A very special story about Rosemary Craddock and The Lovegrove Hermit

A while ago, I received a phone call from a lovely lady called Rosemary Craddock who told me that she was an author whose typewriter had broken and she asked whether I would be able to type up a manuscript for a book that she had written called The Lovegrove Hermit. 

Rosemary told me that she was an author and that her first book (The Secret House) was published in 1979 and she then went on to have a book published nearly every year until 1986 when The Devil’s Folly was created.  

After writing seventeen chapters of another novel, Rosemary decided that she didn’t feel that the book was right and was missing something and she put it to one side.

Rosemary went along to see a Tom Stoppard play called Arcadia which was set across two periods of time.  It was this play that inspired her to write a book where one of the characters was a hermit and the name The Lovegrove Hermit came to her immediately. 

All bundled up, with the synopsis and a covering letter, the manuscript was sent off to her previous publisher – Robert Hale Ltd, and she called me one evening saying that she’d had a letter asking for an electronic copy and she was most concerned because she had no idea what this meant and what to do about it.

I told her not to worry, that it could be sorted within a few minutes, so I emailed a copy of the word document to the publishers and had the absolute pleasure of ringing up Rosemary after I had received an email back from Gillian Jackson, offering a publishing contract.

Today (31st October 2013) is publication day for The Lovegrove Hermit .  I am so delighted that I was able to play a part in this wonderful story.  You can buy a copy of the book here.

Rosemary is 80 years old and was born and bred in Hednesford, Staffordshire, the town in which I live.  She has been writing since childhood and has published many novels full of mystery, romance and intrigue, most of them set in the nineteenth century. 

Rosemary does not have a website, a Facebook page, a Twitter name, and doesn’t even own a computer or use the Internet.  Hednesford Library are taking this book on board and we are hoping that they will hold a signing event in her honour.   This is wonderful news in itself.  More wonderful news is that the book that Rosemary put to one side, has now also been finished and we hope that in time, the publishers may also agree to publish that one too.  Watch this space. . . . . . . .