Welcome to another Weekend Read post. My featured book this week is the historical fiction novel, The Stolen Sister by author Jan Baynham. Jan has dropped by today to tell us about her new book and her writing life. So get yourself a cuppa, get cosy and let’s get chatting to Jan.
BLURB
Crete, 1963. Young artist Greta Ellis arrives at the sun-soaked port of Fáros Limáni, ready to paint and explore the beautiful Greek island.
There she meets passionate local, Andreas Papadakis, and Greta is swept up in a world of colour, freedom and forbidden love. But when tragedy strikes, Greta is forced to make an impossible choice that will change the course of her life — and her heart — forever.
Wales, 1984. After the death of her beloved mother Greta, silversmith Zoë Carter receives a sealed letter that upends everything she thought she knew. Greta’s dying wish is for her ashes to be scattered in Crete, a place precious to her . . . but somewhere she had never spoken of.
Searching through her mother’s belongings, Zoë uncovers a series of letters. Written in Greek and dated the year before she was born, they reveal a passionate love affair. And a tragedy that tore it apart.
Determined to know the truth, Zoë travels to Crete to follow the trail left behind in her mother’s letters. Through the olive groves and whitewashed villages of Crete, she begins to piece together a story of love, betrayal and loss — and discovers that her family was never what it seemed.
Book Link:
Welcome to my blog, Jan. Can you tell us what inspired you to write this novel?
My sixth novel, The Stolen Sister, involves a deeply held family secret, a tragic love-story, grief, romantic love and found family. It was inspired by a true story I read on a blog. A young American woman travelled to the island of Crete to find answers as to why her mother would never talk about the road accident that killed her father. Her mother shut out the memories, wanting her daughter to suppress them too. When she arrives in Chania as an adult, memories of that awful night start to come back to her. She reads a newspaper article detailing the accident and eventually finds her father’s grave to pay her respects. The ‘what if’s?’ started. What if a young Welsh girl knew nothing about her mother spending time in Crete? What if her mother’s request to scatter her ashes into the sea there was part of a secret she’d kept for over twenty years?
The stunning Greek island of Crete plays a vivid role in The Stolen Sister. It is a favourite holiday destination of mine, having visited the island many times, and I’ve always wanted to set a novel there. The fact that the blog post involved Crete inspired me to do just that.
My novel involved a lot of research into both 1960s and 1980s Crete. Situated on the northwest coast, the town of Chania is known for its famous lighthouse, picturesque old town, Venetian architecture and beautiful beaches. It was the inspiration for the fictional port of Fáros Limáni in the book. Having visited the town only once before on a day trip, I read books, looked at maps and pictures as well as watched videos to get a feel of the place but it wasn’t until I went there on a research trip with my daughter that I was able to walk in my characters’ footsteps. The trip proved to be invaluable. We called in at the information centre and spoke to a very informative woman who told us that in 1963 most babies were born in clinics, delivered by mammis, and not at home as I thought. She directed us to the site where the clinic once stood. Her first-hand experience as well as the feeling I got when entering some of the hippie caves in Matala are both something I couldn’t have got from books.
Visits to stunning secluded beaches and pretty villages just outside Chania provided the inspiration for the romantic boat trips Zoë takes with Theo and for the place where Greta’s friend, Margot, has a home. We packed so much into our five-day visit and I hope that, inspired by a real town and its surrounding area, there is an authentic sense of place about the novel.
How fascinating, Jan. I find it invaluable to be able to actually visit – or have personal knowledge – of the place where my book is set – and I love Crete. Thank you for dropping by to talk to us today. I hope your book soars.
Meet Jan
BIO
Jan lives in Radyr, on the outskirts of Cardiff. After retiring from a career in teaching and advisory education, she joined a small writing group in a local library where she wrote her first piece of fiction. Fascinated by family secrets and ‘skeletons lurking in cupboards’, Jan writes dual narrative, dual timeline historical novels that explore how decisions and actions made by family members from one generation, often in or just after WW2, impact on the lives of the next. Setting and a sense of place play a vital part in all of Jan’s stories and as well as her native mid-Wales, there is always a contrasting location in sunnier climes. She has six novels published by Joffe Books/Choc Lit and earlier this year signed a contract for three more books.
Contact Links
Facebook – Jan Baynham Writer (https://www.facebook.com/JanBayLit/?locale=en_GB)
Instagram – janbaynham (https://www.instagram.com/janbaynham/?hl=en-gb)
Blog – Jan’s Journey into Writing (https://janbaynham.blogspot.com)
More of Jan’s Books
Amazon Page – https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B085DC6BKR
Karen King 