The Snow Globe

Author/Guide: Judith Kinghorn

Why a Booktrail?

1926: A great old hall in Surrey holds hopes and dreams for one young girl

ISBN: B0753ZXNS1
Genre: Fiction, Historical

Comment

What you need to know before your trail

As Christmas 1926 approaches, the Forbes family are preparing to host a celebration at Eden Hall. Eighteen-year-old Daisy is on the cusp of adulthood and her relationship with Stephen Jessop, the housekeeper’s son, has shifted. But that’s not the only relationship change, for she has received a declaration of love, a proposal and a kiss – from three different men by the end of the night.

She flees to London and stays with her elder sister in order to escape the drama. By the following summer, Daisy has bowed to the persistence of the one man but Stephen is once more in her life too. Will duty come before love and longing before expectation.

Locations

Reset

Travel Guide

London

When Daisy goes to escape her love complexities, she heads off to Margot’s house in London. It’s a place to escape from the grand and rural Eden Hall, but families are at that time cutting back on expenses and Daisy suspects the house is surplus to requirements. Iris has a flat nearby and it’s strange she doesn’t live here, but she and her father have never really got on.

“The Forbes family home is here and it’s a stucco -fronted town house Howard had inherited at twenty-two years of age. Eden Hall was different. For Howard, it represented his own achievements, the culmination of and testament to this hard work: his dream, his vision,built with the proceeds from his thriving business, Forbes and Sons.”

Surrey

Oh the gorgeous stunning setting of Eden Hall. The grand house where much of the novel takes place. Sadly fictional but there are lots to choose from here to pretend you’re in Eden Hall

He’d bought the land and then taken his bride here. His vision to the architect was” a substantial country house with impressive lines , tall chimneys; and immense gabled rooftops. He got what he wanted: “A grand country house in the medieval vernacular style, and with its double height entrance hall, sweeping staircase and oak paneling, double height drawing room and oriel windows, the place was every bit as impressive as Howard Forbe’s vision”

Snow Globe

Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer

Snow globes are fascinating. That’s the first thing I thought of when picking up this novel to read. That miniature world encased in glass and you, like a giant looking in and wishing sometimes you were in that snowy world. Or was that just me? I digress

Anyway, a snow globe provides a very nice link to how Daisy in the novel is feeling since her world is seemingly made of glass, her world all planned and created for her, and all she has to go is to hold it in her hands. But what do you do, if you don’t want it but don’t want to smash it either? Daisy loves this snow globe but not her life – she puts it on display in Eden Hall and it’s as if she is the real object on display.

This novel is like sinking into a cushion and thinking you’re in Downton Abbey. It’s a nice slow read and much of the action surrounds Daisy and her life at Eden Hall and her journey as she grows up. The family dynamics are interesting and when the father’s mistress is invited to the dinner party, well, the fireworks outside aren’t the only ones exploding.

“ ‘Love never leaves us. It stays right here,’ she said, placing a hand to her chest. ‘And then, one day, the mist rises, everything falls into place, and its so easy to see, to understand, and one wishes one could run back through the years, back to that love.’”
Eden Hall is like that snow globe – keep it still and it looks idyllic from the outside but shake things up such as in the family and goodness knows what will result.

I always enjoy Judith’s novels and this was comforting and there’s always something about country houses and their quirks which continue to fascinate.