8 September 2022

 

The British Monarch's Royal Standard


It is with sadness, and inevitability, that we hear of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96 years.

She was the longest ever reigning monarch of these islands, and will be sorely missed. Her sense of country, and of duty and of service to her country, will not be surpassed.

“The Queen is dead. Long live the King!”

5 September 2022

The mystery of the missing Mystery - launching the paperback of THE FOREVER HOUSE


The paperback of The Forever House is finally live! Hurrah!!

And yes, it is a Mystery, the first of my titles which can truly be placed in the genre, though mysteries have been woven through the subplots of a number of my novels, as has History. The two come together in The Forever House
...Reading the inked imprints of a manual typewriter was like going back in time: the conveyance between the builder and the first buyer, the landowner and the builder, the faded copperplate handwriting of a previous land conveyance, J. Tunstall, Esq, Farmer. The names of vendors and purchasers were all present, just as they would be on the deeds to this house. So where were the deeds to this house?
I live in an early 1950s property, and have all the old conveyances to it. It was while scraping away a previous occupant's wallpaper that I discovered a message on the plaster, and the fictional storyline began to seep from the walls and into my imagination. In the writing, it became the book's opening scene.
 
Carrie Haynes and her husband are inveterate house renovators, never enjoying the fruits of their labours, always selling on their completed properties to start afresh on a new project. The Forever House dates from the 1920s, and was to be their final project, their true home.

But forever can have many connotations; the love, the sadness, the hopes and regrets of previous occupants can be locked within the rooms, beneath the wallpaper. As Carrie delves into the history of the part-renovated dwelling, she does more than learn about her Forever House, she learns about herself and those around her. Is she strong enough to break free from the ties that bind generations? Those which history has silenced?

I love old houses. ...has character... isn’t merely an estate agent’s tagline. Cottage or castle, the phrase imbues the presence of the past within its fabric.

The Forever House is now available as an ebook to purchase, is free to read within a Kindle Unlimited subscription, and finally to read in papeback. 
 
"...a cracking good story with lots of twists and turns..."

Enjoy your reading.