19th Century historical fiction.

Will book loving Fergus Shackleton find success in business and love despite his overbearing father, Hector? By forging his own path is Fergus going to turn into his father, the very person he is trying to escape? Is chasing success going to change Fergus so much that his girlfriend, Becky, is forced to doubt their future together? Will the price of success be a broken heart?

Paperback: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1913719634

Kindle and #KU: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BCWBF31D

Set in 1860, at a time when Whitehaven’s shipping was at its peak with iron ore being transported to Cardiff and coal to Dublin forming the “shamrock run”. Professional relationships were cemented only to fall apart, family relationships became strained and romance was threatened by social mores.

New Beginnings on Vancouver Island

“It was Saturday night and Whitehaven was busy entertaining itself. A rogue wind was blowing in from the sea, brisk, cheerless and noisy, seeking warm crevices in which to rest awhile. Despite this, the town was teeming with deckhands just in from Antigua. Men with their caps drawn tight over their ears and their jackets buttoned high were swaying from inn to ale house, seeking excitement.”

Paperback: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1913719383

Kindle and #KU: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09HR2SDCJ

It’s 1854 and colliers from Whitehaven and Brierley Hill are emigrating to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company opening up the mines in Colville on Vancouver Island off the West coast of Canada. Their journey from Whitehaven via Liverpool takes over 6 months and includes travelling around The Horn in winter stopping only once in Honolulu for supplies. Conditions, especially in steerage, are very difficult; there are births and deaths along the way yet they manage and begin new lives in Canada. Some of them fall in love along the way, others have to face up to demons they thought they’d left behind and honour pacts made years ago.

This novel is based upon a journey made by my forebears. It’s a work of faction – fiction based on fact. I’ve used family papers, information from the original log book and other papers. The story was told to me by my Canadian mother as part of my heritage, but it’s not about my family. I’ve changed the name of the ship and taken some liberties with Whitehaven, Liverpool and Colville.

About Lorna:

“As far back as I can remember I’ve wanted to write. I’ve always jotted down ideas I thought would make good stories and noted interesting phrases and comments picked up through eavesdropping. I love wide-lined notebooks with soft covers, especially if I can fill them with dialogue and descriptions and I have a drawer-full going back years.-

Lorna was born and brought up in Lincolnshire in the UK. Her forebears on her mother’s side fled the Irish famine in the 19th century to settle in Parton, near Whitehaven in Cumberland. In the mid-1850s they emigrated to Vancouver Island, Canada, to open up the new coal mines. Coal was also important to Lorna’s father’s side of the family as they were involved in the coal-trading business with Coote and Warren, covering East Anglia and the north London suburbs.

After teaching the piano and raising a family, Lorna exhibited and lectured on antique Chinese textiles in the UK, New York, China and Hong Kong. Following on from that she studied and taught at the School of Oriental and African Studies [SOAS] in London gaining a doctorate in Chinese history. She now writes historical fiction full time and lives in Stamford in a very old house with stone walls and lots of beams. Just the place for a historian. She is very fond of rabbits.

Lorna is currently working on the sequel to “New Beginnings on Vancouver Island” for publication (she hopes) in 2023. Then she thinks she’s probably going to write more about the Shackletons since she’s sure there have a lot more to say to the world.