BLOG TOUR – GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY: Trowchester Blues by Alex Beecroft
One of the joys of writing contemporaries is the ability to pilfer parts of real life to stick into your own personal world. I freely admit that I grabbed churches and bookshops and names of villages with wild abandon to put into Trowchester and its environs.
To start with the top down, the twisted spire of Trowchester’s cathedral owes its existence to the Church of St. Mary and All Saints in Chesterfield.
I don’t think I’ve ever been inside. To the best of my memory, I just saw it in passing as we drove past on the way to somewhere else. I couldn’t believe how eerie and wrong it looked, as if God had reached down and twisted it like barley sugar. I don’t know yet why Trowchester’s cathedral spire suffered the same fate, but I’m sure it will reveal itself to me in time.
Finn’s book shop is much closer to home. That’s based on Toppings book shop in Ely.
This is one of those tardis-like bookshops that are far larger on the inside. Outside, a tiny little front, inside it goes back forever, and down, and up and out on both sides. More than that, though, if you go up to the first floor there is a help desk, where you can say ‘What have you got on the Ottoman Empire?’ or ‘I’m looking for something about vampires’, and they will say ‘fiction or non-fiction?’ After which they will guide you to a window seat and place a pile of books in front of you, a pot of coffee and a cup, and they will let you read as much or as little of those books as you please, and to stay as long as you like.
Needless to say, I buy a lot of books there.
Finn’s shop, of course, has slightly more eccentric décor, and a collection of display pieces that he has acquired from up and coming local artists. Also a gay book club that meets on a Friday night. It’s a case of gilding the lily, but who’s going to complain about a golden lily? Not me.
Ely is also home to a tea shop that might feel very familiar to readers of Trowchester Blues – largely because I nicked it and put it on the page mostly unchanged. This is Peacocks Tea Rooms
Home of the widest variety of teas you will ever see served in one place, and cheese scones to die for, Peacocks is one of the most quintessentially English places I’ve ever seen in my life. It definitely deserves to be immortalised in fiction. Possibly in better fiction than mine – but one does what one can!
I’m not sure whether you can thieve the atmosphere of a whole city and put it into your book, but that didn’t stop me from trying. I personally love the bohemian, hippy, flower-child, alternative lifestyle atmosphere of Glastonbury in midsummer.
Because of the Tor and the Abbey, and the fact that King Arthur and Queen Guinevere are (allegedly) buried there, Glastonbury attracts people interested in spirituality, Christianity, paganism and folklore – and all of those things are like nectar to me. I didn’t think I could get away with stealing King Arthur, and besides, I’m not all that fond of the man, so Trowchester has a bronze age hill fort and a sacred spring instead. But I made off with the spirit of the place and crammed that into my book too.
I think that’s about it. Harcombe House, the country home of the Harcombe family is too much of a generic stately home to pin it down to any one influence. I’ve seen many houses on the banks of canals, and many marinas, but Michael’s house and boat-builder’s yard are not really any of them in particular.
Oh, one more. Khan’s Restaurant in London is a real place and appears as itself, though sadly Tahir and his father are entirely imaginary.
I have fond memories of Khan’s as it was the place my (now) husband took me for our first date. I was, as you can imagine, very impressed, and I remain so to this day.
BLURB:
Michael May is losing it. Long ago, he joined the Metropolitan Police to escape his father’s tyranny and protect people like himself. Now his father is dead, and he’s been fired for punching a suspect. Afraid of his own rage, he returns to Trowchester—and to his childhood home, with all its old fears and memories. When he meets a charming, bohemian bookshop owner who seems to like him, he clings tight.
Fintan Hulme is an honest man now. Five years ago, he retired from his work as a high class London fence and opened a bookshop. Then an old client brings him a stolen book too precious to turn away, and suddenly he’s dealing with arson and kidnapping, to say nothing of all the lies he has to tell his friends. Falling in love with an ex-cop with anger management issues is the last thing he should be doing.
