Lost Property: An uplifting, joyful book about hope, kindness and finding where you belong

Helen Paris

Apr 2021 · Random House

About this ebook

Readers have fallen in love with Lost Property:

***** 'A beautiful book and one of my best reads this year'
***** 'An emotional journey that had me hooked'
***** 'A wonderful, uplifting debut novel'
***** 'Dot is an inspiration'
***** 'Full of sorrow, love and a light humour'
***** 'I am so pleased to have found Dot'

----------------

The Lost Property eBook contains an exclusive extract of Helen's new novel, The Invisible Women's Club - an uplifting novel about friendship, community spirit and the power of connection. Available to pre-order now.

----------------

One lost purse. One lost woman.
A chance encounter that changes everything.

Dot Watson has lost her way. Wracked with guilt and struggling with grief, she has tucked herself away in the London Transport Lost Property office, finding solace in the process of cataloguing misplaced things. It's not glamorous or exciting, but it's solitary - just the way Dot likes it.

That is, until elderly Mr Appleby walks through the door in search of his late wife's purse and Dot immediately feels a connection to him. Determined to help, she sets off on an extraordinary journey, one that could lead Dot to reclaim her life and find where she truly belongs...

Perfect for fans of Matt Haig, Rachel Joyce and AJ Pearce, this is a moving and uplifting novel about finding your place in the world.

----------------

'An enthralling read, full of rich descriptions and characters you can't help but love' Hazel Prior, bestselling author of Away with the Penguins

'A lovely novel about loss and reconnection...both satisfying and joyful' Lissa Evans

Ratings and reviews

This is the kind of book you just want to wallow in; one where you want to know everything but you don't want it to end . . . Dot Watson once set off into the big wide world; twelve years ago she lived in Paris, had her career on track and enjoyed being in a relationship but somehow her life fell off that track and now she spends her days working in Lost Property and visiting her mother in the care home. She takes her work seriously, getting satisfaction from doing a thorough job which sees lost items reunited with their owner. Then a gentleman turns up seeking his late wife's purse and it resonates with Dot - it's suddenly terribly important to locate it and, perhaps, find herself along the way. From the very beginning, I really liked Dot. She not only takes great pride in her work but she has the ability to describe others with great humour. It's easy to picture her colleagues and I couldn't think of her sister without seeing her arm windmill! I was hook, line and sinker with this one right up until reality began to wain and then, for quite a bit of the book, I struggled to keep my focus. Overall, however, it is a very good read filled with delightful characters and with an ideal conclusion. Beautifully written with excellent prose, I did enjoy this one and am happy to give it 4.5*.

Quite a quirky sort of book. Dot works in the Lost Property Department for London Transport and helps people find items they've lost and hopefully someone else has handed in. She's quite a regimented sort of person and follows the rules, and wishes other people would to. As the story slowly unfolds we find out that Dot is punishing herself by staying in quite a dead end job when she is very clever and could be doing a multitude of other things, including travelling the world. Instead she's hiding out in her job, visiting her mother who has dementia, and when she feels overwhelmed she hides out from everyone, her work colleagues and her sister. I couldn't really warm to Dot at first, I found her a bit annoying. But by about halfway or so through the book started to warm to her more. I did find it annoying that she blamed herself for a family incident that wasn't her fault at all. But by the end of the book she had turned her life around and taken control of her life which was lovely to see as she was a very caring character and did deserve a happy life, which she got in the end.

Lost Property is the first novel by British author, Helen Paris. When she was eight years old, Dot Watson had life all planned out: “First I’ll be a librarian, read all the books on the shelves, then I’m going to learn to speak five languages and travel all over the world, and then I’ll open my detective agency and solve complex international jewel heists.” Decades later, her job at the Transport for London’s Lost and Found Department near Baker Street Station seems far removed from those early ambitions. However, the Lost and Found is a bit like a library, items catalogued and stored: “Lost Property itself has something of the past about it, like a museum, a depository of memories, a library of loss. I think that is why I have always felt at home here”. Dot does get to vicariously travel the world via the many travel guides left behind; and, with ten years’ experience, she knows how to employ the detective skills her father inspired to track down an item or an owner. And when she does reunite an owner with their possession, it’s immensely satisfying, so there’s that. In her own time, Dot peruses her travel guides and visits her mother, Gail, newly resident at The Pines Care Home, compliments of worsening dementia and a fractured hip. Her bossy older sister, Philippa is making noises about selling Gail’s maisonette to cover costs, a move that will see Dot homeless. At work, Dot has been successfully fending off advances from Neil Burrows, the obnoxious and self-important holder of the keys to the Valuables cage, but with the boss’s retirement, Neil’s promotion makes this more difficult. And, in the interests of cost covering and efficiency, Neil introduces two measures that prove unpopular with both customers and staff: a reduction in the holding period before an item is sent to auction; and an increase in the (previously nominal) holding fee. When Mr Appleby, clearly a true gentleman, comes looking for the holdall that contains his late wife’s purse, Dot immediately understands the importance of restoring this item to its owner. “Joanie’s purse, Dad’s pipe, Mum’s record –ordinary objects, extraordinary objects, objects that contain in their bodies a memory, a moment, a trace of a life lived, a person loved. Portals that we hold in our hands, willing them to transport us back to those we have lost, if only for a moment” By the time it is handed in, Dot finds herself going to extremes to return it, despite being jobless and virtually homeless. Throughout the story, snippets of Dot’s life, her family, her time in Paris and her work slowly build the picture of her life, and exactly why she has foregone the career she had planned is gradually revealed. Her grief at her father’s death is apparent from the start, but her guilt, and the reason for it, and her need for her safe words (sellotape, safety pin, superglue), are less obvious. Each chapter is headed with a Dijon (mustard-coloured) tag bearing the details of an item lost or found. “Lost: Holdall Details: Leather (golden syrup) Woman’s purse (bluey-lilac) Bulbs (tulip) Trowel Place: 73 bus.” But of course not every loss is a physical item; people and abstract concepts can also be lost. Paris populates her tale with a cast of characters for whom the reader cannot help but care (with one notable exception), and even those initially less appealing redeem themselves by the final pages. She gives them wise words and insightful observations; and she somehow manages to include line-dancing, absinthe visions and bullying. Her description of Gail Watson will strike a chord with many who care for elderly or demented parents with clueless siblings who don’t recognise what is important. With gorgeous prose that will have the reader laughing out loud and choking up, often on the same page, this is an accomplished debut novel. This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Random House UK.

About the author

Helen Paris worked in the performing arts for two decades, touring internationally with her London-based theatre company Curious. After several years living in San Francisco and working as a theatre professor at Stanford University, she returned to the UK to focus on writing fiction.