The Memory Tree - Reviews
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Note: THE MEMORY TREE was previously published in 2016 as THE TRYSTING TREE.
"A nostalgic, romantic, and emotional read, rooted firmly in reality. It is quite simply breath-taking."
BREW & BOOKS REVIEW
From a blog review on BEING ANNE:
"... THE MEMORY TREE had so many elements I love to find in any book I read. First of all, there's the dual time element - a modern story of a family with a mystery in its past, a story spanning the First World War, linked by setting and a shared history.
I particularly loved the way the earlier story was told - real time, readings from diaries, letters, sometimes even by the trees themselves. Both stories are complex and engaging, exploring love and loss and set against a vividly drawn backdrop, deep in natural detail and rich in atmosphere.
In the modern story, there's a wonderfully drawn mother-daughter relationship - the character of mother Phoebe is particularly well developed, her loss of movement and inability to paint very poignantly described, her difficult personality and absence of mothering instinct perfectly drawn.
I loved Hester in the earlier story too - struggling with the pressure of expectation and convention, with a strong clear voice. The love story of old and the one of the present day are intensely moving and totally absorbing - and the complex plot, full of secrets, within which the love stories sit twists and turns with ease, deftly handled by a writer fully in control of her craft.
If you've read Linda Gillard's work before, you'll be enchanted by this one. If you haven't - well, this really wouldn't be a bad place to start."
Lorna Fergusson, author of THE CHASE wrote: "This moving dual-time story celebrates the power of love to overcome the darkest memories and deepest losses. Linda Gillard proves yet again that she can write compelling stories about characters who may bow, but don't break. THE MEMORY TREE will keep you spellbound."