KINDRED SPIRITS, by Lucy McCarraher - Author also of Blood and Water, Mr Mikey's Ladies, My Wonderful Life, and The Book of Balanced Living

“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.”
Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Having lived in London for most of her 47 years, Mo is finally persuaded by her GP husband Jack that they should move to a more tranquil and balanced lifestyle in the country. Her older children have left home, Lily is not getting on at her South London primary school and two-year old Felix suffers badly from asthma. Jack's birth mother finds him a partnership in a South Norfolk village near her and a 17th century farmhouse comes with the job.

Mo is already uneasy about the relationship developing between Jack and the glamorous mother he has only recently met, and tries to resist the pressure to move, but when they look over Stargate Farm for the first time, she finds the house strangely familiar. No sooner have they settled in, and Mo gets stuck into researching a reality tv series on work-life balance, than the psychic mother of a new local friend tells her a "gentleman from the other side" is asking her to put right a wrong that was done to him in the 1940s, and Mo herself begins to have strange flashbacks.

Their idyllic life in the country falls seriously apart when Lily gets into trouble at school for having an imaginary friend, Mo's new friends are snubbed by her London guests and Jack is accused of sexually harrassing a young patient.

Interspersed with this present day story is the diary of Dottie, who also moves from London to the village of Great Haddeston, to work as a Land Girl on the same farm during World War Two. Her love life is almost as dramatic as the war, which she records from her personal perspective and new environment in rural South Norfolk which is full of the Yanks on the RAF/USAAF airbases – “over paid, over sexed and over here”.

Dottie's Diary is woven around the facts and real figures, like James Stewart and Walter Matthaur, who were posted to Norfolk in the 1940s. The volume of her journal, it turns out, belongs to her great nephew who also lives in Great Haddeston and is directing an amateur production of Hamlet, in which Mo is to play Gertrude.

To sort out the mess she finds herself in, Mo tracks down the remaining characters of the 1940s diary and discovers that the 60-year old miscarriage of justice underlies the village feuds and infighting which are tearing her own family apart. Time travel, telepathy and television all play their part in re-balancing the work and life of Mo's family, and returning harmony to the Great Haddeston community.

Buy a copy of Kindred Spirits from Amazon, or order from any good bookshop.





		Kindred Spirits: The Story “Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.” Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables Having lived in London for most of her 47 years, Mo is finally persuaded by her GP husband Jack that they should move to a more tranquil and balanced lifestyle in the country. Her older children have left home, Lily is not getting on at her South London primary school and two-year old Felix suffers badly from asthma. Jack's birth mother finds him a partnership in a South Norfolk village near her and a 17th century farmhouse comes with the job. Mo is already uneasy about the relationship developing between Jack and the glamorous mother he has only recently met, and tries to resist the pressure to move, but when they look over Stargate Farm for the first time, she finds the house strangely familiar. No sooner have they settled in, and Mo gets stuck into researching a reality tv series on work-life balance, than the psychic mother of a new local friend tells her a "gentleman from the other side" is asking her to put right a wrong that was done to him in the 1940s, and Mo herself begins to have strange flashbacks. Their idyllic life in the country falls seriously apart when Lily gets into trouble at school for having an imaginary friend, Mo's new friends are snubbed by her London guests and Jack is accused of sexually harrassing a young patient. Interspersed with this present day story is the diary of Dottie, who also moves from London to the village of Great Haddeston, to work as a Land Girl on the same farm during World War Two. Her love life is almost as dramatic as the war, which she records from her personal perspective and new environment in rural South Norfolk which is full of the Yanks on the RAF/USAAF airbases – “over paid, over sexed and over here”. Dottie's Diary is woven around the facts and real figures, like James Stewart and Walter Matthaur, who were posted to Norfolk in the 1940s. The volume of her journal, it turns out, belongs to her great nephew who also lives in Great Haddeston and is directing an amateur production of Hamlet, in which Mo is to play Gertrude. To sort out the mess she finds herself in, Mo tracks down the remaining characters of the 1940s diary and discovers that the 60-year old miscarriage of justice underlies the village feuds and infighting which are tearing her own family apart. Time travel, telepathy and television all play their part in re-balancing the work and life of Mo's family, and returning harmony to the Great Haddeston community. Buy a copy of *Kindred Spirits* from *Amazon*, or order from any good bookshop.