Check out Ghost Encounters: The Lingering Spirits of North Devon By Helen Hollick with Kathy Hollick #GhostEncounters #Ghosts #NorthDevon #FriendlyGhosts #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub @HelenHollick @cathiedunn

 

Ghost Encounters: 

The Lingering Spirits of North Devon
By Helen Hollick with Kathy Hollick

Publication Date: 27th February 2025

Publisher: Taw River Press

Pages: 201Pages

Genre: Non-Fiction (with a bonus of two short stories)

Everyone assumes that ghosts are hostile. Actually, most of them are not.

You either believe in ghosts or you don’t. It depends on whether you’ve encountered something supernatural or not. But when you share a home with several companionable spirits, or discover benign ghosts in public places who appear as real as any living person, scepticism is abandoned and the myth that ghosts are to be feared is realised as nonsense.

It is a matter for individual consideration whether you believe in ghosts or not, but for those who have the gift to see, hear or be aware of people from the past, meeting with them in today’s environment can generate a connection to years gone by. Kathy and Helen Hollick have come across several such departed souls in and around North Devon and at their 18th-century home, which they share with several ‘past residents’.

In GHOST ENCOUNTERS: The Lingering Spirits Of North Devon, mother and daughter share their personal experiences, dispelling the belief that spirits are to be feared.

Ghost Encounters will fascinate all who enjoy this beautiful region of rural South-West England, as well as interest those who wish to discover more about its history... and a few of its ghosts.

(Includes a bonus of two short stories and photographs connected to North Devon)

Cover design: Avalon Graphics

Cover artwork: Chris Collingwood

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Helen Hollick

Known for her captivating storytelling and rich attention to historical detail, Helen might not see ghosts herself, but her nautical adventure series, and some of her short stories, skilfully blend the past with the supernatural, inviting readers to step into worlds where the boundaries between the living and the dead blur. 

In addition to her historical fiction, Helen has written several short stories, further exploring themes of historical adventure or the supernatural with her signature style. Whether dealing with the echoes of the past or the weight of lost souls, her stories are as compelling as they are convincing. Through her work, she invites readers into a world where the past never truly lets us go.

Helen started writing as a teenager, but after discovering a passion for history, was published in the UK with her Arthurian Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy and two Anglo-Saxon novels about the events that led to the 1066 Battle of Hastings, one of which, The Forever Queen (USA title – A Hollow Crown in the UK) became a USA Today best-seller. Her Sea Witch Voyages are nautical-based adventures inspired by the Golden Age of Piracy. She also writes the Jan Christopher cosy mystery series set during the 1970s, and based around her, sometimes hilarious, years of working as a North London library assistant.

Helen, husband Ron and daughter Kathy moved from London to Devon in January 2013 after a Lottery win on the opening night of the London Olympics, 2012. She spends her time glowering at the overgrown garden and orchard, fending off the geese, helping with the horses and, when she gets a moment, writing the next book...

Kathy Hollick

Diagnosed as severely dyslexic when she was ten, Helen pulled Kathy out of school at fifteen to concentrate on everything equine.

When not encountering friendly ghosts, Kathy's passion is horses and mental well-being. She started riding at the age of three, had her own Welsh pony at thirteen, and discovered showjumping soon after. Kathy now runs her own Taw River Equine Events, and coaches riders of any age or experience, specialising in positive mindset and overcoming confidence issues via her Centre10 accreditation and Emotional Freedom Technique training. EFT, or ‘tapping’, uses the body’s pressure points to aid calm relaxation and to promote gentle healing around emotional, mental or physical issues.

Kathy lives with her farmer partner, Andrew, in their flat adjoining the main farmhouse. She regularly competes at affiliated British Showjumping, and rides side-saddle (‘aside’) when she has the opportunity. She produces her own horses, several from home-bred foals.

She also has a fun diploma in Dragons and Dragon Energy, which was something amusing to study during the Covid lockdown.

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Carolyn Hughes' fabulous novel, A Woman’s Lot, is now available on audio. #Medieval #HistoricalFiction #HistoricalRomance #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub @writingcalliope @cathiedunn

 

A Woman’s Lot
The Second Meonbridge Chronicle
By Carolyn Hughes
Narrator Alex Lee

Publication Date: February 5th, 2025 (audiobook publication)

Publisher: Carolyn Hughes

Listening Length: 12 hours and 15 minutes

Genre: Historical Fiction

How can mere women resist the misogyny of men?