Finn thinks Michael is incredibly sexy. Michael knows Finn is the only thing that still makes him smile. But in a relationship where cops and robbers are natural enemies, that might not be enough to save them.
About the Author
Alex Beecroft is an English author best known for historical fiction, notably Age of Sail, featuring gay characters and romantic storylines. Her novels and shorter works include paranormal, fantasy, and contemporary fiction.
Beecroft won Linden Bay Romance’s (now Samhain Publishing) Starlight Writing Competition in 2007 with her first novel, Captain’s Surrender, making it her first published book. On the subject of writing gay romance, Beecroft has appeared in the Charleston City Paper, LA Weekly, the New Haven Advocate, the Baltimore City Paper, and The Other Paper. She is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association of the UK and an occasional reviewer for the blog Speak Its Name, which highlights historical gay fiction.
Alex was born in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and grew up in the wild countryside of the English Peak District. She lives with her husband and two children in a little village near Cambridge and tries to avoid being mistaken for a tourist
Alex is only intermittently present in the real world. She has led a Saxon shield wall into battle, toiled as a Georgian kitchen maid, and recently taken up an 800-year-old form of English folk dance, but she still hasn’t learned to operate a mobile phone.
She is represented by Louise Fury of the L. Perkins Literary Agency.
Connect with Alex:
- Website: alexbeecroft.com
- Blog: alexbeecroft.com/blog
- Facebook: facebook.com/AlexBeecroftAuthor
- Twitter: @Alex_Beecroft
- Goodreads: goodreads.com/Alex_Beecroft
Giveaway
Every comment on this blog tour enters you in a drawing for an e-book from Alex Beecroft’s backlist (excepting Trowchester Blues). Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on February 15. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries.
I’m so looking forward to reading Trowchester Blues. I love Alex Beecroft’s books
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Thank you Susana! Oh, I’m so glad *Hugs*
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I love the picture of the church. I love to visit them and castles.
debby236 at gmail dot com
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Thanks Debby! Yes, I’ve never been inside it but it looks very sinister. I’m sure it isn’t – just a testament to bad engineering ;)
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Thanks for the giveaway. Count me in.
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Thanks Kim! I’m glad to hear it.
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That bookstore sounds like the kind I love to explore, and I agree that the twisted spire looks very unappealing. Thanks for the chance to win an e-book.
K
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It’s an awesome place :) OTOH, they did refuse to stock my books despite my going in there personally to ask. I’m not famous enough yet. But one day…
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Thanks for the great post! I love learning about how authors get their ideas/inspiration. I have Trowchester Blues on my TBR list.
jen.f {at} mac {dot} com
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Thanks Jen! I’m really glad you enjoyed this one :)
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Reblogged this on Alex Beecroft’s blog.
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Thank you for sharing those pictures! I love seeing were authors draw their inspiration.
humhumbum AT yahoo DOT com
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Thanks HB! It does make drawing a setting much easier when you have a real place in mind to model it on.
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It’s so great to learn more!
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Excellent! I’m glad to hear it :)
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I am planning a trip to England this May, you have added to my list of “try to see” greatly! aahickmanathotmaildotcom
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Oh cool! Yes, I can thoroughly recommend Peacocks tea rooms, and call in at Ely cathedral while you’re there. That’s well worth seeing too.
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Great pics! Thanks for the giveaway.
Christina (dot) mcaul (at) gmail (dot) com
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Thanks Christina! Good luck.
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Thanks for the giveaway. This one looks good. Count me in please.
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I’m glad you like the look of it Karen. Thank you!
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I love when authors post pictures of the places they write about! Awesome post, thank you!
juliesmall2016(at)gmail(dot)com
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Oh good! I might do that again, in that case. Thank you!
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Thanks for the post & pics. Congrats on the new book!
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Thanks Juliana! I’m quite chuffed about it :)
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Thanks for sharing the wonderful looking places you’ve adopted on your story. Much success to you, Alex!
taina1959 @ yahoo.com
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Thank you! Only the good places get to go in a story. I leave the rotten stuff for real life :)
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