Holidaymakers who ventured to North Devon’s coast were welcomed and dreaded in equal measure. By the time in which Barefoot on the Cobbles is set, the income from tourists was an increasingly important part of the local economy. For those who lived in Clovelly in particular, money gained from providing for visitors enhanced the precarious living scraped by the fishermen. Some visitors took up residence in the local guest houses, many others were interlopers for a fleeting day. They came by sea from further up the Bristol Channel and were ferried ashore by the fisherman. Others arrived by charabanc from the station at Bideford. Still others were transported by horse-drawn vehicles, to be disgorged at the top the cobbles, so they could descend into a different world, stumbling in their unsuitable shoes.

Through the pages of the novel, we arrive in Clovelly when everything is changing. Soon, it will no longer be a fishing village, with holidaymakers providing a secondary revenue stream; before long tourist vessels will eclipse the fishing boats in the harbour. Folk from ‘up-country’ may pass through, leaving little of themselves behind, or they may dislocate the lives of the inhabitants forever. Welcomed or despised, holidaymakers were needed and they could not be ignored.

‘In half-forgotten pre-war holiday seasons P & A Campbell’s steamers had brought hundreds of day-trippers from Ilfracombe, or even South Wales. Tourists were tolerated. They spoiled the solitude, the silence and the regular rhythm of the fishing year. Yet with them came colour, diversion, bustle, excitement.’

Barefoot on the Cobbles will be published on 17 November 2018. More information about the novel can be found here. Copies will be available at various events in the weeks following the launch or can be pre-ordered from Blue Poppy Publishing or the author.