FORGOTTEN LETTERS ESTHER DU

The story in the past has such potential and the characters and story are stronger than the characters in the present. Characters seem underdeveloped and the end forced and abrupt. Story potential is really good. It’s probably three and a half stars.

I found this to be captivating, melancholy, and joyous....all in one, just as real life is! I highly recommend this novel!

This author and others seem to like to jump from one time period to another. The chapters were short and often choppy. It was difficult to get through and not a book I couldn't put down.Authors need to be continuous in their stories and not jump from around with characters. There weren't too many people, just very different. The idea was good; just not well written.

It is always a treat to find a new author Absolutely loved this book could not put it down read it in one day.Was a bit confusing at first with different time narratives but I believe it was perfect for relating this story.I look forward to reading more by this author.

Enjoyed the back and forth during time. I also enjoyed the descriptions of the Isle of Scilly off Cornwall. I had always been fascinated but that. The story unfolded in a way that there were some unexpected surprises.

Enjoyed this from page one. Great character development & a lovely story

Very good historical love story with real life connections. Three stories woven together nicely with an interesting conclusion. Descriptions of the remote area added to ones knowledge of the planet.

Believable characters and engrossing love story. Highlights what little rights women had in the not to distance past. Had a hard time putting it down to do other things

I enjoyed this book and read it very quickly. I would have liked the ending to have been a little more rounded off though instead of such a brief conclusion. Also the three different threads of the storyline - with flashbacks - were told in chapters which were often very short which I found made the story choppy in parts. A very good read.

Good authors really do their research and it makes for a richer, more believable story. For this, Kayte Nunn listened to tapes of POWs describing their experiences also took as a starting point the story of her own great grandmother’s lifelong incarceration after suffering postnatal depression. The story unfolds in two time periods: the early 1950s and 2018. In 1951 Esther Durrant finds herself on a remote Scilly Isle where Dr Richard Creswell runs a humane regime for damaged WWII veterans. Esther is furious with her husband John for duping her and leaving her there but admits she hasn’t been coping for reasons which become clear. In the present day, Australian marine scientist Rachel arrives in the Scillies to do a survey of clams. She has never committed to a person or place for more than two years. In London, young Eve is looking after her grandmother after a hip fracture. Her grandmother is none other than the famous “housewife mountaineer” Esther Durrant. On the island where Richard had his refuge there now lives a gruff hermit artist who once had a glittering career before her. As we shift back and forth between time periods a great love story emerges. Rachel questions her fear of intimacy, the artist faces her withdrawal from the art world and above all, we are saddened by the way attitudes in the buttoned-up past were both noble - heroic even - and stultifying, particularly for women, but also for men. In case men are interested, the book also answers the age-old question “What do women want?” In the medieval period the answer was “Dominion over their own lives” and they still want that but this book also points to the rapport of mind, heart, soul and body that is often elusive. You’ll be pleased to know there’s a happy ending.

Excellent read. I enjoyed the whole bookI thoroughly recommend it to anyone. Hope you enjoy as much as I did.

I loved this book, I enjoy duel time frame stories and this was very enjoyable. The Scilly Isles were the perfect backdrop to a moving love story and the subject of severe post partum psychosis was well researched and sympathetically described as were the traumas of the service men being treated on the island. My only criticism is that of the character of Leah who I felt deserved more attention, there was a much deeper story there and I felt cheated by the book ending so quickly , the loose ends tied up before her story was told. Why was she on the island, why did she stop painting, had she been an alcoholic, what was the story with her daughter? Too many loose ends for a satisfactory conclusion.

I became so engrossed in this story. It covers 2 different time periods - 1951/52 and 2018. In late 1951 Esther was sent to a remote small asylum in the Isles of Scilly by her husband. Esther becomes close to the Doctor in the asylum. After 5 months or so she is well enough to return home again. In 2018 Rachel, a Research Scientist, is posted to the Isles of Scilly. She is caught in a storm whilst out in her boat and ends up on the island where the asylum once was. The old dilapidated building is now occupied by Leah, an artist who is now living a solitary life. Rachel is stranded for a few days and has to stay with Leah. Whilst there she discovers women's clothes in a suitcase and some mysterious letters addressed to Esther dating back to the early 1950s. Rachel manages to trace Eve, Esther's granddaughter who lives with her in London. Events take an unexpected direction when the paths of Esther and the Doctor cross again. This has to be one of the best books which I've read so far this year. I found the storyline gripping throughout. Also I enjoyed the description of the Isles of Scilly setting. I could almost visualise it although I've never been there before.