The Cornish Legacy

by Barbara Whitnell

Clare Ashland is a woman with the world at her feet, but something is missing from her life. When her beloved great-aunt, Verity, dies, Clare returns to the family home in Cornwall, but it is only when she reads her great-aunt's diaries that the discovers the devastating secret Verity kept all her life.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2001

Reviews

[Carolyn Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled upon this book at the library, and didn't remember the author, though the setting of Cornwall caught my attention. Turns out I read one of her other books years ago that had been in the group re-published in the U.S. as from "Rosamunde Pilcher's Bookshelf." If you like Rosamunde Pilcher and Marcia Willett and 'aga sagas', then you'd enjoy this one. I did. It's true I can't resist a story where a character inherits a wonderful old house - on the coast of Cornwall, no less - that changes the course of her life, and that includes a dual time frame and a mystery from the past. The book opens with contemporary Clare, a successful investment banker in London, rushing to the deathbed of her beloved great-aunt Verity, but is too late. Verity left her a letter, though, and her large house on the coast of Cornwall, where she had raised Clare. Clare must decide on the fate of the house, which is too much for her alone, and how to deal with her mother, who had left her to be raised by Verity. Clare also runs into her first love, Nick Courtfield, whose family has the manor house nearby which has been turned into a hotel. Though she had not interfered, Verity had not approved of teenage Clare and Nick's courtship because of ill will between the families from times past. Now that Verity is dead at the age of ninety-eight, Clare thinks of all the questions concerning Verity's past that she never pursued, and wonders what had caused the antagonism with the Courtfields. Then she finds Verity's diaries and she has her answers.

This is very much Verity's story, with the diaries covering the years from 1913, when Verity was thirteen, to 1944 and the second World War. We have Verity's own words from her diaries, but the author fills in the backstory between entries in third person. So, in effect, we're getting more of the story than Clare is from reading the diaries. Verity is a wonderful character who suffers terrible losses in her life and is stuck in her role as caregiver to a selfish, snobbish, clueless, and weak mother. But somehow she survives tragedy with her capacity to love and her sense of humor intact. It is easy to identify with her frustration of wanting to do something with her life, but not knowing what or how. Without being a self-sacrificing martyr, she manages to be the rock of her family, caring for her mother and raising both her niece and great-niece when their mothers couldn't be bothered. Marriage eluded her, but she loved greatly. Clare finds to her surprise just how tumultuous her great-aunt's life had been, as well as the secret she took to her grave, and resolves a long ago mystery that not even Verity, whose life was shattered by it, had been able to unravel.

The story of Clare wraps up the novel fairly predictably, but it was still satisfying. The novel kept me engaged throughout, and I stayed up late to finish it. That's a good book, in my book.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

My goodness. The author must have entered some type of contest to write a book that contained as many references to extramarital affairs as possible in one storyline. Seriously. Eight of the twelve main characters. This is a great story of how NOT TO LIVE YOUR LIFE!! I only stuck it out to find out what actually happened to the boy.

[Ellen White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clare a success in London, rushes to an aunt in Cornish. Staying on, she finds a peace, and also secrets that had been keep. A good story of a woman finding what she had been longing for, and maybe an old love, also.

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[Joyce Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much I started reading on kindle but had to buy hard cover as full book was not available with kindle