The Cottingley Secret, Hazel Gaynor
The Cottingley Secret, Hazel Gaynor
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The Cottingley Secret
A Novel

Author: Hazel Gaynor

Narrator: Karen Cass, Billie Fulford-Brown

Unabridged: 11 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 08/01/2017


Synopsis

The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Came Home turns the clock back one hundred years to a time when two young girls from Cottingley, Yorkshire, convinced the world that they had done the impossible and photographed fairies in their garden. Now, in her newest novel, international bestseller Hazel Gaynor reimagines their story.1917… It was inexplicable, impossible, but it had to be true—didn’t it? When two young cousins, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright from Cottingley, England, claim to have photographed fairies at the bottom of the garden, their parents are astonished. But when one of the great novelists of the time, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, becomes convinced of the photographs’ authenticity, the girls become a national sensation, their discovery offering hope to those longing for something to believe in amid a world ravaged by war. Frances and Elsie will hide their secret for many decades. But Frances longs for the truth to be told.One hundred years later… When Olivia Kavanagh finds an old manuscript in her late grandfather’s bookshop she becomes fascinated by the story it tells of two young girls who mystified the world. But it is the discovery of an old photograph that leads her to realize how the fairy girls’ lives intertwine with hers, connecting past to present, and blurring her understanding of what is real and what is imagined. As she begins to understand why a nation once believed in fairies, can Olivia find a way to believe in herself?

About Hazel Gaynor

Hazel Gaynor is an award-winning New York Times and USA Today bestselling author known for her deeply moving historical novels which explore the defining events of the 20th century. A recipient of the 2015 RNA Historical Novel of the Year award, her work has since been shortlisted for multiple awards in the UK and Ireland. Her latest novel, The Last Lifeboat, was a Times of London historical novel of the month, shortlisted for the 2023 Irish Book Awards and recipient of the 2024 Audie Award for Best Fiction Narrator. Hazel’s work has been translated into twenty languages and is published in twenty-seven territories to date. She lives in Ireland with her family.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Hannah on April 07, 2018

Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend. Equal parts enchanting tale of childhood magic and bearable story of a woman wrestling with engagement to the wrong man. Though Gaynor's prose sways from maladroit to radiant and the plot is wholly predictab......more

Goodreads review by Jayme on December 17, 2023

*Seasonal Christmas Read 2023* While this may not be a Christmas read, in the traditional sense, it reminded me of the sentiment of “Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus” (a favorite of mine) which reminds us all that the magic of Christmas is believing…. After all, “It is only by believing in magic......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader on August 15, 2017

I read The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor and deeply enjoyed it. Gaynor's writing was beautiful and uplifting, even in the midst of the Titanic tragedy. The Cottingley Secret, her fourth novel, is one I want to hug, and it's going to my favorites shelf. Told in dual storylines; one story is of O......more

Goodreads review by James on August 04, 2022

I chose this book purely based on its cover. The Cottingley Secret by Hazel Gaynor looked gorgeous, and after seeing it all over Goodreads and thinking about the Cotswolds, I fell in love. Then I learned it doesn't take place in England, but in Ireland, as well as that it's based on a true story. Wo......more