A Garden Lost in Time [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Jonathan Aycliffe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2004

Cornwall, 1917. After the death of his father, fifteen-year-old Simon Lysaght is sent to live with his uncle, Sir David Trevelyan, at their estate house, Trevelyan Priors. His uncle is an imposing man and Simon feels ill at ease in this large and forbidding house. On his first day he discovers there have been a number of family suicides and his cousin William, who is crippled and bed-ridden, warns him never to wander the corridors after dark. While exploring the grounds after a day of heavy snow, Simon discovers a track of fresh footprints in an enclosed garden, long abandoned and overgrows. Who do they belong to, and how did they get there? Simon can see no answer, until one day weeks later when he encounters a girl of his own age in the garden. They strike up a friendship, but doubts remain in Simon's mind. And when he discovers a sinister secret in his uncle's library, Simon is soon to find that Trevelyan Priors and its inhabitants have much to hide and more to tell than he can guess.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Brevity breeds tight storytelling, with a final muted twist that proves just enough." -- Kirkus Reviews --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Jonathan Aycliffe lectured at the universities of Fez in Morocco and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The author of several successful full-length ghost stories, he He also writes as Daniel Easterman, under which name he has penned nine bestselling novels. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Ulverscroft Large Print (July 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075052250X
• ISBN-13: 978-0750522502
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,124,577 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In the tradition of MR James, May 7, 2004

By 

Z Hayes (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Garden Lost in Time (A & B Crime) (Hardcover)

My introduction to Jonathan Aycliffe's work began with Naomi's room a couple of years ago, and since then I've been hooked, and have read all of his works. His latest offering doesn't disappoint either...it is a tale of pervasive darkness [an underlying theme in all of his works] and the corruption of souls. Aycliffe's style is reminiscent of MR James, another master of classic horror, and fans of the classic ghost story will not be disappointed in this work.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Who is it that speaks of death?, June 16, 2004

By 

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Garden Lost in Time (A & B Crime) (Hardcover)

"A Garden Lost in Time" has two horror themes, either one of which would have gestated a strong plot. Twinned, they seem incompatible. One theme is concerned with the horrors of World War I trench warfare. The other is more classical horror, involving generations of child murders and black magic.

Jonathan Aycliffe is my favorite living writer of the supernatural, and this book has some very spooky moments. A Van Helsing-type character tries to exorcise evil from a girl who may or may not be alive. Later she does or does not die, and is buried. Mostly the classically-themed horror is muted rather than straightforward: footprints begin and end in the snow of an abandoned garden; swans refuse to return to a manor's lake; a child is terrified in Cripplesease Woods and "never stopped looking over his shoulder when there was nothing to be seen."

The horror of trench warfare is treated in a more straightforward manner by Aycliffe: a man's legs are blown off; another soldier loses half of his face; mustard gas cripples a third. Meanwhile a hunchback makes ammunition for the war in a poisonous shot tower on the estate of Trevelyan Priors in Cornwall. Children who are drawn to the tower disappear or fall mysteriously ill.

Trevelyan Priors becomes the new home for fifteen-year-old Simon Lysaght after the death of his father in France. The Trevelyans have lost one son in the war, and another returns home incurably crippled. Simon is barely through the door of his new home when a maid commits suicide by throwing herself out of a window. He doesn't know it, but her death is a portent of what the rest of his stay is going to be like.

People drown, disappear, commit suicide, are murdered or are slaughtered in France. Their deaths are mainly narrated second-hand through Simon's diary, letters to and from his mother, and his aunt's lengthy correspondence. It is a rather la-de-da method of telling a horror story, although Bram Stoker pulled it off in "Dracula."

It doesn't work quite as well, here. The blurbs on the back cover refer to Aycliffe's story as "spare," "elegant," "intelligent," "literate," and "filled with fine research." The reader does learn quite a bit about shot towers, architecture, and the literature of black magic. But as much as I like this author, I languished through passages about swans, swan-necked maidens, and a girl who hangs out in a ruined conservatory and doesn't seem to have anything to do with the plot--talking ghosts are a definite bore. Maybe I was just lost in a thicket of multiple plots, deaths, and a horrible war, and this book deserves a second reading.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gripping mystery, August 10, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Garden Lost in Time (A & B Crime) (Hardcover)

Set in 1917 Cornwall, Jonathan Aycliffe's Garden Lost In Time is a gripping mystery which tells of a teen sent to live in a family estate house after the death of his father, only to find a dangerous pattern of murders and deaths evolving. The discovery of an enclosed garden and its secrets will keep Simon at the cutting edge of danger - and his readers on the edges of their seats.