Stealing the Past: A River Tale

Stella Butler’s romance with the River Great Ouse turns sour as Africa’s disturbing past rises to the surface.

Stella Butler travels north to Bedford for the reading of her late uncle Phil’s will. She learns that she has inherited all he owned, including a narrow-boat stacked with African-themed bric-a-brac.

At first disinclined to keep the boat, she falls in love with both it and the River Great Ouse upon which it is moored. This development proves inconvenient to her late Uncle’s closest associates: Danny, an ex-African National Congress gun-runner, Ruth, a young South African Indian woman who may or who may not be Phil’s daughter, and Alan, who also appears to be involved in the narrow-boat and its contents.

As Stella travels downriver the boat’s secret connection with Africa is revealed leaving her facing some difficult decisions.

This is the second Stella Butler tale in which Stella finds herself pitched amongst a collection of disparate characters each one seeking an elusive but unsettling truth.

About the author:

John Harding lives and works in North London and has written on a variety of topics ranging from literary and sporting biography to cultural history and criticism. His book Sweetly Sings Delaney was the first critical study of the life and work of playwright Shelagh Delaney and his Staging Life: The Story of the Manchester Playwrights was the first full-length book on the subject. He is the authorised historian of both the Professional Footballers’ Association and the British Boxing Board of Control and has written for a variety of publications including Blizzard, The London Magazine, The Footballer, When Saturday Comes, 442, as well as for radio and television. This is his second novel following The House With Three Eyes in 2020.

ISBN: 978-1-910996-63-8

No of Pages: 226pp