Uncovering secrets that span generations, Rachel Hore delivers intriguing, involving and emotive narrative reading group fiction like few other writers can.
Nancy Foster has harboured a devastating secret that shattered her professional and personal life. On meeting her, journalist Stef Lansdown realizes that she has the power to restore Nancy’s reputation and to heal the wounds, if only Nancy will trust her. But someone else wants to get to the bottom of the story first, someone who doesn’t want it to be told.
Set in the beautiful environs of the Norfolk Broads in 2010, and in London in the '40s and ‘50s, when life for career-driven women was so different, The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge is Sunday Times multi-million copy bestselling author Rachel Hore’s utterly compelling new novel, interweaving the past and the present.
Title: The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge
Author: Rachel Hore
Published By: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: 31st July 2025
Our Review
The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge tells the story of two women, Stef who is a freelance journalist who wants to write a book about female scientists and Nancy an older lady who was, in her youth, a scientist who did important work and was brilliant at her job but became disillusioned when she realised she couldn’t get any further in her career. She eventually had to choose a different course for her life due to the rampant sexism she had to face at that time.
Stef wants to interview Nancy for her book but at first Nancy is very reluctant because it would rake up old wounds. But when she gets to know Stef a little more she begins to trust her and once she unlocks her memories and begins to divulge her story she finds it impossible to stop. Nancy’s grandson Aaron is not happy and thinks that Stef is trying to take advantage of his grandmother.
The two women bond as Stef realises what Nancy and her friends went through when they were younger but convincing Aaron to trust her is another story as he is so protective of his grandmother.
This book provides a really interesting glimpse into the past and raises really important issues about how women were treated in the forties and fifties. Especially female scientists who literally had to make a decision to work or raise a family but in those days couldn’t do both. It’s really frustrating to think of these women who worked so hard on their studies only to not be taken seriously and have to move on to jobs that although important, didn’t fulfil their ambitions.
I love the authenticity of the story being very close to home for the author in more ways than one but I don't want to give away that piece of information which is revealed in the acknowledgements.
A beautifully written, intriguing glimpse into the past with a lovely connection made in the present.
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Sincerely
Book Angel x
About the Author
I'm the author of thirteen bestselling novels, the most recent of which is The Hidden Years, now available in all the usual formats. My fourteenth novel, The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge, will be published on 31st July 2025.
I came to writing quite late, after a career editing fiction at HarperCollins in London. My husband and I had moved out to Norwich with our three young sons and I'd had to give up my job and writing was something that I'd always wanted to try. I originally studied history, so it was wonderful finally to put my knowledge to good use and to write The Dream House, which is partly set in1920s Suffolk and London.
Most of my novels are dual narrative, with a story in the present alternating with one set in the past. I love the freedom that they give me to escape into the past, but also the dramatic ways in which the stories interact. My characters are often trying to solve some mystery about the past and by doing so to resolve some difficulty or puzzle in their own lives.
The books can involve a lot of research and this takes me down all sorts of interesting paths. For The Glass Painter's Daughter I took an evening class in working with coloured glass. My glass creations were not very amazing, but making them gave me insight into the processes so that my characters' activities would feel authentic. For A Week in Paris I had to research Paris in World War II and the early 1960s through films and books and by visiting the city - that was a great deal of work for one novel. Last Letter Home involved me touring a lot of country houses with old walled kitchen gardens in search of atmosphere and to explore the different kinds of plants grown there.
Places often inspire my stories. The Memory Garden, my second novel, is set in one of my favourite places in the world - Lamorna Cove in Cornwall - which is accessed through a lovely hidden valley. A Place of Secrets is set in a remote part of North Norfolk near Holt, where past and present seem to meet. Southwold in Suffolk, a characterful old-fashioned seaside resort with a harbour and a lighthouse, has been a much loved destination for our family holidays and has made an appearance in fictional guise in several of my novels, including The Silent Tide and The Love Child.
Until recently I taught Publishing and Creative Writing part-time at the University of East Anglia, but now I'm a full-time writer, which felt like a big step. My boys are all grown up now and finding their way in the world, but we still see a lot of them. My husband David is a writer, too (he writes as D.J. Taylor), so we understand each other's working lives.
I find I have to have a regular routine with my writing, not least to keep the book in my head. My aim is to sit down at 9am every morning and write till lunchtime, then again the afternoon, but there is often something ready to interrupt this, not least our Labrador girl Zelda, so I go with the flow.
I hope that you are able to find my books easily and enjoy them - I am always happy to hear from readers!
Happy reading!
Rachel Hore
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