Readers who enjoy books with local settings will have the opportunity to buy signed copies this summer. North Devon author Liz Shakespeare, whose latest book has recently been featured on BBC TV and radio, has a busy summer ahead visiting many South-West events.
Liz has become well-known as an author who brings to life the people, history and landscapes of Devon. She was born and brought up in Bideford and has a long Devon ancestry which she feels has given her a good understanding of Devon and its people.
Her most recent book, The Postman Poet, is a novel telling the true life story of Edward Capern, a humble Devon postman whose poems, written while walking the rural lanes of North Devon on his daily round in the mid-19th century, won plaudits from the Prime Minister and the support of the biggest literary names of the day. Liz drew on historical research and details in the poems to tell the extraordinary story through Edward’s eyes as he struggles to support his family, a story that captures the opportunities and inequalities of Victorian North Devon. Alongside the novel, she has published a selection of Capern’s poems, and in recognition of his commitment to social justice she will be donating £1 to the Northern Devon Foodbank from the sale of each copy of this book.
Historical research was also the inspiration for her previous books, The Turning of the Tide, a true story of a young Clovelly mother confined in Bideford Workhouse, Fever: A Story from a Devon Churchyard, and The Memory Be Green: An Oral History of a Devon Village. All Around The Year, is a collection of twelve poignant stories, deeply rooted in the Devon countryside, and each linked to a month of the year from January through to December.
Liz will be signing copies of all her books at the following events:
- Magpie Marquee at the Mid-Devon Show on 22nd July
- Dunster Country Fair on 26th July
- Launceston Show on 27th July
- Woolsery Show on 31st July
- In the Crafts and Gifts Marquee at the North Devon Show on August 2nd
- Okehampton Show on August 10th,
- Dartmoor Folk Festival on August 12th and 13th
- Chagford Show on August 17th,
- Holsworthy Show on August 24th
- Clovelly Crab and Lobster Festival on September 3rd
