I’m delighted to announce I’ll be launching Plashy Fen on Saturday 10 October at Washingpool Farm Shop, Bridport, from 11am-12 noon.
It’s a particularly appropriate venue because one of the key locations in my new novel is a village farm shop, run by Derek and Maggie Galpin.
Like the Holland family who run Washingpool, my fictional couple started the business years ago, way before farm shops were a ‘thing’ and farm-to-plate food became fashionable.
Derek and Maggie were far ahead of the curve and worked as hard as a pair of oxen to get where they are now.
Things happen at the farm shop in Plashy Fen, an imagined Dorset village overlooking the sea.
A jar of olives get spilt on the parish council welcome pack that has been put on the counter. And a couple of hoity-toity incomers’ children scrump the apples on display, much to the annoyance of Derek’s sister, Lindy, who works there part-time.
Lindy is the glue that holds the disparate yet desperately connected village together.
She works at the farm shop part time, in between looking after grandchildren and studying for a back-to-nursing course.
The Holland family started their business in 1971, when Lindy would have been still at primary school.
When I first arrived in Bridport as a young reporter back in the early 80s, I remember the Washingpool market stall and shop in West Street.
The business has grown dramatically. Now, it’s an award-winning farm shop on the outskirts of town, with a restaurant, two holiday cottages and a caravan and motorhome site, set on a 80-acre working farm produging its own Devon Ruby Red beef, eggs and an array of fruit, vegetables, flowers and potatoes.
I’m looking forward to seeing you if you can make it on 10 October. If you’ve already bought a book (it comes out on 29 September), I’ll be happy to sign it but I will have copies available.
And just a thought, if you were thinking of coming along, you could book in for lunch…
All the best.
Maddie x
Maddie Grigg 