NAMPARA

 

This story opens in 1836, sixteen years after the last of Winston Graham’s Poldark novels. Inevitably it is full of spoilers, so if you haven’t yet read all twelve of the Poldark novels, and are planning to do so, please don’t read this yet.

     I had never thought of writing a “FanFic.” Winston Graham had said that he didn’t want anyone else using his characters, and as an author myself I definitely sympathise with that. Your characters can become like your closest friends. Besides, I can write characters of my own!

     However, having read all the novels (several times!) I felt a certain discontent. The saga seemed unfinished, there were so many characters whose stories seemed incomplete. Was Clowance happy in her second marriage? How did life treat Geoffrey Charles? Did the enmity between Ross and George mellow as they grew older? And I was fascinated by Elizabeth - it seemed to me that her choices, her behaviour, were pivotal to the whole saga. So I wanted to explore that a little further.

     And there was something else which was irresistible - a unique opportunity to explore what love is like as a couple grow older, after a very long and sometimes volatile marriage. Here they were, two wonderful characters, with more than fifty years of back-story. With their family and their friends and the home they loved - Nampara.

     Winston Graham died not long after completing the twelfth novel – had he intended to write more? And he had made his remarks at the time of the 1970s television series, which reportedly he had disliked for the changes they had made. Was that why he had been so set against a continuation?

     And after all, maybe my attitude to FanFic is out of date. It’s becoming quite respectable these days – even Val McDermid and PD James have had a go. So I wrote this. I have tried to stay true to the spirit of Winston’s work, and in places to capture the flavour of his prose, even sometimes using his words.

   I hope you enjoy it.

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Many thanks to Cathy Coggins for fact-checking and line-editing, and trying to persuade me to use more commas.  

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