Discovery of 100-year-old Notebook Inspires Debut Novel

All writers get their inspiration from somewhere and now the discovery of a hundred year old gardener’s notebook at the National Trust’s Ickworth House in Suffolk has inspired The Garden of Found and Lost, a debut tween novel to be released next summer.

The novel by Ann-Marie Howell is set in 1916 and is about a 12-year-old girl called Clara, who is sent to stay with her Aunt and Uncle at Gardener’s Cottage in the grounds of a sprawling country estate. Clara is soon to discover all the secrets the grounds hold including a locked room, a hidden key and a boy who only appears after dark.

Although a debut, the novel is already bills for Commonwealth rights and is likely to receive a full global release. The novel has created a real buzz in the Usborne offices, the publishers who will be releasing the book next summer.

Although pre-orders are not yet available, the highly-atmospheric novel full of secrets and mystery, set to the backdrop of World War I will be released on 11th July 2019. Preorders are not yet available, but are expected soon.

This is Howell’s debut novel, but she is well equipped to write having graduated from the 2015 Curtis Brown Creative Writing for Children course where she was tutored by Catherine Johnson.

The Garden of Found and Lost will be followed by a second historical stand alone by the same author, due in 2020.