I’m a West Country girl, from Somerset, not Devon but I have to admit Dartmouth is possibly my favourite place in the world. It’s one of those places that once you discover it, you keep wanting to return. I met my husband there, we lived there for the first few years of our married life and our two children were born there, so I do feel I have a history with the town that counts for me personally.
There is history around every corner of Dartmouth. Wander along the Embankment towards the ancient Bayards Cove, from where the Mayflower and the Speedwell set sail with the Pilgrim Fathers. Out on the headland, Dartmouth Castle stands proudly protecting the estuary. From the time of John Hawley, privateer, landowner, merchant trader and Chaucer’s ‘Shipman of Dartmouth’, Dartmouth has played an important part in England’s naval history. The Brittania Royal Naval College built in 1902 still stands proudly on the hill overlooking the river and the town. In the centre of town the medieval streets – Duke Street with its Butterwalk, badly damaged in WWII but now fully restored, Anzac Street, Foss Street, now a mixture of ancient and modern, and all a riot of flowers and hanging baskets in summer.
Dartmouth played a big part in World War II with both the Americans in town and the Free French based in Kingswear on the opposite bank of the river, from where they took part in dangerous raids on the coast of Brittany under cover of darkness. And, of course in 1943, just outside of Dartmouth, there was the evacuation of six thousand people from the villages along the coast and inland, in preparation for D-Day.
My book High Tides and Summer Skies (a re-issue of Shadows of Conflict) published 11th August tells the stories of Mattie Cranford and her god-daughter Katie Teague.
As time ebbs and flows over the summer the two women realise they are both at a crossroads in their lives. Mattie shackled to the family wool shop for over 50 years, feels life has passed her by. She dreams of seeing the world and shaking off a lifetime of regrets. When Katie is made redundant, Mattie seizes the moment and asks Katie to move back to her home town of Dartmouth and breathe new life into the rundown wool shop. To her surprise, Katie agrees. As Katie settles back into the rhythm of Devon life and while renovating the shop, Mattie sets off on her holiday of a lifetime – a luxury cruise. When Katie receives an unexpected offer of her dream job in the media, the calm waters are unsettled. Will Katie sacrifice the shop and Mattie’s happiness – or her own career? And Mattie, can she find true happiness at this time of her life? If you read High Tides and Summer Skies I hope you enjoy it. I certainly enjoyed editing and extending this new edition. If you are ever in South Devon do go to Dartmouth it’s a really lovely town – nice independent bookshop there too!
©Maria Richardson