Sorrowsmile Meadows

Paperback

L. Philipp Naughton

Maggie and Jeremy, with their young daughter, Esther, and a less than perfect marriage, have arrived in England. From the first moment it is chaos and even getting to their holiday destination is difficult. That evening Jeremy looks thoughtfully out of the hotel window at the Sorrowsmile Meadows.

In the morning light they starting taking in the village of Begin Again. If quaint and oldy-worldly on the surface they soon begin to realise that although real, it is almost a façade hiding what lies beneath. There is no internet and the mobiles don’t work. Some of the buildings don’t add up and they quickly discover confusing and unsettling oddness in the village and the villagers. Almost nothing makes any sense.

Maggie is intrigued and curious when she finds that she has a link with the village. Shy Esther starts to make friends with some of the local girls. The personality of the ever short-tempered Jeremy, begins to change becoming dark, moody, distant and cruel. The holiday to patch up the marriage is breaking it.

There is a fixed date for Begin Again, which started in 1357. There was witchcraft and devilry, and an infamous fourteenth century baron called the Marcher Satan. A pact was seemingly made, which has bound the village to it for more than six centuries.

Maggie and Esther, discover and then join up with the secretive Society Women to try and save the village. Jeremy is being willingly taken down the road of pure evil. Ancient rituals must be observed, none more important than the Princess of the Trees.

When the truth is finally laid bare in the Sorrowsmile Meadows, Maggie has to decide which path her life, the fate of Begin Again and so many others, will take.