NEWS, LAUNCHES AND SIGNINGS - 2007

The latest book in the popular Burracombe series - Storm Over Burracombe - was published on 25th July 2007.

Hilary Napier is upset and angry when her father, Colonel Napier, brings in a new manager for the family estate which she has been running for the past year. Even though she cannot help liking Travis Kellaway, she resents his presence. But when her defences are broken down by the illness of her brother's much-loved horse, Major, she realizes Travis's strength and compassion. It isn't long before their relationship moves to a new footing. Meanwhile, life in the Devon village of Burracombe is enlivened by the new Drama Club, formed by energetic young curate Felix Copley. Almost the entire village becomes involved in the pantomime he decides to organise, with sometimes hilarious results. The leading lights in the production are bossy Joyce Warren, young schoolteacher Stella Simmons and Shirley Culliford, the little girl from the poorest cottage in Burracombe. But tragedy strikes when Travis catches Shirley and her father, Arthur Culliford, poaching in the estate woods. Shirley is injured in the ensuing skirmish and it seems that not only the pantomime, but her very life is threatened.

The previous book in the series - A Stranger in Burracombe - was published in January 2007.

The CD was issued on the same date. Listen now to a clip read by Helen Ayres.

A Song At Twilight was launched in July 2006.
This book takes readers back to the wartime setting for which Lilian Harry is best known. Here, we find the story of a wartime airfield in West Devon, on the edge of Dartmoor.
Read the first chapter online now.

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Click here to go to the Chatshow Network website, where you can see an interview with Lilian and also hear her read an extract from The Bells of Burracombe. (You may need Broadband).

EARLIER BOOK:

The Bells of Burracombe published January 2006
This is the first in a new series set in a Devon village in the 1950s. With the war a memory (except for the rationing still in force!) the villagers of Burracombe are trying to settle back into normal life.
Yet some are still finding this difficult - farmer's daughter, Val Tozer, is grieving over the loss of her fiancé and burdened by a guilty secret; Hilary Napier, the Squire's daughter, feels trapped and desperate to lead her own life while her brother Stephen talks of emigration; and Jackie Tozer, Val's young sister, has to deal with the anguish of seeing her own sweetheart, Roy, sent to Korea. As the village prepares to celebrate the Festival of Britain, its people play their own part - bossy incomer Joyce Warren, with her finger in every pie, is at loggerheads with Constance Bellamy, last of one of the oldest families in the area, as they plan their own Pageant. Miss Kemp, the schoolmistress, has to face a choice between pretty little Jenny Pettifer and ragged Shirley Culliford from the poorest family in the village, as Festival Queen. The bellringers have to cope with complaints over their competition and Basil Harvey, the gentle vicar, has to keep the peace between all of them. Into this scene come three new arrivals - Luke Ferris, a young artist recovering from TB, Felix Copley the new curate, and Stella Simmons, who hopes to take up the post of assistant teacher. Two of them have their own pasts to come to terms with, and those who have read the April Grove novels will remember Stella's own tragic story.

The Bells of Burracombe introduces a new cast of characters who Lilian Harry hopes will become as well-loved as those in the April Grove and Corner House series.

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As one of the most popular writers in libraries today, Lilian Harry frequently visits libraries, writers’ groups and conferences to give talks and conduct workshops. For 27 years she has attended the Writers’ Summer School at Swanwick, Derbyshire, first as a very new and green writer and finally as Chairman.

Lilian does regular signings for new books at the Gosport Bookshop, and Ottakar’s in Portsmouth and Fareham, and has also signed at W H Smith in these towns as well as at Hatchards in London.

Almost all the Donna Baker and Lilian Harry books are also available in Large Print and Audio versions.

LINKS

LoveReading - This book site combines the best features of the traditional Independent bookshops and mail order Book Clubs, and has developed its own unique 'guidance' tools. Other features include a free opening extract service, the chance to read as yet unpublished proofs and a substantial discount on the recommended retail price.
www.lovereading.co.uk

Writer Graham Hurley
The Society of Authors
Explosion!

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