Constance and Faith — Victoria Routledge

CONSTANCE & FAITH is set in Cumbria, in the fictional town of Linton on the coast. It is here that Hannah grew up, surrounded by her rather dotty grandmother, mother and aunts. As soon as she is able, she leaves - for London, her own flat, a boyfriend, a career. But, brokenhearted and unemployed, she returns to Linton a few years later to find the town and its people, their routines and preoccupations, completely unchanged - or so it appears on the surface. The guilt and apathy she feels at having gone home haunt her, but gradually she is drawn into this rather genteel, slow-paced world and finds that it is anything but dull and set in its ways. The history of her own family, of past generations, their secrets, love affairs, betrayals and intricate lives, begin to emerge, not least through the stunning paintings that she undertakes to catalogue in the local manor house. And gradually we learn exactly why Hannah left Linton in the first place, not to fulfil her ambition for excitement and success in the big city, but to escape disgrace in the eyes of her own family...