Present day. On a lush Mediterranean island off the French coast, Ellie has accepted a commission to restore an abandoned garden. It seems idyllic, but the longer Ellie spends at the house and garden, the more she senses darkness, and a lingering evil that seems to haunt her. Second World War. Two very different women have their lives irrevocably changed: Iris, a junior intelligence officer in London and Marthe, a blind girl who works in the lavender fields of Provence and is slowly drawn into the heart of the Resistance. As secret messages are passed in scent and planes land by moonlight, danger comes ever closer...
THE SEA GARDEN weaves a double spell, and honestly, it got me right from the start. Lawrenson steeps her story of the invisible heroes of the French Resistance crossing borders - and here, crossing time - deep in the eerie beauty of the South of France. The result is a marvellous strange fruit: think Graham Greene served up with a dash of Poe - Sarah Blake, author of The Postmistress
Author
About Deborah Lawrenson
Deborah Lawrenson was our Guest Editor in August 2011 - click here - to see the books that inspired her writing.
Deborah Lawrenson spent her childhood moving around the world with diplomatic service parents, from Kuwait to China, Belgium, Luxembourg and Singapore. She graduated from Cambridge University and worked as a journalist in London. She is the author of five previous novels, including The Art of Falling, chosen for the prestigious WHSmith Fresh Talent promotion, and Songs of Blue and Gold, inspired by the life of writer-traveller Lawrence Durrell.
Deborah is married with a daughter, and lives in Kent. The family spends as much time as possible at a crumbling hamlet in Provence, France, which is the atmospheric setting for The Lantern.
