I was sure I'd included all my major books in this blog, but I couldn't find a posting for Heather & Heath. Therefore, here it is.
Heather & Heath (second edition is Heather and Heath) is one of my longer books, and one I've always loved, which is why I'm so puzzled that I seem not to have written about it. I've done some object posts and character posts concerning it, but not the book itself. (Or maybe I have and I just can't find the listing...) Anyhow, this is a four-generation historical saga beginning with Ness MacLeod, a young Scotswoman, coming to NSW as companion to her friend Jean Leslie who is hoping to marry. Things go wrong and Ness arrives alone. She meets hard-as-horseshoes Hector Campbell on the docks and marries him. Together, they establish a property in Van Diemens Land which Ness christens Glen Heather. The story moves from Ness and Hector to their son John and his wife, Isabel, then to their son Robert and finally to Robert's daughters Alice and Rosalind. The saga ends in the early 1920s, just after WW1.
When I first wrote this, it was called Crimson Heath. It was one of my late mother's favourites of my books and she could never understand why it wasn't published immediately. It didn't fit the requirements of the market for which I wrote it initially. An agent who loved the idea changed his/her mind. I entered the first 2/3 in a contest (the whole book was too long) and it was the runner up. Alice's story was published in an abridged version by the AWW. Finally, it was published under the name Heather & Heath in 2015. Alas, Mum died in 2010. The company that published it closed down and I have the rights back, so here it is again, with a new cover and a slightly modified title.
As I said; it has always been a favourite of mine, but it has never quite found its place. I still love it, anyway and the (very) few people who have actually reviewed it loved it too!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for reading