The Undercliff Novels

I expect the first image that comes to mind when one thinks of the Isle of Wight is The Needles, or Sir Paul McCartney scrimping and saving to rent a cottage for a week or two when he’s sixty-four – that was 2006 and I believe he was invited. But there are many other images varying from family holiday resorts and amusements to pretty villages, places of historic interest, abundant wildlife, a boating mecca, farmland and bleak downs. But the place that inspired me and persuaded me to stay was The Undercliff.

There’s something about The Undercliff of the Isle of Wight which expresses perfectly for me the impossibility of striving to hold onto anything in the physical world.

When I was a schoolgirl I assumed that geographical maps were accurate and permanent, but now I experience a landmass shifting its shape, adjusting itself to the forces of wind and water, re-contouring, spitting out dinosaur footprints like ancient messages from eroding cliffs, whilst simultaneously concealing more recent secrets waiting to be unearthed.

It's certainly a lesson in acceptance of the nature of all things physical. But also, sitting quietly, simply being here, the movement of life itself feels unquenchable and eternal.

The island is diamond shaped and I live on the southern point near St Catherine’s lighthouse. Much of the land here is owned by the National Trust and is an area of outstanding natural beauty and also a site of special scientific interest. The Undercliff itself stretches from around Luccombe to Blackgang Chine and forms a shelf between the landward cliffs and the sea cliffs where the upper layers of the land have slipped over the impervious layer of blue gault clay.

Why would anyone choose to live on a landslip that is still moving? That’s what we had to ask ourselves, but something kept us here and much work has been done to stabilise the area. The climate is mild and the vegetation prolific. The area is steeped in history and legends of smuggling, shipwrecks and hauntings abound. Cottages and hotels have disappeared under the sea and every year the cliffs tumble and farmers move their fences a few feet further inland. Many beautiful Victorian houses lie hidden from the road along ivy-clad driveways and there are some stone entrance-pillars that lure but go nowhere.

For my imaginative mind it is an atmospheric place that whispers stories as I wander along the coastal paths or the seashore. There are small bays now deserted and mainly unreachable where the history books show fishermen’s cottages once faced the sea. The Royal National Chest Hospital at Ventnor, and Steephill Castle would probably have preservation orders slapped upon them if they hadn’t been demolished years ago. This was the island where wealthy Victorians came to bathe and Queen Victoria had her favourite home – Osborne House – designed for her by her beloved Albert, at Cowes. Her poet laureate – Alfred, Lord Tennyson resided at Freshwater attracting a literary following. Definitely a place to be seen – until foreign shores and more dependable sun beckoned.

For me the place was a ‘novel waiting to be written.’ But how could I write about an area that I didn’t know? What a presumption that would have been. So, my heroine had to be in the same position as me – a newcomer who had yet to explore and unearth the secrets of the past. There is a wealth of information in the island libraries, and to be told by the local people – especially The Islanders – born and bred here and proud of it. I am merely an Overner – which is slightly better than being a Grockle – a holidaymaker.

And so I let my heroine, Jane, lead me, and how we enjoyed it. And it seems The Undercliff Novels will continue. Persuaded by my daughter and other Island writers, I submitted the first three chapters and synopsis to The Hilary Johnson Authors’ Advisory Service and she gave me a positive report and the names of three agents. The second of which, Dinah Wiener, invited me to London for lunch and signed me up. I have completed the second one, Blue Slipper Bay, and started the third. The books are stand-alone stories but old characters re-appear – I couldn’t let them go!

There are currently three novels in The Undercliff series in various stage of existence:-

• The Sorrow Of Sisters - now published in UK, Germany and Holland. To be published in Norway in 2007.
• Blue Slipper Bay - now published in the UK by Transita, by Der Club Bertelsmann in July 2007 and in Germany by Random House Blanvalet in summer 2008.
• Rocken Edge - my work in progress.

Each novel can be read on a stand-alone basis. But the action remains in The Undercliff and old characters re-appear.