BOOK REVIEW: The Garden of Lost and Found by Harriet Evans

Nightingale House, 1919. Liddy Horner discovers her husband, the world-famous artist Sir Edward Horner, burning his best-known painting The Garden of Lost and Found days before his sudden death.
Nightingale House was the Horner family's beloved home- a gem of design created to inspire happiness- and it was here Ned painted The Garden of Lost and Found, capturing his children on a perfect day, playing in the rambling Eden he and Liddy made for them.
One magical moment before it all came tumbling down...
When Ned and Liddy's great-granddaughter Juliet is sent the key to Nightingale House, she opens the door onto a forgotten world. The house holds its mysteries close but she is in search of answers. For who would choose to destroy what they love most?
Whether Ned's masterpiece or, in Juliet's case, her own childhood happiness?
Something shattered this corner of paradise.
But what?

Publisher: Headline Review

Pages: 496

The Garden of Lost and Found by Harriet Evans is a beautifully written book. I read it on holiday and was so sad to reach the end.
The whole book centres round Nightingale House and the Horner family. In 1919 Liddy finds her husband, the world-famous painter Ned Horner burning his work, including his masterpiece The Garden of Lost and Found which depicted both his wife and their two children Eliza and John. The Horners have endured much success but also great tragedy and the burning of the painting is spoken about all over the world.
Many years later, Ned and Liddy's great-granddaughter, Juliet, comes to live in Nightingale House, the house she vividly remembers from her childhood when visiting her grandmother Stella. Juliet is going through a messy divorce and the house is a new start for her and her three children, Bea, Isla and Sandy. Juliet is a well-known art-historian and she still cannot believe that her great-grandfather would have burnt his painting as she knows what it meant to him. But if he didn't burn it then what became of it?
I could not find fault with this book, the story and characters were wonderful, the setting of Nightingale House was beautifully vivid and I loved all of the rich details that Harriet Evans wove into the story.
The Horner family are fascinating and I loved learning the stories and secrets of all the different members. Evans ties the different strands together so well and I enjoyed all aspects of the story. My favourite part of the book was the actual house. Evans' descriptions are wonderful and it didn't take long for me to be able to clearly picture it in my mind as though I could walk from room to room.
I urge you to read The Garden of Lost and Found by Harriet Evans and I cannot wait to read it again in the future.