ABOUT ME AND MY NOVELS
After training as a lawyer, I returned to my native Cornwall to establish my own law firm and to raise my three children. After years building a successful legal practice it was time for a new adventure and in 2018 I decided to write the stories I had formulated in my head over the years about my community and the lives of those who find themselves on the wrong side of the law.
I have written three novels in my CORNISH CRIME series. Book One RAGE, Book Two A SISTERHOOD OF SILENCE and THE BITTER FRUIT BENEATH Book Three are available to read now on Amazon.
THE BITTER FRUIT BENEATH is the third book in the series and features Cornish female lawyer Eden Gray. The fourth Book in the Series A BAPTISM OF FIRE will be released later in 2021.
I have always been fascinated by the schizophrenic character of the windswept Cornish peninsula my family has been lucky enough to call home for generations. Occupied by a cast of reluctant bedfellows; city-slick escapees and us locals who carry the remnants of our myth-ridden history etched on our backs like tattoos it teeters between the bucket and spade domesticity of modern-day tourism and a superstitious past, riddled with Pagan traditions. The resultant clash of cultures and sensibilities causes friction, resentment and drama. My aim, through my writing is to explore what happens when these divergent worlds collide to expose a darker reality at odds with the picture-perfect landscape. Whilst I was lucky to enjoy a fantastically satisfying career as a lawyer I cannot now imagine anything more joyous than being able to sit at my desk and write knowing others might read and connect with my words. Cornwall has captured the hearts and imagination of countless wonderful writers through the decades; their vivid images now woven into its rich tapestry. If I can add one colourful stitch I will be happy.
ABOUT THE BITTER FRUIT BENEATH
I decided to write THE BITTER FRUIT BENETH after reading about an archaeological discovery a few miles from where I live in Cornwall which uncovered forty ‘witch pits’; small deep holes filled with fertility offerings, the earliest of which dated back to the early seventeenth century. Stranger still, it was rumoured they were dug by successive generations of women from one family tasked with performing this secret ritual up until the nineteen-eighties, when perhaps because of the availability of IVF, the practice came to an abrupt halt. My fascination grew on learning each pit was unique; customised for the individual whose inability to conceive it sought to remedy. I began to create backstories for these desperate women, joined together over the centuries by the invisible thread of infertility but found the lawyer in me constantly drawn back to the family who dug the pits. How despite ostracism and the risk of capital punishment in less enlightened times, they remained constant in their commitment to help women conceive until science took over. As a lawyer practicing in a rural community, where rumours breed like flies and grudges fester for decades, I began to wonder what might happen to the descendants of such a family if their bizarre past were to catch up with them and how a rational feminist lawyer like Eden Gray would deal with the pressures of a modern-day witch trial?
It is available on AMZON and FREE on KINDLE UNLIMITED - click here!
If you would like to read more about the archeological dig that revealed the Cornish witch pits and the historical background to the novel a blog post will cooming soon! You will be given the opportunity to become a member of my readers club and receive free downloads, sneak previews and insights into the characters and places I feature in my novels including the my fictional backstories of some of the women through history who commissioned a witch pit. I look forward to meeting you there and on Facebook.