My Side of Heaven

Paperback 185 pages ISBN 9781904959519 Author: Joan Stockdale Cover design: Zoë Farmer Price £12.00 (price includes delivery worldwide) Publication date 21 May 2007

Synopsis

Marged Jenkins lost her husband and two young sons in an accident on Mount Snowdon. Having sold their Anglesey home to start a solitary, simple life on the Llyn Peninsula in Gwynedd, Marged’s wish is to resume her writing career. She rents a flat where she can look out onto the mystical Bardsey Island where 20,000 saints are purported to be buried. Owain Richards is her bereavement counsellor but he has a bizarre accident which leaves him paralysed, and Marged, against her resolve, is drawn to visit him in hospital.

Three other men, tractor accidents and heath-land fires emerge and a widow leaves her four-year-old daughter, Sophie in Marged’s care. The story is set in the rich countryside and deep caves of Llyn, which are well illustrated when Marge has no option but to escape her new responsibilities and live rough. The mystery involves the claimants to the inheritance of some rich families of Llyn. The story also visits Anglesey and the Yorkshire Dales. The book is touching, sometimes sad, adventurous and passionate and is a compulsive page-turner for everyone to enjoy.

“…(The author) has fine tuned her ability to transfer pictures in her mind on to paper…you can’t go far wrong with this novel…” Ellie Hargreaves – Wesrmorland Gazette In Praise of Joan Stockdale’s first novel, Flower Fields