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A Garden Lost in Time
January 1917, Cornwall. Fifteen-year-old Simon Lysaght is sent, after the death of his father in France, to live with family at their estate house, Trevelyan Priors. His uncle, Sir David Trevelyan, is somewhat intimidating and Simon feels ill at ease in the large and forbidding house. On his first day Simon learns of the death of the eldest Trevelyan son in the war and the subsequent suicide of his fiancée, is warned never to wander the corridors of the house after dark by the younger Trevelyan son, crippled and bed-ridden William, and hears that a maid has jumped from a high window, killing herself. It is not an auspicious start to his life under the Trevelyan's roof.
Soon, however, his cousin Tom takes him under his wing and shows Simon the grounds and estate, including the still-functioning shot tower, a tall building which dominates the skyline. Exploring further one day after a heavy snow, the boys enter an enclosed garden, long abandoned and overgrown with dark avenues of trees and bushes and a formal fountain laid out in the centre. In the untouched snow, a set of footprints, with no discernible beginning or end. Who do they belong to, and how did they get there? Simon can see no answer, but is soon occupied by other, more urgent matters and the incident is pushed from his mind.
Weeks later, however, he has reason to recall the strange sight when he encounters a girl of his own age in the abandoned garden. She tells him her name is Lily, a fisherman's daughter from nearby Porthmullion. They strike up a friendship, although for reasons he cannot fully explain to himself, Simon keeps his new acquaintance a secret. He is soon to find that Trevelyan Priors and its inhabitants all have much to hide and more to tell than he can yet guess at...
Soon, however, his cousin Tom takes him under his wing and shows Simon the grounds and estate, including the still-functioning shot tower, a tall building which dominates the skyline. Exploring further one day after a heavy snow, the boys enter an enclosed garden, long abandoned and overgrown with dark avenues of trees and bushes and a formal fountain laid out in the centre. In the untouched snow, a set of footprints, with no discernible beginning or end. Who do they belong to, and how did they get there? Simon can see no answer, but is soon occupied by other, more urgent matters and the incident is pushed from his mind.
Weeks later, however, he has reason to recall the strange sight when he encounters a girl of his own age in the abandoned garden. She tells him her name is Lily, a fisherman's daughter from nearby Porthmullion. They strike up a friendship, although for reasons he cannot fully explain to himself, Simon keeps his new acquaintance a secret. He is soon to find that Trevelyan Priors and its inhabitants all have much to hide and more to tell than he can yet guess at...
400 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2004
6 people are currently reading
227 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Aycliffe
16 books262 followersaka Daniel Easterman
Jonathan Aycliffe (Denis M. MacEoin) was born in Belfast in 1949. He studied English, Persian, Arabic and Islamic studies at the universities of Dublin, Edinburgh and Cambridge, and lectured at the universities of Fez in Morocco and Newcastle upon Tyne. The author of several successful full-length ghost stories, he lives in the north of England with his wife, homeopath and health writer, Beth MacEoin. He also writes as Daniel Easterman, under which name he has penned nine bestselling novels.
Jonathan Aycliffe (Denis M. MacEoin) was born in Belfast in 1949. He studied English, Persian, Arabic and Islamic studies at the universities of Dublin, Edinburgh and Cambridge, and lectured at the universities of Fez in Morocco and Newcastle upon Tyne. The author of several successful full-length ghost stories, he lives in the north of England with his wife, homeopath and health writer, Beth MacEoin. He also writes as Daniel Easterman, under which name he has penned nine bestselling novels.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 1, 2015
Another Aycliffe haunted house special, this time set mainly in 1917 in Cornwall and partly in 1994 as an elderly Simon Lysaght faces up to a final visit to the house he had lived in as a 15 year old following the death of his father in the Great War. The story is told in a montage of diary entries, letters and reports from a number of the protagonists, which draw both the narrative and the history of the house together. There are a number of suitably sinister characters and the usual ghostly goings - on and, always in the background a Lovecraftian menace from something old and evil awakened by the occult practices of the Trevelyans. And for romantics there is a love story - albeit one where one of the young lovers has been dead for some time!
