A new novel by former newspaper editor Margery Hookings was launched at Washingpool Farm Shop on Saturday, October 10.
Plashy Fen by Maddie Grigg
Published under the pen name Maddie Grigg, Plashy Fen is set in an imagined Dorset village by the sea.
Margery was editor of the Bridport & Lyme Regis News from 1999 to 2004. For the past 11 years, she has written the Maddie’s World column about country life for The People’s Friend, the world’s longest-running weekly magazine for women.
She has also written a book recording the memories of people born and bred in Broadwindsor for the Windrose Rural Media Trust.
“Plashy Fen is an entirely fictional place, but I’ve been writing about the real people of West Dorset for nearly 45 years,” says Margery.
Told through a chorus of voices, the novel’s interwoven stories reveal a place shaped by friendship, longing and the tension between those who arrive and those who feel they can never quite leave.
It also features a decades-old murder no locals can ever forget.
But beneath the mystery, Plashy Fen is a warm, humorous and gently cosy portrait of village life.
“This rural landscape and those who make their living from it are important to me. It’s the world I know,” Margery explains.
“I’m a tenant farmer’s daughter who was born and brought up just over the county border in Somerset.
“I’m interested in the backstories of people who might, on the surface, seem ‘ordinary’. I’ve always felt a bit of a champion for the rural underdog.”
One of the novel’s fictional settings is a farm shop, where key characters meet and things happen, which made Washingpool a fitting venue for the launch.
“Washingpool began in 1971, long before farm shops and local food became a ‘thing’,” she adds.
“It’s one of those local, unpretentious family businesses worth treasuring. I was chuffed to bits when the farm shop offered to host the launch.”
Plashy Fen, published by Larbok Creative, is available on Kindle, and the paperback can be ordered from local bookshops or through Amazon.