The Clockmaker's Daughter

The Clockmaker’s Daughter is a work of adult historical fiction by Kate Morton, published in 2018 by Atria. Spanning timelines from the 1850s to the present day, the novel probes the relationship of multiple characters to the estate of Birchwood, perched on the Thames in the English countryside and home to the ghost of a young woman, the clockmaker’s daughter, who died there in 1862 during a summer retreat with a group of bohemian artists. Later host to a war-scarred researcher, a young mother fleeing the Blitz, and a detective seeking a fabled lost diamond, Birchwood eventually gives up its secrets when young archivist Elodie Winslow travels there to uncover the truth about her mother’s tragic death.

The novel was a New York Times bestseller in the US, a number one bestseller in Australian and Canada, a Library Reads selection, and was nominated for a Goodreads Choice award. This guide refers to the paperback edition published in 2019 by Washington Square Press.

Note on the Text: The Clockmaker’s Daughter follows an atypical structure that alternates between a third-person narrative, which is organized into chapters that use Arabic numerals, and a first-person narrative, which has its own sequence of sections that are marked with Roman numerals. This guide treats the sections marked by Roman numerals as chapters, too. This means, for example, that there is a “Chapter 2 Summary” and a “Chapter II Summary,” etc.

Plot Summary

A young woman describes, in fragments, the summer that she came to Birchwood Manor with Edward Radcliffe and his friends. Something shocking took place, and Edward left. The narrator stayed. As she narrates further chapters that alternate with other story strands, it emerges that this young woman is named Birdie and she grew up in the care of thieves in mid-19th-century London, where she adopted the name Lily Millington. Birdie is a ghost attached to Birchwood and she watches with interest the people who visit the house. The latest is a man named Jack who appears to be searching for something.

Part One, set in the summer of 2017, follows Elodie Winslow, a young woman working with the archives of Victorian reformer James Stratton who discovers an uncatalogued box of items containing a mid-19th-century satchel. Inside the satchel is a photograph that depicts a beautiful young woman in a flowing white dress. Elodie also finds a sketchbook, monogrammed EJR, which includes a sketch of a house she recognizes from a bedtime story her mother used to tell her.

Elodie investigates Edward Radcliffe, a Victorian painter and member of the Magenta Brotherhood whose career was cut short when his fiancée was killed during a robbery at Birchwood in 1862. Elodie learns that her great-uncle, Tip, told the bedtime story to Elodie’s mother, who died in a crash when Elodie was small. The house in the sketch is Birchwood Manor, where Tip stayed as a young evacuee during World War II.

Elodie learns that the woman in the photograph was called Lily Millington: Edward Radcliffe’s model and muse. A biography by Leonard Gilbert says that Frances Brown was killed in a robbery to which Lily Millington was thought an accomplice, stealing a valuable diamond called the Radcliffe Blue and running away to America. Elodie’s friend also gives her a photograph of Elodie’s mother, Lauren Adler, that was taken shortly before her death. Behind the photograph of Lily Millington is a letter to J signed BB.

In Part Two, more of Birdie’s story emerges. As a child she stayed with Mrs. Mack and her son, Martin, and earned her keep by picking pockets. Edward’s masterpiece was going to be a work called the Fairy Queen, in which he would paint Lily Millington wearing the Radcliffe Blue. After Edward’s death, his sister, Lucy, inherited Birchwood and turned it into a girl’s school for a time.

The novel then tells the story of Ada Lovegrove, age eight, who was brought by her parents from their home in Bombay and installed at the Radcliffe School for Girls. Ada liked Lucy. She also learned of a secret compartment built into the wall of one hallway in the house. Ada used it to hide from the other girls who tormented her. After she humiliated one of them at the end of season concert, the girls took Ada boating on the Thames. Ada, who could not swim, fell overboard. As she sank to the bottom she saw a glimpse of something blue.

