A Half Forgotten Song by Katherine Webb – Book review by Kimberly Foreman

Genre: Historical fiction

This week I’m bringing you a gem of a book—A Half Forgotten Song by the wonderful Katherine Webb (think Kate Furnivall, Kristin Hannah and Paullina Simons).

Mitzy Hatcher is only fourteen years old when she meets the Aubreys. She’s had a hard upbringing—her single mother, Valentina, is a cold and unfeeling woman, more interested in her gypsy spells and the male visitors that drop by the cottage than in her young daughter. So when the Aubreys arrive in Dorset and show Mitzy affection and love, she is completely taken in by them. But at what point does love become obsession? And what happens when that love is no longer reciprocated—when it is suddenly taken away again?

Years later, paintings of Mitzy with the Aubreys lead Zach, a failing art gallery owner, to Dorset. His aim is to uncover more about the man who painted them—Charles Aubrey himself. But what Zach discovers is far more than he bargained for, and it’s not long before he’s trying to work out what happened to the Aubreys in the late 1930s and why some of them were never heard from again...

I enjoyed this book immensely. It was long, at nearly 500 pages, but I savoured each and every one. Some authors are just naturally talented at describing places and people—it’s effortless for them, as if the words just flow from their pens. I love it when writers can make an ordinary moment seem extraordinary—like the simple beauty of a moment shared. With A Half Forgotten Song, Webb does just that. One example of this is the scene where Wilf is resting his head on Mitzy’s shoulder as she sleeps, both under the tin roof of the barn, with the rain pelting it outside.

Although this is mainly a historical fiction novel, it also weaves in subtle elements of horror—something you don’t normally see mixed with this genre, and I really admired how well Webb pulled it off. Blending atmosphere, mystery and lyrical prose, this is a story that keeps you turning the pages.

“Never looking too far ahead, never looking too far afield. That is the key to happiness. Realising where you are, and what you have right now, and being grateful for it.” – p.191

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