1352. In Meonbridge, a resentful peasant rages against Eleanor Titherige’s efforts to build up her flock of sheep. Susanna Miller’s husband, grown melancholy and ill-tempered, succumbs to idle gossip that his wife’s a scold. Agnes Sawyer’s yearning to be a craftsman is met with scorn. And the village priest, fearful of what he considers women’s “unnatural” ambitions, is determined to keep them firmly in their place.

Many men hold fast to the teachings of the Church and fear the havoc the “daughters of Eve” might wreak if they’re allowed to usurp men’s roles and gain control over their own lives.

Not all men in Meonbridge resist the women’s desire for change – indeed, they want it for themselves. Yet it takes only one or two misogynists to unleash the hounds of hostility and hatred…

If you enjoy immersive historical fiction with a strong authentic feel, set in a time of change and challenge, especially for women, you’ll love A Woman’s Lot, the second MEONBRIDGE CHRONICLE. Find out for yourself if Meonbridge’s “unnatural” women stand up to their abusers!

Listen to an audio excerpt here.

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Carolyn Hughes

Carolyn Hughes has lived much of her life in Hampshire. With a first degree in Classics and English, she started working life as a computer programmer, then a very new profession. But it was technical authoring that later proved her vocation, word-smithing for many different clients, including banks, an international hotel group and medical instruments manufacturers.

Although she wrote creatively on and off for most of her adult life, it was not until her children flew the nest that writing historical fiction took centre stage. But why historical fiction? Serendipity!

Seeking inspiration for what to write for her Creative Writing Masters, she discovered the handwritten draft, begun in her twenties, of a novel, set in 14th century rural England…

Intrigued by the period and setting, she realised that, by writing a novel set in the period, she could learn more about the medieval past and interpret it, which seemed like a thrilling thing to do. A few days later, the first Meonbridge Chronicle, Fortune’s Wheel, was under way.

Six published books later (with more to come), Carolyn does now think of herself as an Historical Novelist. And she wouldn’t have it any other way…

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Check out R.N. Morris' fabulous novel, Death of a Princess #HistoricalFiction #CrimeFiction #Russia #Mystery #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub @rnmorris @cathiedunn

 

Death of a Princess 
By R.N. Morris

Author: R.N. Morris

Publication Date: 5th November 2024

Publisher: Sharpe Books

Pages: 192

Genre: Historical Crime / Mystery

Summer 1880.

Lipetsk, a spa town in Russia.

The elderly and cantankerous Princess Belskaya suffers a violent reaction while taking a mud bath at the famous Lipetsk Sanatorium. Soon after, she dies.

Dr Roldugin, the medical director of the sanatorium, is at a loss to explain the sudden and shocking death.

He points the finger at Anna Zhdanova, a medical assistant who was supervising the princess’s treatment.

Suspicion also falls on the princess’s nephew Belsky, who appears far from grief-stricken at his aunt’s death.

Meanwhile, investigating magistrate Pavel Pavlovich Virginsky arrives in Lipetsk from St Petersburg, seeking treatment after a nervous breakdown.

Against his better judgement, Virginsky is drawn in to the investigation. But is he getting closer to the truth or walking straight into a deadly trap?

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R.N. Morris

Roger (R.N) Morris is the author of 18 books, including a quartet of historical crime novels set in St Petersburg featuring Porfiry Petrovich, the investigating magistrate from Dostoevsky’s great novel Crime and Punishment. These were followed by the Silas Quinn series set in London in 1914. He has been shortlisted for the CWA Duncan Lawrie Gold Dagger and the CWA Historical Dagger.

A former advertising copywriter, Roger has written the libretto for an opera, modern retellings of Frankenstein and Macbeth for French school children. He’s also a scriptwriter for an award winning audio producer, working on true crime and history podcasts including The Curious History of your Home.

His work has been published in 16 countries. 

Married with two grown-up children, Roger lives in Chichester where he keeps an eye out for seagulls.

