This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart was first published in 1964 and the setting is the Greek island of Corfu, where Lucy Waring, a young aspiring actress is invited to stay with her sister for the summer. Her acting career has come to a bit of a halt so it’s an ideal opportunity for her, especially when she discovers that her sister’s neighbour is a famous thespian Sir Julian Gale. His son Max is staying with him, in fact it seems that Sir Julian isn’t in the best of health.
It’s a wee bit of an English enclave on that part of the island, there’s also a photographer who is working on a book of photos of the island and its animals and a dolphin features fairly prominently. But there’s plenty of local colour and of course romance.
Corfu is apparently supposed to be the setting for Shakespeare’s The Tempest from which Stewart took the title for this and which is one that I’ve been intending to read for absolutely yonks now, and I really wish I had got around to it as there are so many quotes from it in the book. Mary Stewart was really well-read.
I enjoyed this one, there’s plenty of suspense although I don’t think it was quite as good as Nine Coaches Waiting.
I read this one for the Read Scotland 2017 Challenge and 20 Books of Summer.
I thought I recognised the author’s name – Mary Stewart wrote The Moonspinners.
Did she spend extended time in Greece, to have set some of her books there?
Valerie,
It seems that she and her husband enjoyed travelling and Greek and Roman history, I imagine they went on holiday to Greece a lot and the settings inspired her writing.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/15/mary-stewart
I really enjoyed this one too (although I agree that it’s not as good as Nine Coaches Waiting, which is my favourite). What I remember most about this book is the dolphin!
Helen,
I think that’s what most people remember from it, which if I had written it probably wouldn’t please me!