Footsteps

The women in Helena Mayrick's family have always led secretive and tragic lives, and when Helena's comfortable marriage is devastated by her husband's violent death, it seems that she, too, is locked into the cycle. Helena is invited to research a book on her grandfather, H. Donaldson, the celebrated Edwardian photographer. At first she is reluctant to immerse herself in family history, particularly as Donaldson's relationship with her grandmother, Ruth, is shrouded in mystery and turmoil. But gradually, as the story of enigmatic Ruth and the elusive, passionate Donaldson unfolds, Helena finds that the past, like the present, was shaped by cruel dilemmas and the demands of love...

Published: January 1997
ISBN: 0-00-225456-5 / 978-0-00-225456-4 (UK edition)
Publisher: Flamingo 1997
Republished: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ) 2008

'This well-shaped and lovingly-crafted novel of domestic drama and emotion offers satisfying rewards. The theme of Footsteps - that of the effects of misplaced, frequently repressed love and passion on succeeding generations of women - is put together with intelligence and feeling, a grasp of narrative pace and an empathy for the weather-buffetted Suffolk coast where it is set. The author's touch is appealingly fresh and she succeeds in suggesting the complexity, waywardness and inexplicable patches that constitute life.'

''The theme of Footsteps - that of the effects of misplaced, frequently repressed love and passion on succeeding generations of women - is put together with intelligence and feeling.'