Autumn by Kate Mosse review – tender reflections on time and place
Kate Mosse’s Autumn is described as a love song to West Sussex, combining reflections on the turning seasons with memories of the landscape and communities that shaped her. The review places the book within a series focused on authors’ personal connections to home regions, and traces Mosse’s long ties to Fishbourne and Chichester.
Kate Mosse’s new book, Autumn, explores the turning of the seasons and the lore and landscape of West Sussex, an area to which she is closely connected.
The book forms part of a series about authors’ personal relationships with home landscapes. Michael Morpurgo opened the series with spring in Devon, followed by Val McDermid’s account of winter in Scotland. Bernardine Evaristo is due to explore summer.
Mosse grew up in Fishbourne and now lives in Chichester. The review recalls her relationship with the city, including meeting her husband there while preparing for A-levels and celebrating her 40th birthday at the Bishop’s Palace with their children.
Mosse and her family live with her husband’s mother, Granny Rosie, who is described as having deep connections to Sussex. She remembers cattle being herded in fields where a supermarket now stands.
THE QUESTIONS THIS EVENT LEAVES BEHIND
How does a personal attachment to place shape the book’s account of seasonal change?
What parts of West Sussex’s history or landscape are left outside the author’s perspective?
How might the series’ focus on authors’ home regions influence which places receive literary attention?
What changes in the landscape are represented through Granny Rosie’s memories?
How does the book balance private family memory with a broader portrait of Sussex?
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GLOBAL CURIOSITY MAP · AUGUST 2026