Cousins

Why a Booktrail?

2000s – A dysfunctional family in distress ..

ISBN: 978-0241187715
Genre: Fiction

What you need to know before your trail

Will Tye suffers a life changing accident. The terrible event ripples through three generations of the complex and eccentric Tye family, bringing to light old tragedies and dangerous secrets. Each member of the family holds some clue to the chain of events which may have led to the accident and each holds themselves to blame. Most closely affected is Will’s cousin Cecelia, whose affinity with Will leaves her most vulnerable to his suffering and whose own life is for ever changed by how she will respond to it.

Locations

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England - Northumberland
A: Holy Island - "St Cuthbert's Chapel

Travel Guide

Northumberland

The grandfather’s family is from Mining stock in Durham and they remember the cold sea and the shingle beaches from their childhood. Dowlands is the fictional family home they have so many memories of before the grandparents live in Cornwall before moving to Ely when health problems get in the way.

There are a lot of places they remember well from their time in the North such as St Cuthburts chapel on Holy Island which on a clear day you could see from Dowlands.

“There’s a magic in the air of Northumberland which gets into your blood. Those endless wide skies an the astonishing light which favours the east coasts and the wild sea, forever washing with its pulsing rhythms the wide sands”

Cambridge/Ely

The story centres on Cambridge where the grandmother now lives. The story of war also takes us back there with news that the LSE in London where Magda studies has to be moved to Cambridge during the war. There are many characters in the novel who study there and life for one takes on the meaning of books and booktrails which is nice to see! War breaks out and the literary references and learnings come thick and fast and the students try to make sense of the changing world around them. Tolstoy’s attitude to the working classes, Emile Zola and more are all highlighted to mark the confusing times and .