It’s a big week for me as I look forward to the weekend and the launch of my second fiction book, ‘Mablethorpe’.
I have attended a few book launches for thing I’ve worked on in the past (even writing that feels a little surreal) but Saturday will be the first time there has been a launch and signing event for a book I wrote. So it feels like a big deal. We probably could have had one for ‘Coal House’, but there were so many issues at that time which meant it was impossible.
There’s something fitting about the ‘first’ being in Mablethorpe (you can check out the details of the event on eventbrite here – I have an event listed on eventbrite, that’s crazy too!). It’s a place where I’ve spent so many great times with family in the past. In November 2014, a bunch of us went down to celebrate my late grandfather’s 100th birthday, and some of us hadn’t seen each other in years. It was brilliant.
I’ll post some more details about the launch itself on Friday but I thought I’d populate my website this week with a neat little build up.
Despite being a modestly sized seaside resort, Mablethorpe has its own history. Some of it tragic – it was affected by the 1953 Lincolnshire floods which killed 307 people in England. In 1983, the Duke of Edinburgh visited the town thirty years on from the floods. It is shortly after this event that my book is set.
To give an idea of what Mablethorpe was like, then, for those of you who have never visited, Youtube is handily the home of a couple of videos.
1953
1983
Today Mablethorpe has retained so much of its character; though it has inevitably modernised in some respects, there is plenty of it which is familiar to plenty of people around my age (cough, mid 30s) who enjoyed childhood holidays there.
If you can’t make the signing, my wonderful publishers, Rudling House, are still offering the book at a discounted pre-order price of £5.99. Order it here!