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Check out Lois Cahall's fabulous novel, The Many Lives & Loves of Hazel Lavery #HistoricalFiction #BiographicalFiction #WomenInHistory #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub @LoCahall @cathiedunn

 

The Many Lives & Loves of Hazel Lavery
By Lois Cahall

Publication Date: 14th January 2025
Publisher: Historium Press
Page Length: 340 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction

In the heart of tumultuous times, amidst the grandeur of Victorian opulence, there existed an American socialite whose influence altered the course of the Anglo-Irish treaty:

Lady Hazel Lavery

Boston-born Hazel ascended from her Irish roots to become the quintessential Society Queen of Chicago, and later London, where she lived a delicate dance between two worlds: one with her esteemed husband, Sir John Lavery, a portrait artist to royalty, and the other with Michael Collins, the daring Irish rebel whose fiery spirit ignited her heart. Together, they formed a love triangle that echoed through the corridors of power at 10 Downing Street, London.

Hazel's wit and charm touched on the lives of the who's-who of England including Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw and Evelyn Waugh. The image of her memorable face graced the Irish note for close to half-a-century.

Excerpt

The drawing room was a flutter with politics and conversation. 

Finally, I piped in. “Quite the contrary, I’m just a simple Irish girl at heart,” I repeated, like some sort of ongoing mantra. “Simple” sounded silly as I sat there in an ornate sage-colored tea party dress with intricate embroidery and delicate tailoring in tiers of gossamer finery. Of course, we knew I was anything but a simple Irish girl, though I had a dreamy romantic view of what it might be like.

None of them dared to shatter my fantasy.

Our neighbors, Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine, along with the group of politicians were dumbstruck by my Irish beliefs as we gathered in my home for afternoon tea at 5 Cromwell Place.

Nevertheless, when none of them challenged me, I carried on, speaking of the kindness of Ireland, how my Father had raised me to believe in my heritage and how we planned to someday explore Galway to meet the rest of the Martyn clan. Without him I’d have to do that on my own... “Although my beloved John did take me for my first visit to Killarney House, to see Lord and Lady Kenmare,” I said, “They seemed smitten with my love to learn about all things Ireland.” Leaning over, I patted John’s hand. “When was that, my dear?”

“1913,” said John, proud of his timeline skills.

“And we went again just a couple years back to Lord Wimborne, the Lord Lieutenant, who was serving, of course, during the time of the Easter Rising. His home was stunning. Reminiscent of our American President’s White House. I’ve profound sympathy for the Irish and their welfare.” As my lips moved verbal stories of my ancestry, I knew my auburn hair glowed that feisty flare of being Irish. My eyes blinked a delicate green that day, more than hazel brown. Yes, Ireland beckoned my soul, and my Irish eyes were finally smiling. “So,” I exhaled, “If indeed you want the Anglo-Irish war over, dearest Winston, then tell Lloyd George to give the Irish their independence.”

“Are you out of your bloody mind?!” snapped Winston.

Leaning forward, I refreshed his Earl Grey tea from the silver pot that sat between us for pause. 

“No,” I said, “I’m bloody serious.” Then setting down the pot, I sat back cool as a cucumber as the men broke into an awkward chuckle. “Laugh if you like, but Winston, if you want something to turn out different then you have to do something different.” They infuriated me but I had to hold my ground, glancing over at Clementine for female support. All she could do was shrug. My eyes egged her on.

“Maybe Hazel has a point?” Clementine added.

“You too?” said Winston. “My own Mrs.?”

“Winston, really?” I said, “Do you want to control something or someone that doesn’t want to be controlled? Have you considered just sitting down and perhaps, well, speaking to them?”

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” John piped in.

“Precisely,” said Winston, placing down his Earl Grey cup to grab a ginger biscuit from the tray. “Those Irish boys have committed treason, the entire lot of them! Then they disappear into the night. Like cowards!”

“But...” I interjected.

“But nothing, Hazel,” he scolded. “This is more complicated than feasting over a turkey dinner to sign some documents with the enemy. If they indeed are cut from us, it could mean the end of the British Empire!”

“Oh, dear,” said Clementine.

