A Year Without A Summer

A Year Without A Summer

£12.99

In February 2009, Milly’s pregnancy has complications and she heads to Peake House to confide in her trusted friends.
In February 1816, Martha comes home to Peake Manor to face a third pregnancy, still grieving the loss of two babies.
When tragedy strikes, Milly returns to Peake House seeking solace and solitude. But the old manor hides a disturbing secret and following an unseasonal storm history is revealed.
Then their worlds collide…
A Year Without a Summer is a story of loss and longing, of veiled grief and concealed pasts, and what happens when the key is found to unlock what’s hidden away.

 

Limited edition: https://www.barnardpublishing.co.uk/books/limited-edition-%E2%80%A6without-a-summer

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Description

In February 2009, Milly’s pregnancy has complications and she heads to Peake House to confide in her trusted friends.
In February 1816, Martha comes home to Peake Manor to face a third pregnancy, still grieving the loss of two babies.
When tragedy strikes, Milly returns to Peake House seeking solace and solitude. But the old manor hides a disturbing secret and following an unseasonal storm history is revealed.
Then their worlds collide…
A Year Without a Summer is a story of loss and longing, of veiled grief and concealed pasts, and what happens when the key is found to unlock what’s hidden away.

Limited edition: https://www.barnardpublishing.co.uk/books/limited-edition-%E2%80%A6without-a-summer

 

Here’s what readers are saying:

In her debut novel, A year Without A Summer, Lesley Bungay expertly weaves a dual timeline story of two women, separated by generations, yet connected by the secrets hidden in Peake House. In the present day, Milly is a young woman looking forward to embarking on motherhood, when tragedy strikes. In the Regency period, Martha is suffering through her own pregnancy, her only escape the letters she writes to a mysterious ‘companion’. When Milly inherits Peake House from an old friend, Milly’s experiences of love and loss begin to mirror that of Martha’s. Lesley Bungay wears her historical research lightly, evoking a past age with consummate ease. This is a moving story of female friendship, maternal love, hidden secrets, and the restorative powers of sea bathing – A Year Without A Summer is a wonderful novel that will appeal to anyone with a heart.
     – Lou Morrish

This is a beautiful, haunting tale about friendship, motherhood and the power some women hold when – to the outside world – they seemingly have none. Lyrical and moving, this debut is also a deep study in loss and how the human spirit can prevail. 
– Eleni Kyriacou, author of A Beautiful Way to Die

A Year Without a Summer is compelling, heart-rending and beautifully crafted. Through her characters, Lesley deftly honours women’s lives and embodied experiences with reverence and grace, handling challenging subject matter with lightness, compassion and, ultimately, hope.
– Nicola Pritchard-Pink

A Year Without A Summer is a really powerful story of the deep connection between three women – Milly and Jemima, who are current day friends, and Martha, who lived in the Georgian era. Milly is able to discover Martha’s story when she inherits what was Martha’s house and discovers a cache of hidden letters written by Martha. 
These woman all share the bond of motherhood but two of them share the deeper and sadder connection of experiencing loss through miscarriage. The novel sensitively explores the emotional trauma that ensues from this, how this resonates with Milly’s own experiences and the coping mechanisms used by all three women to deal with their trauma. 
This beautifully written novel explores friendship, loss, personal tragedy and the differences in the ways in which pregnant women were treated in the Georgian period and how they are treated now. The whole novel is powerfully written but Martha’s letters about her pregnancy and her miscarriage are particularly poignant. There is also a lovely cast of supporting characters who add warmth, depth and love to this story.
I really enjoyed reading this novel and highly recommend it to others. It feels like a work of love by the author that deserves to be shared as widely as possible with others. 
– Stephen Hodgeson

Reading A Year Without A Summer is like having a cuppa and a catch up with an old friend.
– Samantha Jayne Hunt Stacey (author of Intimate Strangers and Aldershot My Home Town)

Moving between the lives of Martha Bishop in the early eighteen hundreds and Milly in the present day, A Year Without A Summer sees each woman navigating child loss under the close watch of Peake House. Both women, adrift, isolated from those they need support from, seek solace by turning inwards. 
I really loved the way the contemporary and historical elements correlated throughout, and the build up to the point of Milly and Martha’s worlds colliding was beautifully done. Although the time each woman lived in dealt with women and child loss differently, this novel shows that the experience of losing a child – on a fundamental, emotional level – is as painful and heartbreaking for every woman, no matter when they experienced it. 
I shed tears reading this. Lesley Bungay has crafted sympathetic characters that make you root for them. Both Milly and Martha made me want to hold their hands and guide them through their pain. 
Sense of place is so strong in this too. Peake House was vivid in both eras, bursting with a riot of joy and pain, a melancholic rhythm of its past beating behind all of Milly and Jemima’s positive memories with Fran. 
This is a heart-wrenching, yet hopeful read.
     – Jay McKenzie
A Year Without Summer is a story told with sensitivity, compassion and skill. It charts the stories of two young women separated by time, but joined by place, experience and motherhood.

Unflinchingly honest,  the novel explores universal themes, those that bind; relationships, loss and sense of searching for who we are beyond the expectations of others. 
A beautiful and sometimes heartbreaking portrayal of mothering and motherhood and the cost this comes at. 
A Year Without Summer is a stunning debut. 
     – Rachel Canwell
With the past echoing the present, A Year Without Summer is a moving story of the devastation of child loss and the importance of community.
     -Rukky Brume, author of It Comes in Waves

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