A MINCHINHAMPTON councillor has published her first novel.
Blue Hawk is written by Chloe Turner, who represents Minchinhampton on Gloucestershire County Council and Stroud District Council.
Set in the 17th-century Chalford valley, the story centres on Joan, daughter of a millworker with drink-fuelled pipe dreams, who is thrust into her family’s battle against poverty.
With her father’s legacy tarnished, Joan steps into his place, mastering the art of cloth-dying to save her family from destitution and restore their lost honour.
However, her exceptional skill challenges her community’s rigid conventions and stirs whispers of witchcraft.
Her lonely endeavours are further shadowed by marital strife and a complex rivalry with her sister, which is fuelled by jealousy and longstanding grievances.
Chloe’s debut short story collection, Witches Sail in Eggshells: And Other Stories, won Best Short Story Collection in the 2020 Saboteur Awards.
Commenting on Blue Hawk, she said: “Blue Hawk was a pleasure to write because it’s really a love letter to the landscape I live in and love, in particular the Chalford valley and the hills that frame it.
“Holding the book launch in Minchinhampton’s beautiful 17th-century Market House, which itself had an important function in the local woollen industry of that time, was particularly special for me.
“I was celebrating Joan’s story coming into print, but also all the real women of that time and this place who inspired her.”
The novel is published by independent publisher Deixis Press.
It is priced at £16.99 in hardback, £9.99 in paperback and £3.99 in ebook format.
It is available locally from Stroud Bookshop, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop in Nailsworth and the Cotswold Book Room in Wotton-under-Edge, as well as online from deixis.press/books
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