Winston continued. “Not to mention the large Protestant population in the north – in Belfast, well, they refuse to join the Catholics of the south for their ridiculously sought independence. What am I to do? Just abandon Northern Ireland who have been true to the Crown?” Winston dabbed the napkin to his mouth and rearranged himself in the chair. “Hazel, I cannot, I will not, go down in history as that Secretary of State, who took on the Irish plight.”

“You’re right dear,” said Clementine, dabbing the linen napkin to her lips. “That Michael Collins is behind all of this political division.”

“Oh, pish posh,” I snapped. “It’s how the press has portrayed him, is all.” 

“I have to agree with my wife,” said John. “Go on and tell them, Hazel. Tell them how you met the Michael Collins years back...”

Winston stopped nibbling his biscuit. All other teacups came to a standstill. “You’ve met him?” he asked. 

“Yes, at the post office, nearby in Kensington. It was quite a while back. He was young but quite charismatic. Very polite.” I swallowed hard. “And if I do dare say, an extremely handsome fellow.”

“So, I’ve heard,” said Clementine, giving me a quick wink.

“They say he’s like a movie star. Constantly surrounded by women. They’ll go to great lengths to do anything for him.”

“Well, that’s rather suggestive,” said Winston, surprised by his wife’s sexual innuendo...

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Lois Cahall

Lois Cahall began her writing career as a columnist for Cape Cod newspapers and local periodicals, including Cape Cod Life. She spent a decade writing for national magazines (Conde Nast/Hearst). Her articles have been published in Cosmo Girl, Seventeen, SELF, Marie Claire, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, Reader’s Digest, Men’s Journal, and Bon Appetit. In the UK she wrote for RED, GQ, Psychologies, and for The Times. In addition, Lois wrote profiles for The Palm Beach Post. 

Lois’s first novel, Plan C: Just in Case, was a #1 bestseller in the UK, where it remained in the top three fiction for the year before selling into foreign translation markets. In July of 2014, her novel hit #1 on the Nook “Daily Deal” in America. Her second novel, Court of the Myrtles, was hailed as “Tuesdays with Morrie on estrogen” by Ladies Home Journal. Her latest novel, The Many Lives of Hazel Lavery, is a work of bio-fiction (January 2025) 

Lois is the former Creative Director of Development for JPE/James (Jim) Patterson Entertainment. She credits her friend, Jim, the world’s most successful bestselling author, with teaching her the importance of children’s love of reading. As a result, she founded the Palm Beach Book Festival in 2015, an annual event bringing in NYT bestselling and celebrity authors. The event is for book lovers, nurturing the written word for the children and adults of southern Florida. 

In 2024 Lois also founded The Cape Cod Book Festival, an annual autumn event that promises to be a new cultural footprint in Massachusetts. It will be for locals and ‘washashores’ alike – a magical place where charitably minded readers can rub elbows with great writers and thinkers.  

Lois divides her life between New York and Cape Cod, although her spiritual home is London. But most importantly, Lois can do the Hula Hoop for an hour non-stop and clear a Thanksgiving table in just under ten minutes.

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Check out Barney Campbell's fabulous novel, The Fires of Gallipoli #TheFiresOfGallipoli #HistoricalFiction #WWI #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub @eandtbooks @cathiedu

 

The Fires of Gallipoli 

By Barney Campbell

Publication Date: 13th February 2025

Publisher: Elliott & Thompson

Page Length: 320 Pages

Genre: Historical Fiction / WWI Fiction

The Fires of Gallipoli is a heartbreaking portrayal of friendship forged in the trenches of the First World War.

 

‘In this vivid and engaging novel of war and friendship, Barney Campbell shows us once again that he is a natural writer. This is a novel of men at arms of the highest quality.’ 

~ Alexander McCall Smith

Edward Salter is a shy, reserved lawyer whose life is transformed by the outbreak of war in 1914. On his way to fight in the Gallipoli campaign, he befriends the charming and quietly courageous Theodore Thorne. Together they face the carnage and slaughter, stripped bare to their souls by the hellscape and only sustained by each other and the moments of quiet they catch together.

