Back in 2019, the Libertà Hive met over supper and the odd glass 😉 to plot the future. We decided to write a Libertà Beach Reads anthology for summer 2020.
We didn’t know back then, of course, that beaches might be off-limits for a bit. But there’s no ban on beach reads. Writing them—and reading them, too—can be great fun.
As the evening wore on, amid much laughter and scraping of plates, we discovered the joys of Little Piddling, its history, its inhabitants… We also discovered some of the skeletons in our seaside town’s metaphorical cupboards (aka beach huts).
Beach Read challenge
We challenged each other to write the sort of stories we’d never attempted before. And we’ve all really enjoyed meeting those challenges. We even roped in two long-term friends of the hive, authors Louise Allen and Lesley Cookman.
The result?
Fanfare of trumpets please for the Libertà Books anthology:
BEACH HUT SURPRISE
Who’s there?
Lovers, vampires… A body?
Little Piddling—now renamed Little Piddling sur Mer—is a resort with ambitions.
But odd things keep happening in Little Piddling. Especially among its delectable beach huts. They are a magnet for lovers and other, stranger, visitors.
Take a romantic stroll along the beach after dark and you might encounter
more than you bargained for.
Six favourite authors let their hair down on the Piddling sands…
Not your normal beach hut stories, then?
Well, no. But huge fun to write and—we hope—to read as well.
Beach Hut Surprise
There are six stories in all. And romance is guaranteed at almost every stage.
They’re in chronological order for Little Piddling, starting with an Edwardian comedy by Sarah Mallory and going on to some wild and wacky episodes in later decades, right up to the twenty-first century.
Some of the titles will tell you who or what you’re going to meet in the story. But some of the titles are more enigmatic.
You’ll have to read those stories to find out which particular Little Piddling secret is to be revealed.
We hope you’ll be surprised.
And that you’ll laugh, too.
- Grand Designs for Little Piddling Sarah Mallory
- Going Home? Sophie Weston
- The Body at Satis House Lesley Cookman
- Past Echoes Liz Fielding
- I, Vampire ~ Romance with Bite Joanna Maitland
- Grapes and Ale Louise Allen
Beach Hut Surprise is Available to Pre-order Now
Yes, we’re blowing our own trumpets but we are really, really proud of this set of stories. They still make us laugh. You may find yourself laughing, too.
So do give them a try.
The ebook of the anthology is available to pre-order now from Amazon and will be published on 30th June.
PRE-ORDER BUTTON
Sounds fun. Ordered.
Definitely fun to write. Hope you get at least a giggle out of it, Jan. xx
Definitely getting this!
Meant to add how could anyone not want to read about Little Piddling?
Can you imagine us, while we were thinking it up, Liz? Collapsed over Sophie’s dining table and, at points, unable to speak for laughing. But it’s not all our invention. There is a village called Wyre Piddle near the Piddle Brook which feeds into the Avon. Apparently, Wyre Piddle’s local brew used to be a beer called “Piddle in the Hole”.
Or write about it!
I can just imagine. In stitches over Piddle in the Hole!! Wyre Piddle and Piddle Brook I could just about cope with.
Just reading about it brings it all back, so thank you, Sophie. We had such fun dreaming up these stories. Put a group of writer friends in a room and creative sparks are bound to fly. For me, it was also very liberating, to write something that was a different word length and time period to my normal stories. I do hope our enjoyment comes across to the readers, too.