A Tale of the Past

At some time during the late 70s/early 80s my mother came home with a set of books that she purchased on a second hand book stall in Bury market. These books were historical romances and there were six of them in total.

My mother read all the time. She constantly borrowed titles from the library and combed bookshops and stands looking for material to read and by default I often found myself picking up those books too. Because of this throughout my teen years I digested many Historical Romances and - I admit - I really liked them. I read the Angelique series first I think. And because the Catherine titles were said to be similar, I guess this is what attracted my mother to them.

The books were called the Catherine Series and were an action-packed adventure that was full of interesting historical detail as well as the backdrop for a romantic story. Don't get me wrong these books were not Mills and Boon by any means. They were intelligent, sophisticated and to be honest very, very sexy. What teenager wouldn't like them?

As I grew up I read many historical titles but the Catherine stories always stayed with me. I guess I learnt a lot about life and relationships from them and they also gave me the love I have for writing historical fiction myself - even though mine always have a heavy dose of horror as well!

So, why am I sharing this story with you?

When I was looking around for material for Moonrise the Catherine books came back into my mind. I searched them out, discovering that these wonderful books were no longer in print, though old, battered copies could be found. The books had never been put into a digital format either and I wondered if the rights were available. I mentioned them to Telos Director Stephen Walker, explaining how popular the books had been, and after a little research Steve came back to me to say that not only were the books available. What he also discovered was that there was a 7th book in the series that had never been translated into the English language. He then told me that Telos was going to buy the rights and do new editions/translations of them. Hence Telos Moonrise: Romantic Encounters was born.

New Cover: Artist Martin Baines

It was a bit of a nostalgia trip for me and I was really thrilled. A burst of memories from my somewhat unhappy teens came back, reminding me again how literature had been an amazing part of making my life so much better in those days. And that my love of it came from my mother.

So now, after much work, the first book in the series Catherine: One Love is Enough is almost ready for publication and we expect this to be made available on 31st March 2015 in both paperback and in digital for the first time.

This seems like an important reprint to me. Perhaps because of the childhood connection and also that I feel some really great literature will be made available to a new audience.


PRE-ORDER BOOK 1 HERE



The new translation titles are as follows:

1. Catherine: One Love is Enough
2. Catherine
3. Belle Catherine
4. Catherine: Her Great Journey
5. Catherine: A Time for Love
6. A Trap for Catherine

And for the very first time in English
7. Catherine: The Lady of Montsalvy

So if you do like a little bit of romance, with great adventure stories and some really interesting history thrown in, then maybe give this a try!