Thorne becomes the crutch whom Edward relies on throughout the war. When their precious leave from the frontline coincides, Theo invites Edward to his late parents’ idyllic estate in Northamptonshire. Here Edward meets Thorne’s sister Miranda and becomes entranced by her.

Edward escapes the broiling, fetid charnel-house of Gallipoli to work on the staff of Lord Kitchener, then on to the Western Front and post-war espionage in Constantinople. An odd coolness has descended between Edward and Theo. Can their connection and friendship survive the overwhelming sense of loss at the end of the war when everything around them is corrupted and destroyed?

 

The Fires of Gallipoli is a heartbreaking, sweeping portrayal of friendship and its fragility at the very limits of humanity.

Excerpt

Edward’s thick jumper proved its mettle and he slept soundly, stirring only around midnight as a snuffling deer broke nearby branches around the edge of the tree. He was awake for a few minutes while memories of nights on the front came to him, staring out into a dark night or peeping fearfully over the parapet when a baleful alabaster shone over the Peninsula in a sniper’s moon. He remembered nights on the line as he and Thorne tried desperately to suppress their chuckles into yelps of breathing. He was sure that he let out a giggle into the night before nothingness then fell over him, dreamless and warm.

He woke with his thighs damp from dew and drew away the groundsheet to see the million droplets on the cow parsley sparkle gold and rainbow colours from the low sun breaching the underside of the tree. A ghostly network of spiders’ webs hung above his head, made fuller by the dew, more ossified. He felt an awful pang, as Thorne stirred beside him, that he wasn’t able to see any of it.

They wormed out from under the tree and creaked limbs back to life, shaking away the residue of sleep and rubbing their sandpaper chins, teeth chattering at the morning’s chill. They got ready to go, the imprint of their bodies in the cow parsley already disappearing as the crushed stalks started to lean up again, and they rejoined the path and carried on.

The route took them over miles of gentle fields and woods, folds in the ground offering one of the most beautiful mornings Edward could remember; folds that, on a battlefield, would become must-take ridges and valleys raked by machine gun fire. Here though was a perfect land, unpoisoned by such snaky heads. The rising sun, still yet to gain its heat, uncovered spring’s half-built hedgerows as nearby woodpeckers saluted their arrival. So infrequent was any sign of habitation, with only a couple of soft yellow stone farmhouses nestling nearly invisibly into their surroundings, that it seemed for a time that they were walking through a zero-humaned world.

They moved so softly, boots tracing their way noiselessly over the grass and the soft earth, that at every wood or new field animals failed to notice them and carried on their activities unalarmed. In one small clump of trees were a cock and hen pheasant, he strutting and boastful with his neck thrust out in grandiose stupidity and she following along behind him picking up the food and grubs that he, in his magnificent self-regard, missed on his morning passeggiata.

Edward stopped for a while to watch them, and then started to describe the scene to Thorne, but not going on as long as he thought he might, seeing writ across his face a sheer exultation in the day and being where they were. Not the sights, of course, but the scents and the touch of the air on his skin seemed to be elevating him to the same sense of contented rapture as Edward felt. The gap between them may not be quite as unbridgeable as he had feared, then. Perhaps.

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The Fires of Gallipoli 

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Barney Campbell

Barney Campbell, author of The Fires of Gallipoli, was brought up in the Scottish Borders and studied Classics at university. He then joined the British Army where he commanded soldiers on a tour of Helmand Province, Afghanistan at the height of the war there.

That experience inspired him to write his first novel Rain, a novel about the war, which was published by Michael Joseph in 2015. The Times called it ‘the greatest book about the experience of soldiering since Robert Graves’s First World War classic Goodbye To All That’.

Barney has walked the length of the Iron Curtain, from Szczecin in Poland to Trieste in Italy. He currently works and lives in London.

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Check out I. M. Foster's fabulous novel, Murder on West Lake #HistoricalMystery #CozyMystery #RomanticMystery #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub @IMFosterMystery @cathiedunn

 

Murder on West Lake

By I. M. Foster

Publication Date: December 9th, 2024

 Publisher: Inez M. Foster – self-published

 Pages: 438

 Genre: Historical Mystery.

A scream shattered the tranquil air, echoing off the ice-covered lake, and Daniel's heart froze. He knew that voice all too well.

