Thank you Netgalley for letting me read and review this book. Letter From a Tea Garden is about Eleanor and her mental health. "When the post brings an unexpected invitation to return to the Indian tea gardens of her childhood, Eleanora risks breaking open painful memories of her younger years, lived across a tumultuous century. As relationships with her new-found family face their own challenges, she is offered fresh truths, the chance of love and unexpected new life - if she is prepared to take them."

Eleanor is a relatable character, and I enjoyed following her throughout this story. The writing style is pretty good, and I liked the story overall.

Really good book. The plot was well-written and engrossing. I look forward to reading more from this author.

This book took a few pages to get into it but I am so pleased that I read it. Full of emotion and very well written. 4 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for this ARC

Well, I was right – I’d rather thought this might be a book I’d enjoy, and I must say I thought it was absolutely stunning. It begins in 1964 – Eleanora, after a very full life, is sharing her home in England with friend and former nanny Persi, the house neglected and falling apart, drowning her life’s sorrows in whisky. An invitation to visit arrives from her nephew Roderick, her brother Hughie’s son, an assistant manager at a tea garden in Assam, accepted by both women – and they take the journey to the country where they both spent the larger part of their lives, understandably fearful of the memories it holds and the long-held secrets that might be revealed. And there follows – in tandem with the present day story – the most enthralling journey through Eleanora’s past life together with an exploration of a tumultuous period of India’s recent history.

In 1904, at the height of the Raj, Eleanora’s father was also an assistant manager at a tea garden – the idyllic childhood the children experienced despite the cracks in their parents’ marriage interrupted by their dispatch to the alien environment of an English boarding school, an experience only made bearable by the support of Persi. And later in Eleanora’s life – back in India, making her own way in life along with many mistakes and sometimes unwise choices, she has many more reasons to be grateful for Persi’s friendship and support. Meanwhile, the India of her childhood is no more – the Second World War has a devastating impact, followed by the end of the Raj, the absence of law and order followed by the fallout from Partition and the violence that followed. You don’t need to know anything about Indian history to enjoy this book – it’s very much an individual’s story, but the way the author weaves it into the story will leave an indelible impression.

Eleanora herself is a quite wonderful character – in both past and present, hers is the voice of the story, quite wonderfully sustained. I can hardly believe that, at the book’s start, I actually found her difficult to like – but by the book’s end, having seen her live her life and go through so much, she had a very special place in my heart. She’s funny and feisty, doesn’t care what people think, often causes great offence, lacks the social niceties at times – but my goodness, there were so many times I cried for her and wanted to hug her, to do anything I could possibly have done to lessen the difficulties she lived through. Throughout the book, she faces up to the past while recalling her memories, and ends up in an entirely different place – and taking that journey with her was an experience I’ll never forget.

And the India captured in this book is so much more than a backdrop to her story – the author brings it to life in all its vibrancy and colour, a wonderful multi-sensory experience, while making you feel at your core that ever present divide between privilege and destitution. This is one of those wonderful books that transports you, that you become part of as you read – and return to your own very different world at its end feeling you’ve lived through it all, and with a profound sense of loss. But the author really does have the most perfect emotional touch – when it’s all over, you leave the story with a smile and a real sense of hope for the future. It really is exceptional writing – a very personal story with all its unexpected twists and turns played out against a far wider canvas.

I’ve deliberately chosen not to tell too much of the story – I approached the book with only the synopsis on its back cover, and it’s only fair to allow others to do the same. But I thought this book – Eleanora’s story, Persi’s story, the way they were told, the people who cross their paths along the way, the powerful emotional impact of it all – was absolutely exceptional. Totally unforgettable, and without question one of my books of the year.

Letter from a Tea Garden: by Abi Oliver was a beautiful story of tenderness, loss and healing and was so beautifully written throughout. Abi wrote with so much love and you felt you were there when she was telling the story. Plus, it's a great holiday read. This book is set in India and I loved it there, so a perfect book for me to read and have my mind floating back there. This book just took my breath away and made me smile,

The cover was so beautiful and perfect for this book.

I highly recommend this book.

Big thank you to Literally PR for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

A great story that grew on me. It moved me and made me smile. I loved the characters and there was a lot to love in this well developed and exquisite book.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

"Memory ambushes one. It was that damned letter intruding. Family: Something I had long been resigned to having none of...".

1964. After years of silence, Eleanora (Lady Byngh) received a letter from her nephew, Roderick Storr-Mayfield, a tea garden assistant manager, who worked for the Jorhat Tea Company in Assam, India. Roderick and his wife Ginny had written that they longed to connect with family. Eleanora was currently living in the dilapidated house she had inherited. Location: Greenbury, England. Eighteen months prior, her former nanny Persi, from her time in India, had come to live with her.

1904. "Our house and its lovely garden with beautiful trees was fenced off from the main tea estate. Pa was the assistant manager, just as my nephew Roderick is now...Our sweet time of Eden, Hughie and me-untouched in our garden paradise, before its wall was stormed by our future. India. Do you think you could do India again?"

1904. In the care of Persi...neither English, nor in fact a nanny, Eleanora and older brother Hughie, were forced to board a boat in Bombay, destination-boarding school in England. At school, Eleanora shared an attic room with other four to six year olds. She and Hughie would go home to India only once in fourteen years. "England. Everything is cold and grey: The only colour is Persi's blue coat...Persi, no longer in my mother's employ, but still, always in touch."

1964. Once in India, at Roderick's house, "memories kept rising like clouds of birds. Some I wanted to look at, others I ordered in no uncertain terms to take themselves off...the hardest one...not yet...please, no-I'm not ready." "Persi was never one for great displays of emotion. She was one for getting on with it, staunch with deeds, not words."

Roderick had hoped that Auntie Eleanora would share memories of her brother Hughie, Roderick's father, but, two young children, so close in India, lost their connection in England. "Roderick's look was filled with a hunger...someone desperate for crumbs...Don't ask, boy. Don't ask much. Stay on the surface, it's safer." In dealing with a lifetime of challenges, Hughie had chosen to abandon, Eleanora had chosen "the bottle"...the one and only constant was Persi.

"Letter From a Tea Garden" by Abi Oliver is a read of historical fiction filled with beautifully descriptive passages of the Indian tea garden of Eleanora's early childhood. The austere English boarding school provided a place to learn to fit in for a potential life to be lived in England. "In England,...I made my deliberate decision never to feel anything." Might Roderick and Ginny Storr-Mayfield encourage the development of a new, strengthened family bond in India? A highly recommended read.

Thank you TORC Publishing and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful sweeping story of tenderness, loss and healing. A good story like this needs a quiet afternoon, a sofa and a warm blanket. Moving and heartfelt! Enjoy! Whimsical but never frivolous, sweet but not sugary, deeply kind rather than merely nice. I loved it.