Windmill Hill

Windmill Hill
Genre : Fiction
Published : 26 May 2023 - Quercus
In the 1970s, a single night in a remote hunting lodge with a Hollywood director and his leading lady causes an international scandal that wrecks Astrid's glittering stage career and rips apart her marriage. Her ex-husband, the charismatic Scottish actor Magnus Fellowes, finds global fame, while Astrid retreats to a Sussex windmill. Now 82, she lives there still, with a troupe of dachshunds and her loyal friend, Mrs Baker, who came to clean over twenty years ago, and never left. But Mrs Baker has a troubled past too - one that's caught up with them. There has been an 'Awful Incident' at the windmill; police are sniffing around. Then Astrid hears that Magnus, now on his death bed, is writing a tell-all memoir. Furious, she sets off for Scotland, determined to stop him, at all costs.

WINDMILL HILL is the story of two very different women with painful pasts and their unlikely friendship - deep, enduring and loyal to the last.

Reviews

Brilliantly observed. I loved it.

Claire Fuller

Lucy Atkins, a one-of-a-kind author, has reached new heights.

Mick Herron

Compulsively and skilfully woven.

Clare Chambers

A triumph. Funny, mysterious, moving and ingenious - a Shakespearean knot of happiness all round.

Philip Pullman

I loved Windmill Hill. Glorious characters in an intriguing, brilliantly told story. And so funny!

Nina Stibbe

Utterly gorgeous - a lush, rich mystery peopled by unforgettable characters.

JP Delaney

Lucy Atkins is such a skilled storyteller, creating compelling, interesting characters who remain with the reader long after the last word is read. I loved the story of friendship at the heart of Windmill Hill and I was entranced by this exquisitely written novel. It's a novel I will be giving to all my friends. Beautifully written, it has stayed with me a long time.

Clover Stroud

A fascinating exploration of the resilience of the aged and the determination to confront the ghosts of the past. The book keeps you in suspense until the final page.

Michael Billington

I'm a big Lucy Atkins fan and Windmill Hill is a brilliantly structured tale of complicated lives which moves cleverly between several timelines. The protagonists are fascinating and the windmill almost a character in its own right. A really absorbing read.

Adèle Geras

Lucy Atkins is an author at the top of her game with Windmill Hill. This is a compelling and multi-layered novel with so much to say about love and friendship, about being young and growing old – and how the concept of home can be found in another human being while companionship can be found in an old, irritable windmill.

Freya North

A beautifully written story about the endurance and strength of female friendship, and how we can set the past free if we find the courage to face it. Lucy Atkins writes place and character with such skill, I feel as though I have sat by the windmill with Astrid and Mrs Baker, watching the downs unfold before us and drinking a shot (or two) of Jim Beam. A truly memorable story, I loved it.

Jo Cannon

Windmill Hill is a propulsive read about the lives of theatre actors; their loves, long buried secrets & what they are willing to do for fame. It is written with all the addictive energy of a whodunnit but also the elegance and poise of literary fiction. A deft display of Lucy Atkin’s talents as a delicate observer of human nature and a master of intrigue.

Arifa Akbar

I’ve been a firm fan of Lucy Atkins since The Night Visitor and the superb Magpie Lane, but Windmill Hill propels her into a different league. Exquisitely written, with a protagonist who leaps off the page, it’s comic, astute, heart-warming and powered by two dark strands of suspense that tug you as strongly as the wind beneath the mill’s sails. I loved it.

Sarah Vaughan

Funny, moving and original.

Best Magazine

Windmill Hill is enormous fun and Atkins delivers an emotionally satisfying climax.

Justine Jordan, The Guardian

With wonderfully drawn characters, this female character-led story is humorous and charming.

Candis Magazine

Its warmth and roundness is one that'll keep you turning the pages.

The Belfast Telegraph

In Windmill Hill, Lucy Atkins has created two unforgettable characters in a setting so vivid you’ll be googling ‘how to live in a windmill’ even as you turn the last page. At turns funny, poignant and fierce, the novel is a thrilling page turner which showcases Atkin’s beautiful prose. I love this book and am hoping for further adventures for our protagonists!

Sarah Franklin

Revelling in elements of suspense, historical romance, crime — cosy and gruesome — this is a transporting and entertaining read.

The Sunday Times

Make sure you read this funny, moving book before it becomes a film, for the pleasure of Atkins’s delicious writing.

Daily Express

Atkin’s enjoyably cosy yarn builds to a powerful and deftly denouement as she pursues themes of friendship, memory, perception and truth.

The Daily Mail

Wonderful, warm and funny.

Peterborough Telegraph

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