When Gilly is left alone in the world, she is left to grasp at a glorious promise of a house far away from her previous homes. Her shining memories are of Geillis, her godmother or sponsor, and her visits explaining nature, plants and glimpses of the future. Her father was equally preoccupied with his ministry and accordingly Gilly grew up alone, with no friends in a grim mining village and not really allowed pets. Gilly recalls how her mother had her occupations which left her with little time or even interest in her only child, as she was a woman with a sense of the “other” from her upbringing in New Zealand. This is the first Stewart novel I have read in several years produced in 1988 it is a lovely book of a time past, of postwar England.
Thornyhold itself is another character in the latter part of the book, beautifully described to create an image of house and garden that speaks loudly of the women who have gone before. The settings of this book are not exotic, unlike some of Stewart’s other books, but it speaks of the variation in landscape culminating in the beauty of the house Thornyhold and the surrounding Wiltshire countryside. This is a lovely book, written in Gilly’s voice, explaining her sadness but also her joys of discovery. Her home is the same, full of secrets and opportunities, but also attracting the interest of others. Magical, and mystical, she is a woman who makes a difference with her knowledge of the world and especially plants. A lonely child growing up in a bleak Vicarage and unfriendly schools, her childhood is transformed by the visits of her mother’s cousin, also called Geillis.
Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.“I suppose that my mother could have been a witch if she had chosen to.” So begins this clever, almost mystical book which tells the story of Gilly, or Geillis, a young woman who discovers that life is not always straightforward. Mary Stewart's storytelling is as spell-binding as ever in her twelfth novel, a gothic romance featuring sparkling prose, delightful characterisation and classic intrigue. Slowly, quietly, she comes to realise that they are right. She discovers also that the local people believe that Gilly has inherited not just the house but the magical spell-weaving powers that live on in the house and garden. And as she explores, she discovers more about the woman who had come to seem like a fairy godmother for her: her herbalists's skills, her still room, her abilities to foresee and to heal. Her very own enchantment, left to her by the cousin whose occasional magical visits had brightened her childhood. Thornyhold is a house deep in a wild wood like somewhere out of a fairy tale.
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