Charlotte Betts

Carol McGrath is my guest author today, writing here about medieval gardens.

I’m writing this post on the 23rdMarch 2021, the anniversary of the beginning of the first lockdown in the UK, and reflecting on the changes it made to my writing life.

The term Edwardian era or the ‘Gilded Age’ is often extended to 1914 when that time of peace and prosperity, for the few at least, was shattered by the cataclysm of WWI.

Stars still glimmered as the rising sun began to paint the sky with streaks of apricot and gold. Up on the cliffs above the sea stood Spindrift House, its thick stone walls sheltering the sleeping community of the ten artists and five children that lived within.

            As the stars faded in the brightening sky, a blackbird unfolded his wings in the great copper beech beside the house. He opened his yellow bill and trilled the first liquid notes of welcome to the dawn.

            It was going to be a glorious summer’s day.

The Light Within Us explores the lives, loves and female friendships of the fictional Spindrift artists’ community on the rugged north coast of Cornwall. The Fading of the Light continues the story with emphasis on marriage and infidelity and the effect upon a woman and her children if it all went horribly wrong.