Her childhood destroyed by a brutal father and her mother’s indifference, Fran Tremayne’s only refuge has been her older brother, Cal.

But when Cal embarks on a solo round the world sailing trip, it seems that even he has abandoned her.

Then disaster strikes, a mayday message from Cal and then a long silence can mean only one thing; her brother has gone for good.

Refusing to accept his death, Fran sets out to find him, but is she prepared to face the shattering truth that lies behind her brother’s disappearance?

Cover illustration, ‘Sunlight On The Water’ from an original lino print by Helen Maxfield: www.helenmaxfield.com

A born traveller and adventurer, the author found excitement and solace in wild places from an early age. Having travelled the world using most forms of transport, some practical, others ridiculous, he is always on the lookout for a good story. A tale well told can be an inspiration to all of us. Falling in love with Norfolk, its wide-open skies and the sea, the author has spent almost twenty years of his life in a small village planted in the wheat fields of the Norfolk-Suffolk border.

For composer Nick Mortimer it is a dream come true when he and his sister Kate inherit a house in the tiny village of Clodock in a remote corner of Herefordshire’s Golden Valley.

But it is a dream that soon turns into a nightmare when they are confronted by a series of mysterious and frightening events.

Their search to find answers unearths a tragic tale of blighted love set against the background of the disturbing political and social divisions of the late 1920s.

After a lifetime supporting other artists, Chris has finally found time to fulfil his own creative ambitions as a writer.

His first novel The Swinging Pendulum of the Tide was published in 2018. It is a story of the loss and rediscovery of love and faith, set against the background of the wilds of Bardsey Island off the North Wales Coast.

In the The House beneath the Black Hill, he combines his fascination in the telling of a good ghost story with his interest in the turbulent politics of the late 1920’s, highlighted by the remarkable electoral victory of journalist and author Frank Owen over his Tory rival in Hereford in the 1929 General Election.

As a former Popular Events Director City of the London Festival, Director of The Poetry Society and Chief Executive of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers & Authors (now The Ivors Academy), Chris knows all about the challenges faced by the creative community. He’s well versed in politics too having contested Hereford and South Herefordshire for the Liberal Democrats in the 1979, 1983 and 1987 Parliamentary elections where he came within a whisker of taking the seat.

He is chair of the Learning Skills Research Foundation and of the Francis W Reckitt Arts Trust, a patron and trustee of Hereford’s Courtyard Arts Centre. a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Freeman of the City of London. He was awarded the BASCA Gold Badge of Merit for service to the Music Industry in 2009.

He is married with two grown-up sons and lives with his wife Sheila in the village of Garway on Herefordshire’s Welsh Border.

At forty, Natalie’s life seems to be a mess.

Her teenage daughter, her ex, her horrible ex-mother-in-law, none of it is much fun.

But when she heads to France backed up by her wonderful friends, everything changes -

love to a Frenchman beckons and life starts to get better and better.

The ex settles down with another woman, which is no bad thing but her daughter has tough times ahead...