August 26, 2017
Somehow I just can't give any book by Jonathan Aycliffe any less than five stars. To me he is the master of the scary tale, no one does it better. This book is no exception. From the start he sucks you in and you literally see all that he is describing. It makes you experience the story rather than just 'read' it. I see the house, I see the garden, I see the terrible thing sitting on the bed and I hear the scratching sounds. If you want a real chilling experience choose ANY book by Jonathan Aycliffe
August 12, 2014
2.5 stars maybe? Even a mediocre Aycliffe novel is still a decent ghost story. This is definitely my least favorite of his books so far; it was slow to start and had too many loose ends/unexplained plot elements for my taste. Still, Aycliffe is the master of the English ghost story, and there were a few passages here that I found spooky (the library especially).
August 15, 2013
I really enjoyed this atmospheric and admittedly, flawed, book. The plot is certainly two fold; basically it's about a young boy who goes to live with his extended family in a high class estate...that is haunted. The other part of the story deals with the horrors of war, as it is set in Cornwall, UK during the First World War.
The problem is that the story shifts themes and situations quite regularly, as it is all written in the first person via journal entries and letters. I think the author was trying to connect real life horror with that of a fictional spookiness, and as for the atmosphere is concerned, it actually works. However for the reader, the double life of the story can become disjointed and almost boring.
Sometimes this doesn't feel like a ghost story, but when it does, like with all Aycliffe's novels, it commands a sense of terror and dread. There was even one part of the story that was not unlike Lovecraft. It all kind of makes sense at the end, although there were some loose ends that were not tied up.
The middle of this book sagged a little, but overall, I would recommend this. It's not a terribly long read and once you start you'll find yourself drawn into its world.
The problem is that the story shifts themes and situations quite regularly, as it is all written in the first person via journal entries and letters. I think the author was trying to connect real life horror with that of a fictional spookiness, and as for the atmosphere is concerned, it actually works. However for the reader, the double life of the story can become disjointed and almost boring.
Sometimes this doesn't feel like a ghost story, but when it does, like with all Aycliffe's novels, it commands a sense of terror and dread. There was even one part of the story that was not unlike Lovecraft. It all kind of makes sense at the end, although there were some loose ends that were not tied up.
The middle of this book sagged a little, but overall, I would recommend this. It's not a terribly long read and once you start you'll find yourself drawn into its world.
December 5, 2010
Though I always enjoy Mr. Aycliffe's writing style, I think this is one of his weaker books. I found several inconsistencies that seem purely accidental, including a complete passage that gets repeated nearly word-for-word later in the book. This is a multiple narrator story told through letters and journal entries, and at times you get the sense that certain parts of this book were written as stand-alone short stories about a haunted house. I suspect the author drew a bunch of notes together and threaded a storyline through them at the last moment to call this a novel. Nothing quite hangs together, a sense of menace never really accumulates, and the ending is unconvincing.
Still, it was compelling enough that I read it in a single day. I'm glad I ordered it used off Amazon--it came to me from a library in Wales, with Welsh language stamps and markings inside the front cover. Talk about getting a sense of authenticity...
Still, it was compelling enough that I read it in a single day. I'm glad I ordered it used off Amazon--it came to me from a library in Wales, with Welsh language stamps and markings inside the front cover. Talk about getting a sense of authenticity...
April 16, 2016
I enjoy Aycliffe's ghost stories, but as other reviewers have stated while A Garden Lost in Time offers the creepies, chills and frissons of the Gothic, there are many unanswered questions, loose ends, inconsistencies, and an ending that is just too ...well, "happily ever after" for my taste. Enjoyed the journey, but left cold at the end.
September 23, 2015
I love this author, the writing is flawless, you feel the emotions of the characters, and after you put the book down you may find yourself questioning the shadows that fall at night.
