A Way Through the Mountains

Elizabeth McGregor

This is a novel about finding what you want but in unexpected ways. When David is suddenly summoned back into Anna's life after ten years his help is needed and it is given in a way that is both practical and romantic. Interwoven with the story are the adventures of a plant hunter in China told in a way that made me want to pack my bags and head for the Chinese mountains.

Extract

The dove tree stood at the back of Morton House. It was known by other names. The ghost tree. The handkerchief tree. Standing underneath it, staring up through its airy branches, David watched the way that the white bracts moved in the wind. On a morning like this - cool, with the sun just touching the uppermost leaves - Davidia involucrata had been discovered in the mountains of western China in 1869.

The owner of Morton House had planted this tree forty years before because he had heard the story of when the botanist Augustine Henry had first seen it flowering in Hupeh.

Parallels