Birdie is delighted when Elodie visits Birchwood. She’s learned that Jack is looking for the Radcliffe Blue. Birdie recalls meeting Pale Joe, a boy who was her childhood friend. She also thinks of Leonard, the soldier who wrote the biography of Edward. Birdie recalls meeting Edward; he hired her as his model, and they fell in love.

The story turns to Leonard, who has an art residency at Birchwood in 1928. He is studying Edward Radcliffe and interviews Lucy. Lucy tells him that Edward bought Birchwood because he felt that it was a magical place, associated with the story of the Eldritch Children, daughter of the Fairy Queen. Leonard has nightmares from the war. He enlisted with his brother, Tom, who was killed shortly after Leonard slept with Tom’s fiancée, Kitty. Leonard feels responsible for Tom’s death and carries a thruppence found on Tom’s body. As he returns to Birchwood, Leonard sees a young woman waking up from a nap beneath the maple tree, and he waves to her.

The next story is of Juliet, who comes to Birchwood in 1940 with her three young children during the Blitz. Juliet and her husband, Alan, spent their honeymoon in the area. They fought when she told him that she was pregnant and Juliet stormed away, only to fall asleep beneath a tree outside Birchwood. Now Juliet writes columns about the neighborhood and meets Ada, now a professor of archaeology. Ada takes a liking to Juliet’s youngest son, Tip. Tip likes to collect things, and Ada gives him a blue stone that she found. Juliet is concerned because Tip has an imaginary friend called Birdie who wears a white dress. Juliet doesn’t know how to tell her children that their father was killed in the war.

Jack Rolands, from Australia, is a detective trying to locate the Radcliffe Blue. He shows Elodie the churchyard where the photograph of her mother was taken. Elodie has guessed that James Stratton’s BB was Edward Radcliffe’s Lily Millington. Birdie remembers how Edward invited her to Birchwood and, knowing she wanted to find her father, bought two tickets to America for them under the names Mr. and Mrs. Radcliffe.

In Part Three, Lucy Radcliffe is 13 and delighted to be accompanying Edward and his friends in the Magenta Brotherhood to Birchwood. Lucy notices that Edward is in love with his model, Lily, whom Lucy admires. Lucy learns that the house has two compartments designed to hide Catholic priests; one is in the wall in the hallway and one is beneath the stairs. The compartment beneath the stairs can only be opened from the outside. When Frances Brown shows up, insisting Edward cannot break their engagement, Lucy is upset and hides in Edward’s studio. She sees the painting of Lily as the Fairy Queen and finds the tickets to America as well as the Radcliffe Blue.

Then a strange man enters whom Lily addresses as Martin. He takes the tickets and tries to drag Lily away with him, telling her to bring the diamond. Lucy knocks Martin on the head and hides Lily in the compartment under the stairs, then runs to hide in the hallway.

From the compartment under the stairs, Birdie hears Frances Brown enter the house. Martin runs in that direction. There’s a gunshot, then a thump on the stairs. Edward calls out, but Birdie cannot answer. She can’t breathe.

In 1882, Lucy Radcliffe learns she has inherited Birchwood after her brother’s death. That fateful day in 1862, Lucy fell and hit her head and couldn’t remember much when she awoke. She believed the story about Lily’s disappearance until, a few years later, Lucy finds the Radcliffe Blue in the dress that she was wearing that day. Back at Birchwood, she throws the Radcliffe Blue in the river. Then she buries Lily Millington’s remains in the garden and plants a tree above them.

In 2017, Jack and Elodie awaken in Birchwood the morning after a fierce storm. The storm has uprooted the maple in the front yard and they see something in the ground beneath it.

In 1992, Tip learns that his niece, Lauren, has died. He decides to make a charm box for Elodie. In it he will put the blue stone that Ada Lovegrove gave him.

In 1962, Juliet returns to Birchwood to meet Leonard, with whom she has been corresponding. She has a thruppence to return to him.

In the epilogue, Birdie listens as Jack and Elodie leave for a walk. She reflects that she has become the house. She is its light.