In the 1960s the UK Pharmacy chain - Boots the Chemist - as it was then known - operated a subscription lending library. A light romance book - titled The Sandy Shore - has many borrowers, some interesting, some dull. The book tells his own story and gives you snapshots of their lives as he sees them as borrowers. One borrower (Anne) buys it when the library closes in 1966. The character in the romance (Sandra) seeks new horizons in her fictional life and this resonates with Anne and she decides to do likewise in her real life. She awaits what chance serves up, like flotsam and jetsam on the shore where she lives in Pembrokeshire. She talks to Sandra as an intimate diary and to the book itself which, in her mind, becomes a personality (Book). An affair with an old boyfriend (Nelson) from Royal Navy days when she was a WRNS in a local naval station (Kete) has dramatic consequences. The affair ends with an almighty bust-up when she realises he is as rotten as her navy friend naughty Christina always said he was. There is then a long period of normality and she continues as a normal happily married woman. However, the past has a habit of catching up with you and does so half a lifetime later with dramatic consequences for Anne and for Book. He ends up in the mansion library of the Bletchley Park museum, where Anne’s mother had worked during WW2 when it was an ultra-top secret code-breaking operation. From his library shelf, Book ponders on the shattering events he has witnessed and wonders how it will end. After all - who knows what tomorrow may bring?
Excellent I thoroughly enjoyed this book I am an avid reader and this book is up there in my top ten
by Johanne Black
When I wrote the book I imagined it to be just the spontaneous fiction that flowed out of my mind in just a few days. It is of some concern that since then things I considered fiction regarding the secret services have turned to have a basis in fact.
Much of the story is set in Pembrokeshire where I was born and bred, but now live in Repton Derbyshire
After a career mostly in IT, I am now retired and work as a guide at Bletchley Park, the famous WW2 code breaking centre which is recognised worldwide as the birthplace of the computer age, where I concentrate on the human factors of military intelligence.
I give talks nation-wide on various Intelligence related subjects to many types of organisations such as U3A, Probus, WI, The National Lecture Society circuit etc, etc and I am a guest speaker on cruise ships
Keep in touch
Stay connected with Troubador on our social media feeds. Keep up to date with Troubador news and our latest author news.