I love jewellery. I always have. Maybe it was the joy of going through my mother’s jewellery box on the top of her dresser but if it sparkled I loved it. When Kate asked me to write about my favourite piece one came to mind. We were living in Moscow and I used to walk down the Arbat almost daily and peer into shop windows. There was one that had an odd collection of jewellery, snuff boxes, oil lamps and I would spend ages quietly wondering about the pieces until one day a jewelled bug appeared and I fell in love. I have to admit I was heavily pregnant with my third child. This was important - as with the birth of each one my husband had given me a gift – something I wouldn’t buy for myself. For my eldest it was a pair of boots I desperately wanted and for child two when we were living in Calgary, Alberta it was glorious down – guaranteed to keep me warm…I decided there on the spot that this bug should be my present.
Weeks later I trailed my husband past the window displaying the bug necklace several times then shoved him into the store. His mastery of Russian was far superior to mine. They haggled over the price then Chris told me they weren’t budging on price. I said fine, leave it and walked out…or more correctly waddled out. Chris was stunned that I would walk away from something I wanted so badly but I was determined not to pay over the odds. He and owner came and collected me from half way down the street. I was put in a comfortable chair, given sweet tea and told that I could have my bug for the price I wanted.
After this…Chris always left me to the do the negotiations for some reason….
The first time I wore the bug, Sasha, my daughter wasn’t born yet but it felt right to wear it to the Central House of Writers for dinner on Pushkin’s birthday. It was a meal I’ll never forget and I felt magical with my green bug clasped on a string of pearls about my neck.
Sometimes going home is just the beginning…
Boskenna, the beautiful, imposing house standing on the Cornish cliffs, means something different to each of the Trewin women.
For Joan, as a glamorous young wife in the 1960s, it was a paradise where she and her husband could entertain and escape a world where no one was quite what they seemed – a world that would ultimately cost their marriage and end in tragedy.
Diana, her daughter, still dreams of her childhood there – the endless blue skies and wide lawns, book-filled rooms and parties, the sound of the sea at the end of the coastal path – even though the family she adored was shattered there.
And for the youngest, broken-hearted Lottie, heading home in the August traffic, returning to Boskenna is a welcome escape from a life gone wrong in London, but will mean facing a past she’d hoped to forget.
As the three women gather in Boskenna for a final time, the secrets hidden within the beautiful old house will be revealed in a summer that will leave them changed for ever.
PRAISE FOR THE PATH TO THE SEA:
‘Vivid and beautifully written, Liz Fenwick is a gifted storyteller’ Sarah Morgan
'Atmospheric, emotional and full of mystery – an absolute pleasure from page one' Veronica Henry
'A wonderfully evocative story, packed with secrets and emotion’ Judy Finnigan
‘Pure escapism at its best’ The Sun
You can find out more about Liz's work at her site. The Path to the Sea is available now. Liz's new novel The River Between Us is available for preorder.
