From
the trenches of World War One to a sleepy village in modern
England, the dramas and cruelties
of the past come back to life…
Eight
ash trees were planted in 1921 as a memorial to the men from
the village of Charlton Ambrose who were killed in World
War One. Now the Ashgrove is under threat from developers,
and the village is torn between the need for more housing
and the wish to preserve the memorial.
Rachel
Elliott, a journalist on the Belcaster Chronicle, is reporting
the story and uncovers a mystery….Eight men and nine
trees - in whose memory is the ninth tree and who planted
it?
Intrigued,
Rachel does some research, but it is only when she is given
a diary and some letters that she begins, at last, to unravel
the true story behind the ninth tree. Written by a young
girl, Molly Day, nursing the wounded in a hospital in France,
the diary and letters tell of her life in the hospital and
her love for Tom Carter, one of her patients.
As
the story of Molly and Tom unfolds, Rachel discovers her
own links with the past and with the Ashgrove itself and
this makes her determined to save the Ashgrove as a memorial
to all the men who lost their lives.
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