As archaeologist Rachel excavates a World War Two airfield, could a love story from the past hold a lesson for her as well?
After yet another disastrous love affair Rachel has been forced to leave her long-term position for a temporary role as an Archaeology Lecturer at Lincoln University. Rachel has sworn off men and is determined to spend her time away clearing her head and sorting her life out. But when one of her students begins flirting with her, it seems she could be about to make the same mistakes again...
She distracts herself by taking on some freelance work for local property developer, Jonathan Daubney. He introduces her to an old Second World War RAF base. And from her very first visit something about it gives Rachel chills…
As Rachel makes new friends and delves into local history, she is also forced to confront her own troubled past. Could a wartime love story have any bearing on her own situation? Could this time be different?
Purchase Link - http://getbook.at/EndlessSkies
Endless Skies will be 99p until 23rd October.
Endless Skies by Jane Cable was published in paperback on 26 July 2020 by Sapere Books. I'm delighted to welcome the author here to Random Things today, as part of the Blog Tour organised by Rachel from Rachel's Random Resources. She's talking to me about the setting for Endless Skies; Lincolnshire - my home county.
Interview with author Jane Cable
Endless Skies is set in Lincolnshire, my home county. What made you decide to do that?
It really did start with the endless skies. My husband Jim and I were staying in the village of Winteringham, and as it was a gorgeous summer day we went for a walk along the Humber and across the fields. The sense of space was incredible – unlike anything we’d ever seen – it quite took our breath away. There was a magic to that landscape, with its cornfields cut with dykes and ditches, and I just knew I had to set a book there.
Was the link to Lincolnshire’s World War Two airfields an obvious one for you?
Not at all. For the first several drafts World War Two didn’t feature at all. The narrator and protagonist, Rachel, is an archaeologist, and at first she was working on Roman remains at the end of Ermine Street, haunted by voices and owls, but the book just wasn’t working.
Jim and I returned to Winteringham at about the time Sapere Books acquired Another You, which looks back to World War Two for its inspiration. I knew they wanted to take a second book as well and although they would both be standalone novels I wanted them to work as a pair. A visit to Hemswell Antique Centres was the key; I was actually looking for a towel rail for our guest room, but once I realised the centres were the former barrack blocks of an RAF base, something clicked. I stood at the bottom of a staircase and I could almost hear the airmen’s footsteps running up and down.
Unlike Another You, with its basis in a real event, there was nothing to pin the historical aspect of Endless Skies on so I had to make something up. That said, the Polish squadrons based there were real enough, as were their disastrous losses in the early summer of 1942.
You’ve been to Lincolnshire so many times now, what are your top recommendations for other visitors?
That is tough, because we’ve barely scratched the surface still. Certainly the city of Lincoln. It’s hard to grasp quite how precipitous the aptly named Steep Hill is, but it’s worth the climb to reach the cathedral with its famous imp, and the castle where there’s a copy of the Magna Carta. Lincoln has a fabulous museum too, but the one in Scunthorpe is worth a visit as well – it’s one of the very best local ones we’ve visited.
On our last trip to Lincolnshire we were able to go to the heritage centre at RAF Scampton. You need to apply in advance for security clearance as it’s still an active base. We thought it would all be about the famous 617 Dambusters Squadron, but there was so much more there, bringing the history of the base, including the Red Arrows, right up to date. I have to say it was a special experience to stand in Guy Gibson’s office though, and see the actual document authorising the mission.
I’m booked to speak at the Boston Literary Festival next September so we’re looking forward to returning and have pencilled in a trip to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at Coningsby.
About Jane Cable
I write romance with a twist, that extra something to keep readers guessing right to the end. While my books are character driven my inspiration is always a British setting; so far a village in Yorkshire (The Cheesemaker’s House), a Hampshire wood (The Faerie Tree), gorgeous Studland Bay in Dorset (Another You) and rural Lincolnshire (Endless Skies).
I was born and raised in Cardiff but spent most of my adult life living near Chichester before my husband and I upped sticks and moved to Cornwall three years ago.
I published my first two novels independently and have now been signed by Sapere Books. I am an active member of the Romantic Novelists' Association and contributing editor to Frost online magazine.
Twitter: @JaneCable
Facebook: Jane Cable, Author
Website: www.janecable.com
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