Woodspring

'Buchan is a magical and tender writer' Amanda Craig

'One of our greatest living novelists' Peter James



'Will the war last long? People are going to suffer and will have to make sacrifices, and everything will have to be on hold. It's horrible to contemplate but I'm twenty-seven and I can't help wondering if by the time it's over it'll be too late for me.'





Since the house was built in 1810, the Danes have lived in the elegant, light-filled rooms of Woodspring, and walked in the fields and woods that surround the house. Over the years, and through the changing seasons, it has brought shelter, solace and joy.





But now it's 1940 and Europe is on the brink of war. Everything is about to change, and nothing will be the same again.





The next three generations of Danes will live very different lives to their predecessors, at home and abroad. Yet they know they are forever tied to Woodspring.





Love and fortunes may come and go, no one is untouched by loss... But, throughout all this, Woodspring remains a constant.



Elizabeth Buchan was a fiction editor at Random House before leaving to write full time. Her novels include the prize-winning Consider the Lily, international bestseller Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman, The New Mrs Clifton and Two Women in Rome. Buchan's short stories are broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and published in magazines. She has reviewed for the Sunday Times, The Times and the Daily Mail, and has chaired the Betty Trask and Desmond Elliot literary prizes. She is a judge for the Women's Prize for non fiction 2024, and was also on the judging panels for the Whitbread First Novel Award and the 2014 Costa Novel Award. She is a patron of the Guildford Book Festival and co-founder of the Clapham Book Festival.



Buchan is a magical and tender writer of romance, a literary descendant of the much-loved Mary Stewart and Eva Ibbotson.



Elizabeth Buchan is on brilliant form ... This is a coming-of-age story steeped in wisdom with an incredible sense of time and place, whether the setting is a beautiful but stifling English village or the dizzying streets of Paris. Bonjour, Sophie deserves as much love as its beguiling heroine



This beautifully written book stole my heart. A heart-warming, poignant, sometimes humorous, and always captivating novel. Post-war Paris is made real and vivid. Nothing I've previously read set there and at that time comes close.



A glorious read! So evocative. Conjures the excitement of Paris so vividly that the reader cannot fail to be swept along on the journey. A magical coming-of-age story. I loved it!



This evocative story captures the highs of love and the lows of betrayal... A compelling book, full of intrigue



Buchan is always brilliant on love and this gorgeously written novel has as many twists and shadows as the baroque city in which it is set.



It's a gem of a book... Beautiful, elegant.



An amazing, emotive, heartbreaking but also ultimately uplifting novel. I really loved it.