Another Life
About the book
A beautifully written novel with great emotional appeal, set in Cornwall and Canada.
Marine historian Mark Hannah finds a hauntingly beautiful figurehead in Newfoundland. He traces her ship, The Lady Isabella, back to a small port in Cornwall where he meets Gabrielle Ellis, the woman who is going to restore her to her former glory. Together they begin to trace jigsaw pieces of the lives of the carver, Tom Welland and the real Lady Isabella.
Gabrielle becomes increasingly haunted by Isabella’s lost life. As Gabrielle’s own life becomes inextricably involved with Mark’s, her story runs parallel with the lives of Isabella, her husband Richard and Tom Welland, the carver.
Two women, living more than a hundreds years apart yet against the same wild backdrop of sea and landscape, make a rash bid for freedom to live another life. But for both of them, that choice means a loss which will greatly affect the next generation.
Reviews
‘Intriguing themes are cleverly woven together…I found myself swept along by the sheer interest of every page and moved by the unerring way in which each character is painted…it grips to the end.’ Country Life
‘Immensely entertaining and extremely moving’ Cornishman
‘A beautifully crafted story’ St Ives Times
A word about ‘Another Life’ from the author
“One day a friend, who is a fine arts restorer, mentioned that she had been asked to restore an old figurehead that had been returned to St Agnes museum from Canada. Intrigued, I shot off to look at the figurehead. I was entranced by it, by the atmospheric museum that had once been a church and by the overgrown churchyard outside.
I started to wonder about the man who had carved the figurehead for a particular ship. Where had she lain all those years undiscovered before she was lovingly restored to her former glory? What secrets did she hold?”
Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
ISBN 978-0-00-717577-2