In the third of a series of articles about authors appearing at Marlborough LitFest who have a strong local connection, Marlborough.news has been speaking to the author JP Sheerin.
JP Sheerin has just published his first novel, Marley’s Ghosts, which is partly set in an un-named Wiltshire village. However, readers will, JP says, recognise the village from the name of the pub and from the fact the main character lives on a canal barge. Originally from County Monaghan, on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, JP moved to Great Bedwyn in 2001.
For many years JP wrote screenplays. In 2008 he won the British Feature screenplay competition run by the UK Film Council. However, in lockdown after some personal tragedies, he was inspired to starting writing a novel. Marley’s Ghosts is the result.
Part literary fiction, part crime, the novel has two storylines which JP says complement each other rather than push against each other. What happens in the past is reflected in the future.
The main character, Jake Marley, is a police detective who retires to the Wiltshire countryside where his love of literature is re-kindled. JP explains, Wiltshire feels older than other places. Some of the trees in the Savernake Forest were there before William the Conqueror. He is reminded of G.K. Chesterton’s The Ballad of the White Horse ‘And the trees talk together, Of many pagan things.
Jake Marley is at a crossroads in his life and is coming to terms with a troubled past. He takes a walking holiday in the Alps but is drawn into a murder case. JP commented, I wanted Jake to be a real person, for the reader to get to know him over the course of the novel. I aimed to unpack the human condition and I wanted my readers to have an emotional response. The emotional element is very important.
JP will be talking about Marley’s Ghosts on Saturday September 27 at 1pm. To buy tickets click here. Copies of the novel are available from The White Horse Bookshop, Marlborough.
Salisbury Road roadworks to end today
