The Last Christmas Blog Tour

The Last Christmas

When a final goodbye in Cornwall is only the beginning…

Meredith Tremayne Russell has spent her life mapping the world, first in intelligence during WWII, and later as a professor. But at ninety-eight with time running out, she faces a journey she cannot chart, a return to her old Cornish home to sell it and to scatter her beloved husband’s ashes. 

With her is her twenty-five-year-old granddaughter, Grace, a dyslexic who believes she is a failure in a family of academics. For Grace the trip is a welcome escape from her mother’s demands. But when she unlocks her great-grandmother’s abandoned art studio, she finds a legacy of a passionate artist and a French resistance fighter.

As Meredith relives the frozen December of her 1946 wedding, she understands her final mission isn’t to say goodbye to her old home, but to draw one last map—showing Grace how to navigate a life of her own making.

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0HH9QRQYL (ebook)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HH9QRQYL (Amazon US)

https://www.lizfenwick.com/store-1/p/the-last-christmas (paperback)

Author Bio – Liz Fenwick, dubbed ‘the queen of the Cornish contemporary novel’ by The Guardian,  is an award-winning author of emotional, immersive, feel-good fiction. Her books are filled with history, mystery and love. She loves stories that pull her into their world like they did when she was young so that’s what she writes. When she’s not writing, she’s procrastinating on Instagram, plot walking, reading and painting. She lives in Cornwall with her husband and two mad cats.

Social Media Links – @liz_fenwick (insta & twitter & threads) @lizfenwickauthor  (TikTok)

Giveaway to Win 3 x Paperback copies of The Last Christmas (Open to UK Only)

*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome.  Please enter using the Gleam box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Gleam from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

Excerpt

The character of Meredith Tremayne has stayed with me since I wrote The Secret Shore. Kestle, her childhood home, has as well. So many readers wanted to know more about it and this story gave me the opportunity to ‘live’ in it again. I always love writing about houses and Kestle was no exception. There is a real Kestle which the fictional one is loosely based on. I love using places that actually exist. It helps me to visualise them. Writing the real estate details for Kestle was fun and also focused both Merry’s and my mind on what was at stake.

Prologue

The draft sales brochure for Kestle sits on my desk. I stare at it, but don’t bring it into focus. That would acknowledge what must be done. Over the last sixty years, I’ve received various offers to buy it from interested parties, but something has always stopped me from selling. 

Nostalgia. Duty. Longing. Inertia. 

The image of the house on the cover blurs for a moment and years slip away. But I don’t have time to dwell in the past. At ninety-eight my days now are limited. Eventually, I flip the pages, noting each photograph and tracing the map of the estate with my index finger. The fields with their unique names speak to me in my father’s voice. From my earliest days he taught them to me as we walked through the farm together. Each stone he picked up told a story. Some spoke of the geology of the land, some of the human touch which had placed it in a hedge, and some conjured the object he thought the rock looked like. Those happy hours exploring my homeland nurtured the woman I’ve become. 

Kestle was never meant to become my responsibility, but I love it as my brother Oli did. The farm should have been his, but war changes everything. This I know too well.

Kestle

The ancient farmstead of Kestle sits on the banks of the Helford River and includes the eastern side of Frenchman’s Creek, made famous by the Daphne du Maurier novel. 

At low tide, with only the wading birds for company, the silence of the creek used to fill me.

The 200-acre estate has been owned by the Tremayne family since 1918. 

My parents had bought Kestle just after I was born. Maman spoke about how crazy in love they were and what an odd couple they made – the artist from Brittany and the army colonel. 

The land has been cultivated since the Bronze Age. 

Ancient mounds and remnants of structures mark the fields. Oli and I would play in, on and around them, creating new worlds.

The estate includes a Georgian house, a farmhouse with parts dating back to the 1400s, several bungalows, farm buildings, as well as a cottage nestled in the woods at the head of the creek. 

Pill Cottage. My cottage. Could I let go of what my father had wanted me to have? My heart yearns for this place of my childhood, on the other side of the Atlantic. It’s telling me to go back and complete the circle.

This is a rare opportunity to acquire a property in an area of outstanding natural beauty, immersed in history, that is almost untouched by time.

Freehold

P.O.A.

My heart races. Catching my breath is hard. It’s time. 

The agent has assured me that it must be put on the market by spring. I will not see another season. If I don’t do it now, then my heirs will. But before I do, I must visit one last time. It’s calling to me. It always has, but I can no longer ignore it and tell myself I will go there later. There is no more later, and I’m ready. I look for Jake across the room. My husband stands in the doorway, waiting. His smile lights me up. Yes, it is time.

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