Guest blogger: Nicola Pryce

Hi everyone

I’m delighted to have this opportunity to share my novels with you. My stories are set in 1793–1801, among the romantic harbours and clifftops of the south coast of Cornwall. Britain is at war with France, the shipbuilders and militia are busy preparing for an invasion. Famine has caused great hardship and children scramble for limpets on the rocks. On the second floor of a shipbuilding yard, a dressmaker has established her business—Madame Merrick, a formidable lady who will brook no nonsense. My characters dip in and out of the seven books (the next is to be published in August) with a different heroine taking centre stage in each book. Aristocratic ladies patronise Madame Merrick’s establishment, while maids and the daughters of fishermen hone their new skills as seamstresses. Whispers exchange secrets, meetings are arranged.

My first book, Pengelly’s Daughter, follows my heroine’s fight against corruption and greed in the discovery of the new china clay. In my second book, The Captain’s Girl, the jeopardy is closer to home with French spies and émigrés posing equal danger. The Cornish Dressmaker introduces engineering, the building of a sea lock, and the power of the smugglers. The Cornish Lady explores the French prisoners of war and the naval prize ships bringing gold into Falmouth. A Cornish Betrothal examines the pull of loyalty versus new love as my heroine’s fiancé, thought lost at sea, returns battle-worn and scarred. Finally, The Cornish Captive explores the world of madhouses as a lady seeks redress from being unlawfully incarcerated for fourteen years.

All the places I name are real, as are the houses my characters live in and the alleys they run down. My husband and I are keen sailors and the stories come to me while we bob at anchor, either upriver or against the quayside of these romantic harbours. I had no thought of getting published, but wrote my first book for my children, thinking somehow to slip the manuscript into their Christmas stockings. They knew me as a chemo nurse and a slightly harassed mother, though I have long stopped telling them to remove their wet towels from their beds! What they didn’t know was that I was an incurable romantic, my head crammed full of stories I had wanted to tell since leaving school.

Then one day, I put pen to paper. Miraculously, I found an agent and here they are—incurably romantic stories about a place I love, set in a time I love, written for the people I love. I hope you love them too.

Thank you so much for the privilege of sharing my books.

Happy reading everyone.

You can find Nicola here: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram