About this item
Set in Ireland on the wild coast of Connemara, this hauntingly romantic novel tells the story of a young woman who goes in search of her family’s past and ends up discovering her future.Ellen Trawton is running away from it all. She hates her job, she doesn’t love the aristocratic man to whom she is engaged, and her relationship with her controlling mother is becoming increasingly strained. So Ellen leaves London, fleeing to the one place she knows her mother won’t find her, her aunt’s cottage in Connemara. Cutting all her ties with chic London society, Ellen gives in to Ireland’s charm and warmth, thinking her future may lie where so much of her past has been hidden. Her imagination is soon captured by the compelling ruins of a lighthouse where, five years earlier, a young mother died in a fire.
About the Author
Hi, I'm Santa Montefiore and I've been writing a novel a year for twenty-six years now, which is quite astonishing as I didn't really think beyond the first book, which took me five years to write. I didn't think I had another in me, but here I am, celebrating my twenty-first and polishing my twenty-second for publication next year! Most of my novels are set partly in England and partly in a beautiful location, like Argentina, Italy or France. I write primarily for myself so I figure, as I'm going to be living in my imagination for the best part of six months, I might as well choose somewhere lovely. I adore nature, so I tend to plant my characters in rural settlings - by the sea or in the countryside - and most of them are stand alone, except Last Voyage of the Valentina and The Italian Matchmaker, and my recent trilogy, The Deverill Chronicles, which is set in Ireland from 1910 to the sixties. It started out as three books, but is now five, soon to be six: The Secret Hours is number 4 and The Distant Shores is number 5. I suppose I just love writing about that family so much, I don't want to stop. I love writing. I've always enjoyed stories, both reading them and writing them. I can't imagine life without them. Not only are they entertaining, but they teach us so much about life - and enable us to live vicariously through characters who experience more drama than we do! I'm emotional. I love to be moved. There's nothing better than sinking into a novel and empathising with the characters as they journey through the novel, experiencing both ups and downs...I love to laugh and cry and I want the book to stay with me after I've turned the last page. I don't need a happy ending, but I need a satisfactory one. I hope I deliver satisfactory endings in my own novels. I also write children's books with my husband, Simon Sebag-Montefiore. The series of four books is called The Royal Rabbits of London, about a secret society of MI5 style rabbits who live beneath Buckingham Palace and protect the Royal Family from evil. Our son came up with the idea when he was six years old and it's now being made into a movie by Fox Disney, which is beyond exciting. To see our characters in animation will be magical. In 2020, during Lockdown, I wrote the first of a new comedy series, Flappy Entertains, which was published in spring 2021. The second, Flappy Investigates, will come out autumn 2022. I have a new hardback coming out in July called An Italian Girl in Brooklyn, and Wait for Me, to be released in February 2023. I live in London but rent a cottage in Hampshire, which is where I bolt to when I can no longer take the pace of the city and need to spend time in nature to find peace. We have two children, our daughter Lily and our son Sasha. We also have a Labrador called Simba who is definitely the most spoiled member of the family. My husband Simon is a historian, novelist and broadcaster. We manage to liv