After a pleasant afternoon of ice skating on the frozen waters of West Lake, local librarian Kathleen Brissedon stumbles across a gruesome sight in the nearby gazebo. It only takes a moment for her beau, assistant coroner Doctor Daniel O'Halleran, to determine that the victim was murdered.

To protect Kathleen from the ghastly sight of the man’s slashed throat, Daniel insists she return home while he examines the body further. Though the immediate cause of death appears obvious, he fears the subsequent autopsy will uncover more questions than answers, and it's clear that he has his work cut out for him if he's going to find the person responsible.

Kathleen has no intention of remaining demurely at home, not when there's a murder to solve. Slipping back to the scene, she conducts her own investigation. Though her discoveries prove interesting, Daniel is too concerned about her safety to stifle his annoyance, especially after the killer makes a second attempt closer to home. But as the puzzle pieces begin to fall into place and Daniel starts closing in on the truth, the killer sets their sights on him.

With the danger increasing, Kathleen intent on assisting in the investigation, and his family descending on Patchogue to spend the Christmas holidays, Daniel has his hands full. 

Will he and Kathleen be able to put their heads together and discover who is behind the attacks, or will the killer continue to plague the tranquil South Shore village unhindered?

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I. M. Foster

I. M. Foster is the pen name author Inez Foster uses to write her South Shore Mystery series, set on Edwardian Long Island. Inez also writes historical romances under the pseudonym Andrea Matthews and has so far published two series in that genre: the Thunder on the Moor series, a time-travel romance set on the 16th century Anglo-Scottish Borders, and the Cross of Ciaran series, which follows the adventures of a fifth century Celt who finds himself in love with a twentieth-century archaeologist.

Inez is a historian and librarian, who loves to read and write and search around for her roots, genealogically speaking. She has a BA in History and an MLS in Library Science and enjoys doing the research almost as much as she does the actual writing of the story. In fact, many of her ideas come to her while doing casual research or digging into her family history. Inez is a member of the Long Island Romance Writers, the Historical Novel Society, and Sisters in Crime.

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Check out Nitin Nanji's fabulous novel, Lalji’s Nairobi. #HistoricalFiction #AfricanHistoricalFiction #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub @cathiedunn

 

Lalji’s Nairobi

By Nitin Nanji

Publication Date: 30th August 2023

Publisher: Independently Published

Pages: 282 Pages

Genre: Historical Fiction

British Gujarat, 1905.

Despairing of the social injustices and crippling taxes under the British Raj, Lalji, 19, flees to British East Africa hoping to build a better life using his natural business skills and acumen. But he soon finds unexpected dangers in his new home- turbulent politics and war with German East Africa- as well as some surprising opportunities. A combination of luck, coincidence, and his flair for commerce lead to early success. 

Then, just as he is at his most vulnerable, a new threat emerges from where he least expects: from within his own family. 

Can Lalji beat overwhelming odds to fulfill his hopes and ambitions?

A story about survival, faith, ability, humanity, and a deep desire to succeed.

Excerpt

The Mombasa-Nairobi train was due to leave at six in the evening. Premlal had prepared a light meal they could have for supper and a bag of mangoes with bananas for breakfast. He provided the details of his friend Raman Bhatt who ran a guest house for vegetarian travellers in Nairobi.

The ticket office sold first, second and third-class tickets. First was for whites only, Second had bunks and accommodated three to a compartment while Third Class was hard bench seating with barred open windows. Being on a budget they opted for Third and were relieved to see three other groups of new immigrants on the platform. One was a newly married couple. The husband had been in Nairobi a year and just returned by a European steamer with his bride.

Lalji was intrigued to see the contrast between the man and his wife. He was dressed no different from most who wore either a dhoti (traditional attire for men) and shirt with a pugdi (turban), or substituted the dhoti with a cotton patloon (trousers). The wife, however, was wearing a scarlet and gold sari pulled down at the front into a veil so no more than her mouth and nose stud were visible. She was heavily bedecked with gold bangles and a Mangal Sutra, her matrimonial necklace. She could have been wearing her wedding outfit, thought Lalji. They were clearly going to be received in Nairobi by relatives and he wondered when he would be bringing Janki here the same way. To his surprise, the newlyweds had also purchased third-class tickets.