April 20, 2015
Very creepy and truly frightening in some scenes. A lot of loose ends, though; some things are never explained. I will read more from this author; very good writing.
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June 21, 2016Another enjoyable supernatural romp with Jonathan Aycliffe. Nobody does atmosphere better!
January 3, 2021
Hauntingly delicious
I will not retell the story, however, OUTSTANDING!!
Well written and exceptionally atmospheric. I could not put this novel down (a rarity)
I will not retell the story, however, OUTSTANDING!!
Well written and exceptionally atmospheric. I could not put this novel down (a rarity)
October 1, 2018
What a hot mess!
Though the prose itself is fine, the inconsistencies and loose ends are incredibly irritating and nonsensical. It’s as though Aycliffe just threw down his ideas in a torrent, changing his mind willy-nilly without bothering about coherence.
There are too many strands to the plot and some of those strands are simply left hanging. Mostly, there are events that have nothing to with the hauntings and serve no real purpose in the story. Also, some of the hauntings seem pretty random and unrelated to what eventually becomes the main plot thread.
There’s a whole lot of telling with very little showing and there are some issues with how the author seems to understand age - a 15 year old is not a child. There are general lapses of logic.
Some of the silly, but incessant inconsistencies:
A character we’re told at the beginning is 43 we’re later told is 39.
A character we’re told is 10 is later said to be 8.
The main character is mistakenly referred to by another character’s name more than once.
There is a mistake with another character’s name.
A whole passage from the middle of the novel is repeated word for word toward the end of the novel.
A character says that his door doesn’t lock only to lock it a few pages later.
And there are more...
A good editor might have salvaged this by making it less annoying and by tightening up the plot. Overall it feels as though it was thrown together carelessly in order to publish it quickly.
Though the prose itself is fine, the inconsistencies and loose ends are incredibly irritating and nonsensical. It’s as though Aycliffe just threw down his ideas in a torrent, changing his mind willy-nilly without bothering about coherence.
There are too many strands to the plot and some of those strands are simply left hanging. Mostly, there are events that have nothing to with the hauntings and serve no real purpose in the story. Also, some of the hauntings seem pretty random and unrelated to what eventually becomes the main plot thread.
There’s a whole lot of telling with very little showing and there are some issues with how the author seems to understand age - a 15 year old is not a child. There are general lapses of logic.
Some of the silly, but incessant inconsistencies:
A character we’re told at the beginning is 43 we’re later told is 39.
A character we’re told is 10 is later said to be 8.
The main character is mistakenly referred to by another character’s name more than once.
There is a mistake with another character’s name.
A whole passage from the middle of the novel is repeated word for word toward the end of the novel.
A character says that his door doesn’t lock only to lock it a few pages later.
And there are more...
A good editor might have salvaged this by making it less annoying and by tightening up the plot. Overall it feels as though it was thrown together carelessly in order to publish it quickly.
October 6, 2021
I love ghost stories, especially traditional gothic ghost stories and Jonathan Aycliffe is a master at writing things-that-go-bump-in-the-night. Somehow I just discovered him about a year ago and if I didn't pace myself, I would be happy to read everything he has written one after the other. This is the third book of his I have read and while I loved it and the story was sheer perfection as usual, the writing was a bit lacking and the pacing was off with some long passages that did not add to the story. So I am giving it 4 rather than 5 stars, and I am already eager to read my next Aycliffe book.
August 30, 2017
Normally a huge fan, this is a big disappointment . Alll over the place and difficult to follow. My least favourite book by Aycliffe.
July 17, 2014
It was ok. I expected a better book to read, but instead I found myself drifting away from the reading. Just my opinion. This won't discourage me from reading his other books.
October 12, 2014
Overall well researched creepy ghost story. Some loose ends here and there along the way. I will be looking out for more of his novels.
February 13, 2014
Loved this book! Great read, very atmospheric, wasn't even disappointed in the ending!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews