a captivating tale of century-old secrets, family and memory. ‘A foundling, a book of dark fairytales, a secret garden, an aristocratic family, a love denied - are all elements pulled together to build a tale that is compulsively readable.’ - Good Reading ‘Simmers with secrets and strangeness.’ - Good Housekeeping, UK

‘Morton whisks the reader into scene after vivid scene, sometimes frightening us, often perplexing us, and always providing us with a great deal of entertainment.’ - Star Telegram (Fort Worth, TX) ‘ sense of mystery and adventure that generations of childhood Enid Blyton readers will identify with.’ - The Courier Mail ‘A long, lush, perfectly escapist read.’ - New York Daily News a delicious book to get lost in.’ - Sunday Telegraph ‘ dark, suspenseful feast for history-lovers. This tale, like the maze in the garden of the title, is a fine place to lose yourself.’ - People (****) ‘Morton excels at creating absorbing mystery. It is here that Cassandra will finally uncover the truth about the family, and solve the century-old mystery of a little girl lost. Cliff Cottage and its forgotten garden are notorious amongst the Cornish locals for the secrets they hold – secrets about the doomed Mountrachet family and their ward Eliza Makepeace, a writer of dark Victorian fairytales. On Nell’s death, her grand-daughter, Cassandra, comes into an unexpected inheritance. Decades later, she embarks upon a search for the truth that leads her to the windswept Cornish coast and the strange and beautiful Blackhurst Manor, once owned by the aristocratic Mountrachet family. On the night of her twenty-first birthday, Nell O’Connor learns a secret that will change her life forever. A mysterious woman called the Authoress had promised to look after her – but the Authoress has disappeared without a trace. On the eve of the First World War, a little girl is found abandoned on a ship to Australia.

The forgotten garden novel