Blackthorn Winter - Hardcover

Challis, Sarah

3.6

194 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312324561 ISBN 13: 9780312324568

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books, 2004

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In April, when blackthorn blossom clothes the hedgerows like a wedding veil, there sometimes comes a spell of frost or snow so severe that it seems as if spring and summer will never return. This is what country people call a blackthorn winter.

For Claudia Barron, the blackthorn winter of that particular April is like a metaphor for her whole life: for the end of glamour, financial security and marriage. Her rich and powerful husband has been sent to prison, leaving her homeless and virtually penniless. Hopeless to cling to the remnants of her old life, pointless to stand by a man who has betrayed her in almost every way a man can betray a woman.

Instead she goes into hiding, buys the only house she can afford in the Dorset village of Court Barton - a hideous bungalow built in an old kitchen garden - and changes her name. Under a cloak of anonymity she sets out to get herself a job in the local school. But villages don't much like anonymity and before very long Claudia finds herself drawn into the gossip and the grumbling, the lives and loves and quarrels of Court Barton in a way that she had never expected. Blackthorn winters do always give way to spring in the end.

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About the Author:

Sarah Challis, whose father is the distinguished cinematographer Christopher Challis, traveled widely with film units as a child. She has since lived in Scotland and California but is now happily settled in a Dorset village. She is married with four sons. Blackthorn Winter is her third novel.

From AudioFile:

Sarah Challis has created a thoughtful and moving story about a lovely woman who must cope when her wealthy husband is imprisoned for fraud. Claudia Barron flees the high life of London, moving into a tiny cottage in the idyllic countryside. Despite her commitment to solitude, she is drawn into village life, through which she learns about herself and finds that sometimes life's stresses can result in rich rewards. Eva Haddon captures thought and emotion in a 10-year-old gypsy, a boarding school student, an alcoholic maiden, a lovesick middle-aged man, and many others who are a pleasure to meet. Challis's splendid novel is enhanced by Haddon's heartfelt reading. S.G.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright � AudioFile, Portland, Maine

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