I’ve been thinking about inspiration today. I know exactly who inspired me to finally put pen to paper but I could have gone for a fantasy, a crime story, something dystopian or a murder mystery. Actually, maybe I’d sell more books in those popular genres!

But I make no excuses for The Wideawake Hat being unashamedly the beginning of a historical family saga, with Shepherd’s Delight following on and The Cedar Trees in the pipeline. I have joked that there may be 12 books – if I live that long…..

Who inspired me to go in that direction? I think I can thank two gentleman for that. Surprising that – one assumes it is a particularly feminine genre. But in both cases it is the quality of the writing that I value, as well as the strength of the characters and the memorable story content. Would that I can achieve such heights!

So here are my two heroes :-

Winston Graham, who wrote the 12 books of the Poldark series – so much better than the TV series, and

R.F. Delderfield, who wrote the Swann Saga – ‘God is an Englishman’, ‘Theirs Was the Kingdom’ and ‘Give Us This Day’ – terribly unfashionable titles these days, but still my all time favourite series of books. You can see in the photo above how dog-eared my copies have become from being read many times.

Thank you, gentleman, for giving me a chance to fall in love with your heroes and heroines. And thank you both for making your chosen period of history come to life.