The Hour Glass

Author/Guide: Tracy Rees

Why a Booktrail?

1950, 2014: Tenby in Pembrokeshire is a place for healing, discovery and a secret…

ISBN: 978-1784296261
Genre: Fiction, Mystery

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What you need to know before your trail

2014. Nora, troubled by anxiety and nightmares, finds herself drawn to the sweeping beaches of Tenby. She’s only been once before but soon finds herself there renting a beautiful townhouse with a local girl and slowly begins to settle in to her new life. But Tenby hides a secret, and Nora will soon discover that this little town by the sea has the power to heal even the most painful memories.

1950. Chloe visits Tenby every summer as a teenager. She stays with relatives, and spends the long, idyllic days on the beach. Every year is the same, until she meets a glamorous older boy and is instantly smitten. But on the night of their first date, Chloe comes to a realisation, the aftermath of which could haunt her forever.

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Tenby

Tenby is the town which mixes the two stories together across the decades. It shines in the chapters with Chloe as the sunshine, the simplicity of life as seen through the eyes of a teenager, the joy of what might be, what the summer might bring:

Tenby! The very name filled her with elation.It smacked of adventure, of endless sunny beaches, of romance and hidden treasure…”

She’s 13 and so this is the first time she can attend the Tenby Teens summer dance – an important date in the teenagers social calendar. It’s the chance to meet with her friends, the boy she likes and her first dance! there’s this boy, Lew, who is never without his box brownie camera who is never afraid to “accost fishermen, holiday makers, lifeboatmen, usherettes at the picture house…” the life and soul of Tenby in the 1950s.

The rich descriptions were vivid and evocative of a seaside town that time forgot. The sounds and sights of a 1950’s summer, the thrill of a dance, sitting on the beach, the clothes, make – up and teenage years were a real burst of nostalgia or a step in to the past depending on your age! You can imagine yourself there on every page – wearing a puffed polka dot skirt as you do.

Nora’s Tenby

For Nora, this is a place to regain her confidence and she settles in to the town very well. She has got some links to the area with her grandmother living nearby and through her stories, she begins to learn more about her mother who seems reluctant to ever revisit Wales and in fact seems to have spent her whole life avoiding the area. Her friends have quotes for the place

“Such varied attractions for the lover of old-world associations and time-worn architecture” and “If Tenby be not the Queen of Welsh watering places must be crowned Empress”

This Tenby is a stranger for its doesn’t wish to divulge any of its secrets to Nora but as an outsider, she has to try and find out just what or who is drawing her back to this place.

Streetview Maps

D) Tenby Harbour

E) Tenby Castle

Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer

I’ve loved Tracy Rees first two books so really wanted to read this one – it’s not the usual historical fair although one story is set in the 1950s but it does have all the hallmarks of her lovely evocative writing and interweaving stories.

It’s also a novel and story where the town of Tenby was very carefully chosen – its size, history and atmosphere makes this a quaint inward looking place that can be a typically Welsh seaside town with all the fun of the fair one minute and then you see it as a place of refuge, a place to return to and find answers. It seemed so small and innocent which I think added to the intrigue of what must have happened here to make two women feel such strong emotions for it.

I did find Chloe’s story more enthralling and more colourful but maybe that’s the nature of the story – as a carefree town it was always going to be the place which shines the most. I was keen to find out just what Nora’s link was to the place and loved the fact it was her grandmother who was going to be involved – there’s something very satisfying about finding out secrets of the past from older members of the family

I now have to go to Tenby as Tracy has evoked this town so well – leaving the drama firmly in the pages of the book of course. A story of how a place, a town can help you to reinvent yourself and to write a future that is better than your past.