Plashy Fen is now available in paperback today.
Publication coincides with Michaelmas Day, one of the quarter days I write about in the novel:
Today, Maurice’s ghost is taking in the autumn sunshine. It is 29th September, Michaelmas Day, the Feast of Michael and All Angels, a day that sits on the edge of winter, the last date for the harvest to be in.
When Maurice was alive, he and Beattie used to celebrate the day with a fattened goose to protect themselves and the girls against financial hardship.
“Eat a goose on Michaelmas Day, want not for money all the year.”
The ghost of Maurice Dominey is one of the many characters in Plashy Fen, a small village layered by the stories of its characters.
There’s put-upon Lindy Vickery, hard-as-nails estate agent Anna Arborio (Maurice’s elder daughter), the teenage triplets Merlin, Ralph and Billy and the Symes brothers who live in three separate caravans in far-flung corners of their field.
There’s a celebrity chef, a nice and not-so-nice pub landlord who, naturally, are bitter rivals, and a grief-stricken vicar questioning his calling.
Possibly too many characters to get your head round straight away, but stick with it, rural villages can be a bit like that until you get to know them.
Said one reviewer: “By the end, I felt that I knew the people of Plashy Fen. In fact, if I ever walked into the Raven’s Head and found them sitting at the bar, I’d happily buy them a pint—or a glass of wine—and join them.
“A warm, funny, poignant and beautifully observed novel. Five stars.”
You can order Plashy Fen from bookshops or Amazon. It’s also available on Kindle.
