Learning By Heart

A deeply moving and compelling novel from the author of THE GIRL IN THE GREEN GLASS MIRROR

Elizabeth McGregor was born in Warwickshire and lives in Dorset. An award-winning short story writer, she has also written six acclaimed psychological thrillers. Her novels are the acclaimed THE ICE CHILD, A WAY THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS, THE GIRL IN THE GREEN GLASS MIRROR and LEARNING BY HEART.

One small, faded, leather-bound journal. 
 
One photograph in a newspaper. 
 
These two seemingly small items are set to change lives forever. 
 
Just when career success seems set fair for Zeph's writer husband Nick, she discovers that he has been having an affair. Wounded and angry, she turns to her mother for support, only to discover that the past has also come back to haunt Cora, a person who always seemed utterly flawless. 
 
For now comes evidence of Cora's own long-ago relationship with a famous man, a man who so adored Zeph's mother that he never forgot her. 
 
Zeph is forced to see her own childhood, and the bond with her beloved father, in an entirely new light. Was she really loved, as her mother and father tried to deal with their problems? Was their happiness a sham, as hers and Nick's threatens to be? And how much can you trust the person who tells you that they love you? 
 
As Zeph struggles to piece together her shattered images of husband and parent, she suddenly realises the connection between herself and the writer of the journal which has appeared in the morning mail, posted from Italy; a last gift from a dying man, an anonymous and passionate stranger..... 
 
Set in both England and the alluringly beautiful island of Sicily, A YEAR IN THE LIGHT explores the complexities and subtleties of marriage, of lasting love and human frailty.

A Way Through The Mountains

The powerful new novel from the author of THE ICE CHILD

'John Lennon once said that 'life is what happens while you're busy making other plans', a simple truth beautifully conveyed in this powerful novel'

Sometimes the only way forward is to go back. 
 
Ten years have passed since David Mortimer last saw Anna Russell. Their love affair abruptly ended when Anna disappeared. 
 
Drifting through life ever since, David has never married, and is devoted only to his scientific work and to the book he has always meant to write, the story of the extraordinary plant explorer in China, Ernest Wilson. 
 
But David's isolation is about to change. He receives news that Anna has been seriously injured in an accident. More devastating still is the revelation that he has a daughter, Rachel, whom he has never seen. Both mother and daughter now urgently need his help - and more than one danger is threatening them. 
 
This is a story of two journeys, separated by time and place, but with the same goal. To find a way through the mountains, and to bring back something of infinite beauty that might otherwise have been lost forever.

Elizabeth McGregor

Be warned - once started, all other activity will cease until you have finished this magnificent novel

A big summer read...a skilful and affecting mix of history and romantic tragedy

A page-turning novel which blends drama, nail-biting suspense and an imaginative take on a real-life episode in history...Loyalty, faith and fraternal love: the author's celebration of these unfashionable values adds a deeper dimension to a gripping read.

Jo Harper, a successful young journalist, has only her adored two-year-old son, Sam, to remind her of her late partner. When Sam falls ill, there is only one slim hope - that his stepbrother John may hold the key to his survival. But John has disappeared. Seeking absolution for his part in the accidental death of his marine archeologist father and tortured by their failed relationship, John has set out alone against impossible odds to fulfil his father's dream - to uncover the last traces of the Franklin expedition, which vanished in the Arctic in 1847 while searching for the North West Passage. 
As uncanny parallels begin to unfold between the last days of the Franklin crew and the crisis facing Sam, Jo is plunged into a desparate race against time to save both the life of her son and the soul of her stepson. 
Beautifully written and deeply moving, THE ICE CHILD is storytelling at its very best.

Elizabeth McGregor

Praise for The Ice Child

Be warned - once started, all other activity will cease until you have finished this magnificent novel

A big summer read...a skilful and affecting mix of history and romantic tragedy

A page-turning novel which blends drama, nail-biting suspense and an imaginative take on a real-life episode in history...Loyalty, faith and fraternal love: the author's celebration of these unfashionable values add ...

Be warned - once started, all other activity will cease until you have finished this magnificent novel

A big summer read...a skilful and affecting mix of history and romantic tragedy

A page-turning novel which blends drama, nail-biting suspense and an imaginative take on a real-life episode in history...Loyalty, faith and fraternal love: the author's celebration of these unfashionable values add ...

Be warned - once started, all other activity will cease until you have finished this magnificent novel

A big summer read...a skilful and affecting mix of history and romantic tragedy

A page-turning novel which blends drama, nail-biting suspense and an imaginative take on a real-life episode in history...Loyalty, faith and fraternal love: the author's celebration of these unfashionable values add ...

Books by Elizabeth McGregor

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