Frank Badcock on the left

Frank Badcock’s story is told in the penultimate chapter of Barefoot on the Cobbles. This tragic episode serves to underline the influence of the sea on coastal communities and on the lives of the characters in the novel. The events of New Year’s Day 1919 are still retold in Clovelly.

Frank was born into a Clovelly fishing family in 1884. His parents were Robert and Annie Salome Badcock née Jewell and Frank grew up in a cottage on the quay. Like his father, Frank spent his working life on the sea. In 1905, he married local girl Merelda Dunn and they brought up three sons in their North Hill cottage. When the First World War broke out, Frank served on HMS Albion and was involved in the disastrous Dardanelles campaign in 1915. As the war drew to a close, Frank was in the Royal Naval Reserve, as a gunner on a merchantman.

‘  ‘Oh, God,’ he groaned, the rare blasphemy a sign of his anguish. ‘’Tis the Annie Salome, right proud of that boat Frank be. Named for his mother it were. Why the hell baint they back. They will never get into harbour now.’ ’

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. Kindle editions can be pre-ordered for the UK and also on Amazon.com.