The Forest Hideaway

Sharon Gosling

ARCHITECT Saskia Tilbury-Martin is building the dream. She’s converting the crumbling ruins and fairytale tower of an old castle - tucked away in a spectacular forest on the wild edge of Cumbria - into what she hopes will be her forever home.

For troubled Saskia, this is the start of a ‘new chapter in a new place,’ but like the TV shows that are a perennial hit with TV viewers, her path to this daring and groundbreaking build is destined to be littered with trials and tribulations which will test both her resilience and her heart.

Well-known children’s author Sharon Gosling (pictured below), who harnessed her love for a historic village in Scotland for her spellbinding adult debut novel, The House Beneath the Cliffs, and found inspiration from the bookshop that she and her husband run in the Cumbrian market town of Penrith for her second heartwarming novel, The Lighthouse Bookshop, returns to home territory for this remote and romantic autumn escape. Set amidst an ancient, dense and tangled forest, surrounded by a patchwork of rising and falling fields, and with a mighty and magical oak tree standing proudly at the centre of the story, The Forest Hideaway explores not just one woman’s determination to create a new future for herself, but also a contemplation of mankind’s eternal relationship with the natural world.

Saskia is building a home that she has personally designed out of the ruins of an old castle at Gair Forest in a remote corner of Cumbria, close to the Scottish border. Although she lives in London, she  has always dreamt of building a home there. Surrounded by trees, hidden away from everyone and everything, Gair has ‘that peculiar kind of magic’ that few places possess and it is the only connection she has left to her father.

A large and ancient oak tree is growing in the centre of the crumbling building, adding to the mysterious atmosphere conjured up by this beautiful spot, and she has no plans to chop it down. She wants to preserve the castle ‘with all the decay intact, but made liveable,’ viewing the whole project as a hard-won chance to escape from her difficult past and create a new future.

But even through Saskia has spent her whole life trying to find a way to make this project work and despite having a large trust fund at her disposal, finding someone to help her realise her dream – with its inherent difficulties – has been almost impossible.

And when local builder Owen Elliot meets up with Saskia at Gair to discuss managing the construction, things get off to a very bad start. Living in a tiny flat with his wife Tasha and seven-year-old daughter Hannah, and in a marriage that is now filled with little more than bitterness, Owen resents Saskia’s late arrival, her ‘glossy image,’ swanky BMW convertible, and her ability to buy outright a castle and its extensive land.

But Owen needs the money and Saskia needs a builder, and forced to find a way to work together, both begin to realise that first impressions aren’t always the right ones. Even before the project begins, they face animosity from angry locals who claim that the build is ‘destroying history.’ And when Owen discovers the forest is hiding a secret that could bring work to a halt, he realises that he’s much more invested in the project – and Saskia – than he ever thought possible.

Written with Gosling’s trademark warmth and empathy, and her gift for portraying the drama and delights of a rural landscape, this visit to a wild and wonderful corner of Cumbria is steeped in the ethereal mysteries and legends of forest folklore but cleverly juxtaposed against more earthbound and human topics like broken relationships and dysfunctional families.

As Saskia’s castle home starts to take shape, her chequered past unwinds in a series of twists, turns and revelations which shine a light on her unflagging desire to build a new future, heal festering wounds, and pay an important and lasting tribute to her beloved father.

Sharing her emotional rollercoaster journey through triumph and disaster is down-to-earth builder Owen who is desperate to save both his work and family lives. Fighting the inner pain of his marriage break-up, and the problems that beset such a monumental building project, he learns that love, hope, happiness and a new beginning can be found in the most unexpected places.

With the atmospherics set at top dial, a story filled with enchantment and intrigue, a beautifully drawn cast of characters, and a golden retriever puppy called Brodie who threatens to steal the limelight, The Forest Hideaway is the perfect destination for autumn reading!
(Simon & Schuster, paperback, £9.99)