The Gravedigger's Cottage

Dougal and Cathy Mortimer live happily in the gravedigger’s cottage at Toowong Cemetery. Dougal takes pride in his care of the cemetery gardens, whilst Cathy helps her father in the flower stall. Things change when Cathy learns she is pregnant – she does not want to raise a child in the grounds of a cemetery. As the son of an ex-convict, Dougal is despised by the Cemetery Overseer, Arthur Ingram, who plots to have him unjustly charged with theft and sent to gaol. Dougal fears for Cathy and the baby’s future. Whilst Dougal tries to foil Arthur’s schemes, Cathy finds herself taking care of an abandoned child. Daisy Pearce is ten years old and has come into the cemetery to put flowers on her mother’s grave. Cathy promises Daisy they will look after her, but the laws of the day decree that a neglected child must be sent to the reformatory school. Set in 1888, The Gravedigger’s Cottage transports the reader to a time and place of harsh and unfair laws, seemingly based on a person’s social status rather than their deeds. Dougal and Cathy must garner all their personal resources to knock down the wall of bigotry pitted against them. Only then will they find the happiness they deserve, as well as a future for the little girl who wandered into the grounds of the gravedigger’s cottage and changed their lives forever