Long Since

Timewells #2

by Ruth Tomalin

Ruth Tomalin's earlier book, a Summer Ghost, told the story of how Arabella, on a stolen holiday alone at Timewells, the family's holiday cottage in Sussex, discovered mysterious relics of a child named Ary, who had lived at Timewells, then the house of a yeoman farmer, a hundred years before. Long Since, set in the past, tells the full story of Ary, a girl whose intelligence and reverence for the beauties of the natural world were constrained by her circumstances. The story is told from the point of view of six young girls: Nell the pupil-teacher, Minnie the governess, Lillian the curate's sister, Ary's sisters Jane and Eliza, and finally Ary herself.

100 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Ruth Tomalin is also the author of The Sea Mice, A Stranger Thing, A Green Wishbone, The Snake Crook, and for older readers, Away to the West and Best Country Stories.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A summer ghost was wonderful, and makes me wonder why Ruth Tomalin isn't better known. This follow up, which delves deeper into a story only lightly touched upon in the earlier book, is disquieting, and reads more like it's written for adults. The jacket blurb says that it's very like Lark Rise to Candleford, which I haven't read, so I don't know if that's accurate, but it's hard to imagine that comparison enticing children in 1989 (the pub. year) or of any era for that matter into reading this book! But four stars, because I was engrossed.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is lovely and evocative, but I wish there had been fewer points of view, and wish too, very much, that the story hadn't been so very sad.