Goodbyes were exchanged on the platform after the carriages rolled in alongside the platform. The engine driver was a middle-aged Sikh dressed in black overalls. His turban was blackened with soot and grease but a glint of orange showed in each fold on one side revealing the original colour. The noise from the steam vents and valves from the engine roared deafeningly and the black steel wheels, almost as tall as a man, slowly ground to a halt. Anyone about to board the train was struck in awe of the Raj who could not only make the machinery but transport it across the world, then commission it to run in a new country. Ramji noticed a group of white soldiers smoking on the platform. Like in India they were on duty for train security and would accompany the guard in his compartment.

Nizar and Ramji were in deep conversation with Premlal about stopping and praying at the tomb of Seyyid Baghali located two hours out of Mombasa. Seyyid Baghali was a Muslim indentured labourer who had worked on the railway when it was constructed. He was well known for his physical strength and various miraculous feats were ascribed to him. It was becoming customary for the train to stop on request at the place of his tomb. The place was known as “McKinnon Road,” and passengers were allowed off the train to pray for a safe journey. If no stop had been requested the train drivers would slow down to a crawling pace and blow a long whistle in salute. Premlal suggested the four travellers should stop and pray at the tomb. Lalji reflected on the prayers said at the Socotra crossing a few days earlier for the same purpose. At precisely six o’clock, the whistle was blown by the station master. The guard was dangling out of his compartment with his green flag ready to wave it once everyone was on board. The engine driver blew two loud and long whistles to encourage any stragglers to get on board. 

Once on their way, the train seemed to linger at a man’s walking pace for some considerable time. There was an immediate incline to start with and it would remain much the same all the way to Nairobi, sitting at an altitude of five and a half thousand feet. The journey took between 13 to 14 hours; much depended on wild animals on the tracks. 

The sun had gone down quickly and it had become pitch dark, with a cool breeze blowing in their faces. On reaching McKinnon Road they, along with a few others, were escorted by two soldiers to the tomb of Seyyid Baghali where they bowed in respect. Nizar led the prayer asking for a safe journey to Nairobi. Within minutes they were back on the train, the soldiers stubbing out their cigarettes on the side of their wagon.

The carriage was quiet, each one lost in their thoughts or dozing off. Lalji found himself thinking more of Janki, her eyes and her anklets. Bhasker was humming a tune absent-mindedly.

A few hours after the McKinnon Road stop there was a sudden screeching of the brakes and whistle blowing from the engine, outside a place called Voi. All in the third-class compartment had been asleep, some with blankets covering bodies and faces to keep out the mosquitoes. They looked like corpses lined up in a morgue. Startled, everyone sat up as the guard and two soldiers rushed up to the front of the train on the outside. Someone in the dark asked the guard what the matter was and he whispered back, “Elephants!”.

 #Free on Kindle from February 4th – 8th, 2025

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Nitin Nanji

Historical novelist of Indian parentage, born and raised in Kenya, educated in England, writing about India and East Africa under the British Empire.

Nitin has come to writing his debut novel after retiring as a doctor. Born in Kenya before its independence he came to England at the age of fifteen. His parentage is Indian, his grandfather having moved during the British Raj from Gujarat in India to Colonial East Africa as an economic migrant.

'Lalji's Nairobi' is set in the early part of the last century, inspired by the stories of Indian migrants who settled in East Africa. A 'rags to riches' story of the experiences of Lalji as a determined young businessman who grapples with the challenges of living in the new colony.

Within the backdrop of a racist administration, Nitin immerses the reader into the times and norms of colonial society and shows how Lalji achieves rapid success despite difficult odds, leading a team of four compatriots from his village.

The novel is well-researched and retains the undertones of the era. Nitin's intimate knowledge of the three cultures of the colony (British, Indian, and African) succeeds in making this an enjoyable and authentic read.

'Lalji's Nairobi' is now an award-winning novel that recently won acclaim from the prestigious New Generation Indie Book Awards as a 'Finalist'. It also earned Five Stars and the 'Highly Recommended' award of excellence from The Historical Fiction Company, which has recently also awarded the book with a silver medal in the Blixen Africa Category.

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