Guest blogger of the month - Anne Whitfield

We're delighted to welcome Anne Whitfield to the blog as our guest blogger of the month.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be a guest blogger and to talk about my latest historical release, The Gentle Wind's Caress. I set my historicals in either Victorian Australia or Yorkshire. My family and ancestors are from Yorkshire and I'm Australian, so I get the best of both worlds. This mix gives me a wide scope for settings and plots.

The Gentle Wind's Caress is my fourth historical release, but my first UK and hardback release.


The novel is set in the Calderdale area of West Yorkshire -- Hebden Bridge and Heptonstall. I fell in love with the countryside, the steep gorges, rolling moors, the villages, rivers and canal.
The bleakness of the area in winter and the lushness of it in summer called to me, demanded that I work with all that it offered.
I felt the characters belonged there and that their story worked because of their surroundings. It helped to make them what they are.

I wrote the first draft of The Gentle Wind's Caress in about 5 months (family life had a way of interrupting me!). The story flowed so well, as though I'd known the characters for years, and perhaps I had subconsciously. :o)

My uncle, who lives in West Yorkshire and works in Calderdale, sent me a great deal of research material, it was wonderful. He found videos of country walks of that area, historical maps, books, photos, articles, etc. My niece even stopped there on her honeymoon to take photos for me.
You see, it has been 20 years since I was last in England and my memories are dimming a little. But this year I'll be travelling back, and reaffirming my link with England and Yorkshire.


The Gentle Wind's Caress blurb -
1876 - On the death of her mother and sister, Isabelle Gibson must fend for herself and her brother in a privately-run workhouse. To escape a life of drudgery and near-rape at the hands of the matron’s son, Neville Peacock, Isabelle agrees to marry Farrell, a moorland farmer she has never met. But Farrell is a drunkard and a bully in constant feud with his landlord, Ethan Harrington. When Farrell bungles a robbery and deserts her, Isabelle and Ethan are thrown together as she struggles to run the farm. Both are married and must hide their growing love. Despite the secrecy, Isabelle draws strength from Ethan and his best friend, Hamish MacGregor, as she faces the return of her long lost father and Neville Peacock. And when Farrell returns to claim his wife, tragedy strikes, changing all their lives forever.

I'm currently working on another Yorkshire set historical titled, Woodland Daughter. I'm writing in the Edwardian era for the first time and enjoying it very much.

In September this year, my second book published in hardback by Robert Hale Ltd UK will be released. A Noble Place is set in Australia 1851.

For more details about my books, you can visit my website by clicking
here

I love hearing from other writers and readers.

Thanks for having me here.

Anne.~

Thank you, Anne. We wish you every success with your books.