When I’d completed them, I felt thoroughly bereft – as if an old and very good friend had just left after a delightful visit. I was enthralled throughout, being unable to stop until I’d gone from The Town House (1959) to The House at Old Vine (1961) and finally arrived at the end in The House at Sunset (1963). I’d loved the books so much when I’d read them as a green girl wouldn’t I risk spoiling memories, courting disillusionment by having another look through eyes more clear-sighted but far more jaded? All the same, when I once again encountered Norah Lofts’ superb Suffolk House trilogy leading us from the late 14th century to the 1950s by tracking those who develop, inhabit and are connected with a single dwelling – the House at Old Vine – I hesitated. But sometimes, just sometimes, it doesn’t apply. It’s said you should never go back, never return to old haunts. Ruins of St Saviour’s Hospital (12th cent), Bury St Edmunds by Robert Edwards
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