Saturday, 7 September 2013

Book 33 - Emma's Island

Emma's Island by Honor Arundel - first published in 1968

One of my favourite books as a child was The High House - also by Honor Arundel.  I bought a copy at a library book sale while on a day trip to York for a few pence and read it many times.  Years later by chance I came across a second hand copy of Emma's Island, which is a sequel to The High House.

In The High House 13 year old Emma's parents are killed in a car accident and she moves to Edinburgh to live with her absent minded artist aunt Patsy.  Emma's Island starts 2 years later by which time Patsy has married fellow artist Stephen and the 3 of them move to the fictional island of Stranday, which is apparently located close to Coll and Tiree in the Inner Hebrides.  Patsy and Stephen open a gallery and Emma helps to run the house and quickly adapts to life on an island.  Patsy and Stephen have a baby daughter and Emma has her first romantic encounter when some archaeologists come to the island to do an excavation.  This is an old fashioned novel, which seems a bit tame today but it is still an engaging story.  7/10

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