If you missed last night’s launch on Facebook, here’s what happened.
Kick back. Take a deep breath. It feels as though September really is here with the first storm of the season followed by golden skies and mellow fruitfulness promising the seeds of change. A very warm welcome to the online launch of The Punished with Crooked Cat’s Cy Forrest live from my studio in a rural village just south of Bath. This online event is for those who want to get to know more about my first novel in 12 years, The Punished, launched today.
Before committing to the ideas behind The Punished, I was resistant to putting anything down that wasn’t right for the isolated rural location. The subject wasn’t about anything I’d experienced before and it’s an unfamiliar concept, a novel about the British Army invading a British village, “displacing” 255 villagers and occupying the land forever.
It really did happen in December 1943, the lowest point in the second world war when defeat seemed imminent. I wondered what if a disgruntled young farm worker decided to resist the occupation of his village by his own side? What might that lead to a generation later when the village is still occupied by the army, as it is to this day? What does it say to you?
In a world where everything is for sale, my practical dreams, the what ifs, have become a ridiculously practical and down-to-earth novel.
Cy Forrest 