Jillian Taberner

The Spanish Daughter Jillian Taberner

This family saga set in Yorkshire and northern Spain, begins in the mid-1930s. Through an act of deceipt and the subsequent revenge, two families, one English and one Spanish, become entangled, suffering the consequences of the lie. A strong narrative voice is Connie's through her diary and letters to her younger sister Garnet, revealing how she is wrenched from her English family and sent to live in Spain with her father, heir to a vineyard producing Rioja wine. Connie is twelve when her mother declares; 'I have something to tell you...the man you think of as Daddy isn't actually your father.' Connie can hardly take in the facts; her father isn't her father, her name isn't Connie and she is being sent away to a foreign land. Repercussions of Connie's departure have a devastating effect on all members of the family, including Garnet who becomes ill. Distraught, Connie writes in her diary; 'A new family, a new school, a new language. How am I supposed to cope with that?'