A COUNTY author has published a debut novel starring a fictional version of her grandmother and a town close to home.

Angela Fitch, who lives near Pershore but was born in Evesham as were most of her family, has written The Phoenix Tree.

Though the ‘espionage thriller’ is in its early days of release, the book has already attracted some promising reviews.

Angela said: “I’ve based the story’s protagonist on my grandmother and the setting starts out in a town based on Evesham.”

On a visit to Africa in 2018 the first threads of a story set in the semi-arid savanna landscapes of Botswana started to stitch themselves together into a novel that is now receiving five-star reviews for Angela.

Those early jottings in a notebook were gradually worked into The Phoenix Tree.

Angela said: “It starts out in a small market town based on Evesham and my protagonist is based on my paternal grandmother Constance Heritage, an Evesham girl born just after the turn of the century.

“The real Connie Heritage, just like her namesake, was intelligent, creative and worked hard to support her widowed mother.

“Whilst I have based the fictional Connie’s personality and appearance on my grandmother, that is where it stops.

“There was no foreign travel, voluntary teaching or detective work for the real Connie who married a lovely man Joe Smith and raised a family at Hinton on the Green.

“Fictional Connie is just as feisty and fearless as the real Connie but fate has something completely different in store for fictional Connie, something which takes her away from everything she knows, understands and trusts as she steps into not only the dry hot plains of Africa but a world of intrigue and espionage.”

The Phoenix Tree is set in the late 1940s when the Second World War has finally come to an end and lives are slowly moving towards a new normal.

Angela continued: “The massive plains of Botswana, lying at the heart of the Kalahari Basin, are awe-inspiring.

“Mile after mile of grass, scrub and trees with little else between was where I found the inspiration and why I decided to set my post Second World War story with an Africa backdrop.

“The idea grew from a blackened skeleton of a lightening-struck tree.

“Standing tall, its lower boughs stretched over the new growth that sprouted at the base of its unyielding trunk.

“Traditions and folklore held in many cultures assert that a tree such as the one I saw is a symbol of transformation or awakening.

“I’m not sure if it was the tree that awakened my ambition to be a novelist or whether it would have happened come what may but, whatever it was, I’m delighted that my book has now been published.”

The Phoenix Tree is available directly from Angela at www.angelafitchwriter.co.uk or from amazon.co.uk.

Angela added: “It’s a great holiday read, no bad language, no gore and gruesomeness, just an old-fashioned espionage thriller.”