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    Alice’s Secret Garden
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    Alice’s Secret Garden
    Unavailable
    Alice’s Secret Garden
    Ebook380 pages6 hours

    Alice’s Secret Garden

    By Rebecca Campbell

    3/5

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    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    Stylish and witty tale of city life from the author of THE FAVOURS AND FORTUNES OF KATIE CASTLE

    Alice is content to drift along in her job at Enderby’s, the fusty auction house, among colleagues who are toffs, tarts or swots. It’s an excuse not to engage in real life; having suffered loss before, she finds it altogether easier to dream about what might have been.

    Life, however, is about to insist upon engaging with her. Enderby’s future might be saved by pulling off an enormous coup: selling a first edition of the exquisitely rare Audubon’s Birds of America. Alice is despatched to persuade its current owner, an aristocrat in his rural retreat, to give her the commission. Her mentor and friend Andrew – the one normal person at Enderby’s – is highly suspicious. What follows is a mercilessly sharp yet moving lesson in how to spot the genuine article.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateJan 30, 2014
    ISBN9780007439782
    Unavailable
    Alice’s Secret Garden
    Author

    Rebecca Campbell

    Rebecca is the daughter of Paddy Campbell and co-designer with her of their collections. She lives in North-West London and ‘The Favours and Fortunes of Katie Castle’ is her first novel.

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    • 3/5
      What was it, Andrew often wondered, about book people that made them so neglect personal hygiene? Other types of obsessive managed to change their underwear, brush their teeth, and utilise modern, effective deodorants, so why not book collectors? Books themselves, of course, could often smell so perhaps there was some semi-conscious attempt at empathy? A brotherhood of mustiness and sticky crevices?Alice's Secret Garden begins like a fairy tale. Although set in a failing auction house in contemporary London, the main character, Alice, falls under a spell. She was already somewhat passive; now she sleepwalks through her days barely acknowledging the people in her path. Her co-worker, Andrew, has a crush on her, but he wouldn't mind shagging the office beauty, a mean girl named Ophelia. Andrew also has a friend, Leo, an odd looking professor who hides his loneliness behind belligerence and a quick wit. Alice, surprisingly, also has friends, especially Odette, who works in the City. A minor member of the nobility has a first edition of Audubon and Alice and Andrew are sent out to appraise it. If it's authentic, it could save the auction house. The book and its owner live in a modern glass house in the middle of the countryside, miles from anywhere and strangely gothic despite its clean lines and bright spaces. The owner is a brooding, Heathcliff-like guy who is drawn to Alice.The story keeps its distance for the first half, sounding more like a tale than a novel. It eventually picks up, although the central story is never quite the most interesting thing. The characters are interesting, even Alice warms up as things get going, but it's the secondary characters who shine in this odd book. There's one quite unfair moment when the author hides the true state of things from only the reader, a cheap stunt to artificially create suspense, but on the whole, I liked it.