The Glass Class

Written about the 1970s, the Glass Class is set partly in Pennine Yorkshire, North Wales, Athens and finally on the Greek island of Spetses where a group of friends approaching middleage are forced to confront that their mortality. Marriages are fraying, children have become more noticeable and alcohol for some is perhaps consumed more lavishly. When death is introduced into this toxic mix not once, but three times no wonder their cozy life is shattered. The characters, journalists, industrialists, doctors are struggling to keep their day to day life in order. They regularly take their concerns on holiday whether it is walking in Snowdonia or to the apparent safety of a Greek island. Between the scenes of a thriller and crime story is romance and a historical perspective introduced by a family tree. The stories of ancestral lore dating to the Victorian and Edwardian eras and told by their elders as cautionary tales. What none of them can know is that the clue they need to solve far too many deaths within their circle is here in their family tree.
About the Author: We live on the Pennine hills in West Yorkshire between Halifax and Huddersfield but my heart is often in Greece. I write historical and contemporary fiction, most of which has a Greek bias, either being set or partly set in Greece with other scenes in the UK. Many of my characters like to travel, so much of Europe has been covered in the whole series which I have called JIGSAW. Jigsaw comprises two Quartets, THE GREEK LETTERS QUARTET which starts towards the end of the Greek War of Independence in 1827 and finishes in the present decade around 2011, and a second Quartet THE COMING OF AGE with a time span from 1960 to the present decade. The protagonists in these Quartets make up a family saga, with Rosalind, her son and her great-great grandfather, who was a Philhellene, being the main characters. Because these 8 books are actually one long family saga, seven generations from 1827 to the present day I have had to keep my mind very well organised to remember who is related to who, keep the dates tidy, and it has been quite a challenge. Despite this massive link I have also had to work hard to keep each book as an independent and different read. As the books developed I realised they captured an age, a time from the industrial revolution but before the digital age. I love planning out a book and particularly the research. It has been a passion to check the facts, making sure that they are accurate. Studying for my Open University degree taught me the importance of primary and secondary sources. If I say it was sunny on a certain date - it was! It is a great pleasure to work at my desk in Yorkshire with windows over-looking the hills and the garden and have time to write.