SOLVED. British Mystery, Rural, around 1990- Someone moves into a cottage in the countryside and experiences strange nature related events. [s]

[Ave]

I hope someone can help me find a book I read over 30 years ago when I was around 15 or 16. Because it is so long ago I don’t have any clear memories, just vague impressions in my mind. One of those being that I absolutely loved this book and considered it a gift to have stumbled upon it while browsing books in the library. At the time I had to read English books for my finals at school (I am Dutch). We got a list with recommendations to read but we could also have a book approved not from the list. One of the requirements was that it could not be a children’s book.

So I am looking for a book for adults published around or at least before 1990 that made it untranslated to a Dutch library.

The plot:
Very vague memories here… Someone (a woman? A girl in a family?) moves into a remote cottage in the (English?) countryside. It is old, and it has a feel of the past. It is an inheritance? There is a small gate and a path leading to the house, and I think there is a large wild garden around it. I think the cottage is white and has a thatched roof…not sure. There is a sense of slowness and boredom, but then some minor strange events happen. Something to do with the garden…a stone..? I don’t remember anymore what it leads to, just that it is tied to nature somehow. Not so much a ghost or anything. It also makes me think of summer (but perhaps I read it in the summer)

I remember from the cover that it was white, and kind of bland with just a simple drawing on it…of a cottage..? I think the word ‘Cottage’ was in the title, and when I think about the author’s name ‘Adams’ comes bubbling up. It was in any case a very ordinary name and the title was so generic that googling on these terms just gives me too many hits. At the time I didn’t know the author at all (but hey, I was still in my teens, so that doesn’t say much)

So I really hope the collective memory of goodreads can help me find this book. It has stayed with me and made me want to own a thatched roofed cottage surrounded by wild flowers for ages too.

[Rainbowheart]

Lucy's Cottage?

[Ave]

Thanks both of you. Lucy's cottage ticks a lot of boxes and The Magic Cottage I first dismissed when I got that link, because I know James Herbert.... however when I saw this cover I was sold. I really think it is the one.

I read a few pages online. Funny. I can't remember it being in first person, and the main protagonist being male. Also I can't remember the writing style being so loose. But this really seems something 15-year old me would love.

I am gonna read it again and if no more bells start to ring, try Lucy's cottage too.

Thanks!

[[deleted user]]

Is it Mary Stewart's Thornyhold or Rose Cottage? Thornyhold is late '80s and Rose Cottage is late '90s. I read them both (and all her other books) as a teenager, although they're technically adult books.

[Marli]

The Rose Garden

[Rainbowheart]

It can't be that one. OP read her book over 30 years ago, and The Rose Garden was not published until 2011.

[Rainbowheart]

Could it be the same book Jinny is searching for here?

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Ave]

Hi thanks all, as mentioned in my previous comment (perhaps not all too clear...sorry) it was the Magic Cottage.

I have read it again and it was definitively it. Fun to read it now with adult eyes, but still quite fun.

I am not sure how to close this thread. Although I am thinking now I should change the subject. Let me see if I can do that.

Thanks again to all of you!

[Rainbowheart]

Thanks for the update on The Magic Cottage!

Glad you found your book. :)