Sometimes your heart's the only navigator you need - May Starling's had enough of her demanding career and even more demanding ex. Responding to a 'crew-wanted' ad, she follows her dreams of escape only to find herself at sea with red-haired Bill Blythe. Bill warns May that close-quartered living can create a boiling pot of emotions, but even May is surprised by the heat building up inside the vintage wooden boat. And when May and Bill tie up at Watling's Boatyard in Little Spitmarsh, May's determined to test her new-found feelings on dry land. But May's dream of escaping her former life is in danger of being swept away when several unwelcome blasts from the past follow her ashore, all seemingly hell-bent on reminding her that it's never that easy to clear the decks.
Christine Stovell was born in Epsom, Surrey and now lives in Wales.
Winning a tin of chocolate in a national essay competition at primary school inspired her to become a writer, an ambition she neglected for far too long thinking she had to have a proper job. After graduating from UEA, she took various jobs in the public sector writing research papers and policy notes by day and filling up her spare drawers with embryonic novels by night. Losing her dad to cancer made her realise that if she was ever going to get a novel published she had to put her writing first.
Setting off, with her husband, from a sleepy seaside resort on the east coast in a vintage wooden boat to sail halfway round Britain provided the inspiration for her novel ‘Turning the Tide’. Christine lives on the beautiful west Wales coast where long-distance running helps her plan her plots. Half marathons, like novels, both begin with small steps. She is married to the artist, Tom Tomos, and is enormously proud of her two daughters and two stepsons.
