An author with an amazing insight into people and what makes them tick, spins a highly absorbing tale of a damaged family, of old loves, complicated relationships and terrible jealousies. She has recently changed publisher and been given greater exposure. I believe she is a major talent to watch for the future. Try her The Children’s Hour too. Comparison: Rosamunde Pilcher, Eileen Ramsay, Jojo Moyes. Similar this month: Erica James, Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees.
It was Felix who named it The Birdcage – the tall house in Bristol where Miss Pidgeon lived with her tenant, the beautiful and talented actress Angel, and Angel’s daughter, Lizzie. It was Felix whom they all adored and who was so in love with Angel, but while Lizzie longed for a father, Felix had other commitments: to his insecure, possessive wife Marina and to their son Piers, both living at beautiful, mellow Michaelgarth, the family home on the edge of Exmoor.
Many years later, when Lizzie comes at last to Michaelgarth and meets Piers for the first time, she finds a family in trouble – and which, miraculously, needs her to help them to heal. An evocative novel by the hugely popular author of The Children’s Hour.
Marcia Willett was born in Somerset and lives in deepest Devon with her husband . A former ballet dancer and teacher, she is the author of many bestselling novels.