Tony Benn wrote of Diney Costeloe’s novel about Tom Carter and his execution for alleged desertion in the First World War "it is a powerful and moving account of the brutality of war itself, which allows a young lad to be executed by his own comrades."
| Primary Genre | Historical Fiction |
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.
The Ashgrove features in the following genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction
The Ashgrove is available in Paperback
The Ashgrove was written by Diney Costeloe and published by Castlehaven Books
