This page offers some background information about the EDWIN CRAUGH books. There’s quite a bit to tell though, so I’ve added a separate EDWIN’S ESSEX page to talk about the Essex dialect, the real and fictitious locations, and the historical characters and events which appear in the novels.

My home county inspired THE FATE OF EDWIN CRAUGH and BENEATH DEAD OAKS. More specifically, the old Dengie Hundred. I went to nursery school in Maldon and, many years later, worked in Cold Norton. I enjoy walking the coast path at Bradwell-on-Sea, and I often ride my bicycle along the Dengie lanes nearer home.

Even so, there remains much of this hundred-square-mile area next to the North Sea which is unfamiliar to me. For example, I didn’t know about the hidden oak trees even though I had walked not two hundred yards from their location to photograph an abandoned church. A fellow photographer told me how to find them.

As the books’ storylines developed, I realised that a lot of work was needed if I hoped to make the novels sound authentic. My version of the Dengie Peninsula is fictionalised up to a point, but it was important to me that a local person reading the books would recognise the landscape I described.

Thus a quest to learn ensued: the geography of local landmarks; how the area was affected by World War II; the Battle of Maldon in 991; the wildlife and even tales of the supernatural. My books combine these diverse elements and add a few made-up details for good measure. I even mention a rather famous local business.

As with the STATION HELIX novels, I took the cover photographs with my infrared camera. This time, however, they are panoramas, which meant I could produce wraparound images for the printed versions of the books. Both images, of course, are significant locations in the stories.

I’m fascinated by wildlife but I have no great knowledge on the subject. A number of wildlife guides proved to be of great value as I tried to make that aspect of the books appear informed. I’m lucky to often see buzzards and hear skylarks when riding my bicycle. Some of Edwin’s experiences are therefore mildly autobiographical.

Will Lofthouse, the narrator of THE FATE OF EDWIN CRAUGH, is my age. His recollections about certain places are my own. This timeline was necessary because Edwin had to be seventeen years old in BENEATH DEAD OAKS and yet have a connection to more recent times. Will’s role is to act as the bridge between past and present.

Edwin’s role is to be the representative of a lost era and generation and to remind us to cherish the past. There’s some creative licence with Edwin’s character, but he stands for a quieter and more stoic period in English history when people endured genuine hardship. There will never be another Edwin Craugh.

The second book – about Edwin’s wartime experiences – obviously relates to a relatively recent period which is unrecognisable to younger generations. But, when considering topics to include in the first novel, I realised how things have changed in my own lifetime. It was interesting to reflect and remember through Will’s eyes.

Of course, some of it was never real. There’s an unashamed Enid Blyton-esque freedom to events in the books. But earlier generations did have a much closer connection to the landscape. I read COPSFORD by Walter Murray when writing my stories and couldn’t help but draw on the author’s experiences when imagining Edwin.

With the above in mind, you’ll understand why the novels were written not just for enjoyment but also as tributes to a special corner of Essex and everyone who has ever called it home. The dialect might have faded and the landscape might have altered, but there is still a lot of character to the places on the edge of the marsh.

A connection to my forebears is recorded in the dedications. My late cousins, John and Michael, were born just a few years after Edwin. They were very close to my grandfather who died the year before I was born. I used to enjoy listening to their stories about him. Had we met, I think he and I would have been like Edwin and Will.