The Visitors
Like many women in the 1920s, Esme Nicholls is grieving for her husband, killed in the First World War. The chance to spend a summer in Cornwall seems to be an opportunity for her to learn how to live again. She can indulge her love of gardens and the countryside and write her weekly nature columns for a local newspaper. And she becomes a part of a rather unconventional community, one of whose members, Rory, holds a particular attraction for her. However, her fragile peace is shattered by the arrival of visitors and the unexpected secrets they bring with them.
The story is interspersed with Rory’s wartime diaries, an uncompromising account of the fear and the hardships of war punctuated by fleeting moments of joy and camaraderie. We also have Esme’s nature notes, and the main narrative is seen through the eyes of gardeners and artists, an ephemeral landscape of flowers and hedgerows, of sea and shadows. It is a patchwork of secrets, new beginnings, and the ghosts of the past.
When I began this book, I thought the story was going to be predictable and not particularly enjoyable. But I was wrong on both counts. Both Esme and Rory turned out to be more interesting characters than initially suggested, and there are enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. And I loved the lyrical descriptions of the Cornish countryside. Recommended.
