Mary Cavanagh - Novelist

Summer Recess

It may seem that I have had a summer recess, but I have been working very hard to complete my third novel, In The Company Of Wolves. The manuscript has now been sent away to a literary agent and I await a report. I am currently writing a short story for inclusion in the Oxford Writers Group's third anthology, due to be published in the spring of 2010. The group is now pictured above, celebrating the launch of our first production, The Sixpenny Debt and Other Oxford Stories.

In September I have two 'gigs'. I will be attending Wychwood library on 7th September to discuss A Man Like Any Other, and will be meeting up with The Anchor Reading Group on September 14th to discuss The Crowded Bed.

Over the summer I have also had some articles published and I now include one that was written for The Heritage Coast Gazette (East Anglia)


'For the last twenty years my husband and I have kept a summer holiday caravan on the Suffolk Coast, firstly at Shotley and now at Marsh Farm near Saxmundham. Whilst all our friends and relations were jetting off to exotic, world-wide locations we were never tempted to go anywhere else, finding the peace and beauty of the area a sanctuary from our working lives in the busy city of Oxford. We even come up out-of-season to stay at Wheelwright’s Cottage in Dallinghoo.

When planning my second novel, A Man Like Any Other – The Priest’s Tale, I needed to create an isolated Cistercian Abbey, where its senior incumbent, Father Ewan, could lead a privileged lifestyle, and enjoy a secret long-term love affair with Marina, an older woman. Thus ‘Waldringhythe Abbey’ found itself placed between Waldringfield and Hemley, overlooking the beauty of the Deben estuary.

Now, at the age of forty, and suffering from Marina’s bereavement, he seeks the peace and tranquillity of the area to begin his grieving.

‘His daily two-mile discipline along the Deben estuary bank was a strict, sacrosanct routine . . . His feet followed their usual beaten path towards the marshes, but the thrash of his strides gave no relief. At the turn-back point he stopped to rest, sitting on a dry tussock of grass to overlook the lower reaches of the wide waterway. With the tide drawn out it was a flat stretch of wet, muddy sand, showing the criss-cross imprints of a seabird’s wavering walk . . .

However, having chosen my location, the prose that describes the approach road to the Abbey, and its landscaping, is drawn from an amalgam of places, including Walberswick and Ramsholt. In addition I drew on my own driving experiences whilst exploring the estuary area, south of Woodbridge.

Creating an authentic 12th century Abbey was quite a challenge, but (with an author’s license of fiction) I modelled its basic architecture on both the ruined and existing stone church of St Andrew in Walberswick.

In this extract, Sally Fuller, in the wake of a failed marriage, is escaping to the Abbey in the hope of re-building her life.

‘Sally’s map-reading skills were being seriously challenged by the maze of gorse-filled lanes, unique to the Suffolk heritage coastland . . . She joined a single width lane, edged with high trees, and peppered with sandy passing places. At ground level pheasants jaywalked unperturbed, and above her head, wavering, whippy branches of bright spring green were interspersed by sharp, glittering sun.

Without warning the lane suddenly ended, to reveal a wide sweep of low farmland, and on the edge of the distant horizon she could see the glinting water of the Deben estuary . . . Sally caught her first glimpses of 12th-Century perimeter walls . . .

. . .The gentle pastoral landscape of East Anglia gave up no natural hewn stone, and thus the Cistercians, seeking to estrange themselves from the Benedictines, had built the core of their sanctuary using the only materials available to them: an endless supply of palm-size elliptical stones endemic to the sweeping coastline, some five miles down-river . . . Sally could picture bowed and silent ascetics, patiently assembling layer after layer, hand over hand, toiling for perhaps the whole of their short lives.

Towards the end of the novel, Father Ewan, in re-counting his on-going struggles with life, once again seeks the solitude of the estuary.

‘Ewan was now at Waldringfield, a small waterfront village some two miles up the coast. Seated at a bench, in the garden of The May Bush public house, he overlooked a small harbour where tethered yachts bobbed and a shrill wind rang their chandlery like discordant bells. Behind him a steady stream of Sunday patrons trooped past, crowding inside to enjoy the fine food and cosy warmth. Feeling an intense need for solitude he was grateful to find that the chill of the outdoors attracted no one but himself . . .

I hope that in A Man Like Any Other I have paid homage to your beautiful area. It really is a ‘heaven on earth’ and now we are retired intend to spend as much time as possible ‘on holiday’. I am thus happy to talk to any group, bookshop, or interested party. Please contact me on marycavanagh@btinternet.com

Mary Cavanagh is the author of two novels, The Crowded Bed (Transita 2007) and A Man Like Any Other – The Priest’s Tale (Matador September 2008). Her most recent publication is A Seriously Useful Author’s Guide to Marketing and Publicising Books (Troubador 2009)


Reviews of A Man Like Any Other –The Priest’s Tale:

Mary creates credible, human characters that excite, anger, frustrate, and generally mess up their lives – as we all do – whilst evoking our sympathy, and affection for their human frailties. A superb choice for any Book Group.
Sharon Stanley - Library Reader – Ipswich, Suffolk

Trust me - once you start, you will not want to put this book down!
Sharon Goforth - Ex-Libris Independent Reviewer, Ohio, USA http://exlibris.typepad.com/

I had to stay awake till the wee small hours to devour the book in one sitting; I loved it and unreservedly recommend it.
Amanda Stock - Oxford Daily Information

A Masterpiece of Genius. As soon as I started reading this novel I could think of little else until I reached the end.
Kate Wiltshire – Author