Thank you Aylsham Book Hive and Aylsham Library!

Big thank you to Norfolk Living Magazine for this lovely review. Also many thanks to Cromer Museum for an interesting Friday afternoon discussing the historical background of The Sitter. And hurrah for all those who came to Holkham Hall Courtyard Gift Shop on Sunday to buy signed copies!

Come out of the wind, leave the deer behind and browse among the books in Holkham gift shop. My local novel The Sitter (published by Waterland) is set in 1900-1901, in the age of steam and the opening of Cromer Pier. I’ll be there signing copies tomorrow, Sunday October 5th. #holkhamhall

It may be blustery tomorrow but I’ll make it to Cromer Museum to talk about my novel The Sitter. A baker’s boy, a beautiful stranger, steam trains, Cromer Pier, art and erotic photography. It’s all in there. time 2pm. Tickets £5. Booking a good idea. www.waterlandbooks.co.uk #CromerPier

I was so moved to see this fisherman’s cottage at Cromer Museum because it was so like the one in my novel The Sitter (www.waterlandbooks.co.uk) on Friday afternoon at 2 pm I will be there again to talk about how I researched it. Revisit Victorian Norfolk .Tickets £5 online or on the door.

Wonderful 200th birthday weekend for the passenger train. So many great novels have been inspired by it, from Murder On The Orient Express to Dombey and Son and The Railway Children. My novel The Sitter (published by Waterland Books) would never have been written without it. #CromerMuseum #poppyline

“It lies below us, stretching far out into the waves wrapped in railings, painted white like the icing on Mother’s wedding cakes,with domes and lamp-posts instead of candles.” Jack Stamp’s view of Cromer Pier in 1901 in my novel The Sitter, published by Waterland Books

The Tin Train in the garden of The Tin House in my novel The Sitter (Waterlandbooks.co.uk). It was given to him to live in for the rest of his life. He earned a bit of money catching adders for London Zoo and making snake oil to ease rich men’s’ aching backs. It is now a stylish Norfolk air b&b.

The Tin House in Norfolk where Rough Jimmy hangs out in my novel The Sitter (Waterland Books) set in 1900-1901. The owner, who has seven children, gives him leftover porridge with a little honey from her bees. Made of corrugated iron, it is now beautifully restored as a quirky two-bedroom home.

The church at Burgh Parva on the fringe of Melton Constable is so like the church that Rosie found at Swanton Stoke in my new novel The Sitter. Before her was the Tin Church “made of corrugated iron” painted bright red and yellow. This was built in 1903 for £270. Inside is a luxurious surprise.

Midsummer light over the Norfolk marshes, taken by my son Ollie McGhie. Just such a night Jack Stamp records in his diary in my novel The Sitter www.waterlandbooks.co.uk “Fresh water drains running towards the sea, swallowing the colour of the sky, doubling it like liquid arithmetic.”

“I can almost touch the homes of Boney Craske, Jockey Skillings, Toby Girling…In winter when the lamps are lit I can see inside if I want to. Since I was born they have all been there, going out and coming in like the trains do.” So says Jack Stamp in my novel The Sitter. Was this where he lived?

I went back to Melton Constable this morning, the village which inspired Swanton Stoke in my novel THE SITTER (Waterland Books). I sat on the steps into The Works, still there after almost a century of neglect. I imagined I heard steam and the screech of metal on tracks. And then I wept.

Huge thank you to graphic designer Nick Stone for the front cover of my first novel The Sitter.

Feel rather excited to be on Bluesky for the first time. Also thrilled to have my first novel The Sitter published by brave indie Waterland. I’ve spent more than 30 years living, walking and loving Norfolk so the fact they’re focused on East Anglia makes it a great honour.