Author releases wartime love story inspired by Northumberland coast and family history
A debut author is releasing a wartime novel inspired by the Northumberland coast and her grandparents’ love story.
Drawing on her family’s Northumberland roots, Jo Casebourne tells a story of love set against the vivid landscapes of war and the everyday struggles of life at home.
With a background in research, she brings both history, geography and family stories to life with her debut novel Seahouses.
Seahouses follows the story of Bill who has loved Peggy since he was 14-years-old. He is left devastated when, on the eve of the Second World War, she marries charismatic army officer Jock.
Jo explains: “My family originates from Northumberland, the inspiration for Seahouses.
“The novel is based on the stories my step-grandfather told me of his part in the forgotten war in Italy, the wartime letters that were sent by my biological grandfather from the frontline of the Middle East and North Africa, which I then inherited, and on my grandmother who lived to 101, in love with her second husband but never forgetting her first.
“I have used my training as a Geographer and the skills honed in my 25-year research career to strongly ground the novel in place and time.”
As German forces advance across Europe, Peggy faces the uncertainty of wartime life alone in Northumberland, longing for news from overseas.
On the front line, Jock fights to survive the brutality of war, driven by the hope of returning home to Peggy.
Meanwhile, Bill is swept into the conflict and forced to confront his own private struggles, as well as the enduring pull of the woman he has never been able to forget.
Through it all, he is haunted by memories of the beach at Seahouses, where he first met Peggy.
From the remote Shetland Islands to the unforgiving landscapes of Iraq, Egypt and Libya, and on to the often-overlooked campaign in Italy, Peggy, Bill and Jock are carried by the tide of war towards a destiny they cannot escape.
When Bill and Jock’s paths cross in the desert, the course of all three lives is changed forever.
The book will be officially released on November 28.