A Half Forgotten Song

​Like its title, this novel has been almost forgotten on my shelves, possibly because this small paperback Orion edition has a tight spine and very small print and I kept discarding it in favour of something easier to read. (I’d be interested in any research by publishers/readers into the overall success of books that are comfortable to handle and read in relationship to size, font, etc.)

Zach, divorced father of one, writer/artist, and owner of an art gallery in Bath, is an aficionado of the work of Charles Aubrey, a well-known painter from the 1930s. Rumours that Zach may have a family connection to him adds to the intrigue around his past. He travels to the Dorset village where the Aubrey family spent many summer holidays. There, he is surprised to encounter an elderly woman who features in some of Aubrey’s drawings. This is Dimity/Mitzy, an eccentric recluse who slowly reveals her story that is intertwined with Zach’s curiosity about puzzling aspects of Aubrey’s works and his growing relationship with Hannah, a local farmer.

This is a slow boil of a novel. I nearly gave up a few times until the pace gathered as the disparate mystery threads came together in the last third. Some characters were more interesting than others, such as Charles’s mistress, the French Moroccan, Celeste, but others less so. Charles had too much of the cliched erratic tortured womanising artist about him. I wasn’t convinced by Zach’s attraction to the bristly and untidy Hannah, nor the practical aspects in how Dimity managed to keep her secret for sixty odd years.

Three stars.
 
(As this title was published in 2012, it could be out of print. It may be available through your library or second-hand sources.)

Amazon.co.uk (audio)

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