A Half Forgotten Song: A Novel

In Half Forgotten Song, fourteen-year-old Mitzy Hatcher’s lonely life on the wild Dorset coast is changed forever when renowned artist Charles Aubrey arrives to summer there with his exotic mistress and daughters.
 
Mitzy develops a bond with the Aubrey household, gradually becoming Charles's muse. Over the next three summers, a powerful love is kindled in her that grows from childish infatuation to something far more complex…
 
Years later, a young man in an art gallery looks at a hastily drawn portrait and wonders at its intensity. The questions he asks lead him to a Dorset village and to the truth about those fevered summers in the 1930s.
 
With Sunday Times bestselling novel Half Forgotten Song, Katherine Webb spins a historical tale of long kept secrets and obsessive love that fans of Kate Morton and Susanna Kearsley are sure to love.

A spellbinding tale about the power of love, the danger of obsession, and the unfaithful nature of memory, A Half Forgotten Song is by turns haunting, joyous, and heartbreaking

1937. In a windswept village on the Dorset coast, fourteen-year-old Mitzy Hatcher has endured a wild and lonely upbringing. But the arrival of renowned artist Charles Aubrey, along with his exotic mistress and their two daughters, changes everything. Over the course of three summers, Mitzy develops a deep and abiding bond with the Aubrey household, gradually becoming Charles's muse. Slowly, she begins to perceive a future she had never thought possible—and a powerful love is kindled in her. A love that will grow as she does: from innocence to obsession; from childish infatuation to something far more dangerous.

Years later, a young man in an art gallery happens upon a hastily drawn portrait and is intrigued by its curious intensity. The questions he asks lead him to the seaside village—and to the truth about those fevered summers of long ago.

“Webb winds her way through three generations of women by following the path of grief created by a broken heart, crafting characters you care about and a story you won’t soon forget: poignant and completely engrossing.” - M. L. Malcolm, author of Heart of Deception

“Stunning, unforgettable....Webb’s skillful, urgent writing is impossible to put down and more impossible to forget.” - Booklist (starred review)

“Occult happenings, romantic passion, and murder disrupt the peace of a Berkshire village in 1911 in this hauntingly good novel from the author of The Legacy.” - Marie Claire (UK)

“A haunting novel of betrayal.” - Woman and Home (UK)

“The ending will leave you breathless.” - Charles Todd, on THE UNSEEN