She decides to travel from Brisbane to Cornwall to discover her real family in an estate called Blackhurst Manor owned by the Mountrachet family. She returns to Australia to conclude her business and personal affairs but fate intervenes and she never returns.

2005 - Brisbane & Cornwall. Nell has passed away but her mystery lives on as her only granddaughter, Cassandra receives a surprise inheritance in the form of mystery of Nell's abandonment at the Wharf in Australia all those years ago. Cassandra's hunt also leads her to the Mountrachet family in Cornwall, with its long ago abandoned cottage and its forgotten garden. Will Cassandra uncover the truth about Nell's life that Nell couldn't quite uncover in her lifetime?

This story was a slow unravelling of the truth behind Nell's abandonment, of the Mountrachet family whose greed and manipulation of their own family members finally determined its own demise. The paedophilic/incestuous father, the cunning, controlling and obsessive social climbing mother and her daughter, tainted by jealousy, all conspired to 'ruin' the lives of Georgiana, Eliza and Nell (Ivory). I had little sympathy for the family who got, in the end, what they deserved.

The book received a mixed review from the group. Whilst liking the book overall, it scored 8/10 for enjoyment, it was felt that it lacked depth in places and would have benefitted from being a bit more descriptive it therefore received 7.5/10 for style of writing.