Under the Fig Tree

Sue Simpson

Description

Holidays for Molly Prendergast usually meant accompanying her husband, Giles, to the annual conference for physics lecturers. When the conference is held in Huddersfield and a school friend invites Molly to accompany her on a two-week holiday to a Greek island, the choice is obvious. While in Greece, Molly starts a novel, Under the Fig Tree, which she finishes on her return to England. While in Huddersfield, Giles is targeted by what Molly's friends termed a 'cougar', Mariella McIlroy from Dundee. The next annual physics conference is to be held in Dundee, so Giles willingly agrees with Molly's suggestion that they should both go to Greece instead. Molly returns from their Greek idyll pregnant with twins, while Giles is asked to be a keynote speaker at the Annual Physics Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Leaving the twins in the care of their grandmother and big brother, Jaimie, Molly and Giles make the most of their free trip to see all the sights of New Mexico. They discover that Mariella has been asked to join Giles' physics department on the South Coast. On their return to England, Molly and Giles take the twins, Jaimie and Grandmother on an outing to Bournemouth, where they meet the McIlroy family locating to the South Coast. Mariella attempts to push Molly off the pier into the sea, with tragic consequences. But for whom?

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 31 janvier 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528947596
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Under the Fig Tree
Sue Simpson
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-01-31
Under the Fig Tree About the Author Dedication Copyright Information Acknowledgements Chapter One Chapter Two The Book Signing Chapter Three Chapter Four Liadromia Chapter Five Siros Chapter Six Clearing and Re-Assessment Chapter Seven “Ave Et Valete, Brief Encounters” Chapter Eight “A Creative Experience: the Writing Class” Chapter Nine Carry on Writing! Creative Writing Continued! Chapter Ten Hellenika; Or Thursday Evenings Will Never Be the Same! Chapter Eleven September Song – “Virginia in the Fall” Chapter Twelve Poetry Please Chapter Thirteen Christmas Chapter Fourteen Kalikikairi Chapter Fifteen “Damsel in Distress” Chapter Sixteen “Double Helix” Chapter Seventeen Sons, Daughters and Cats Chapter Eighteen Call-Up Papers and Delivery Chapter Nineteen The Days Ahead Chapter Twenty Up, up and Away, to Meet New Friends Chapter Twenty-One Route 66 and the Petrified Forest Chapter Twenty-Two Girl’s Day Out in the Grand Canyon Chapter Twenty-Three Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly and Acoma Mesa Chapter Twenty-Four The Conference, Two Proposals and “Go West Young Man!” Chapter Twenty-Five A Day with Hamish! Chapter Twenty-Six A Day at the Seaside Chapter Twenty-Seven Future Plans!
About the Author
Sue Simpson’s first love is history. After teaching ‘A’ level History for 30 years in a large Sixth Form College near Southampton, she left teaching to pursue a doctorate at Southampton University. Her only other publication is Sir Henry Lee (1513–1611): Elizabethan Courtier , published by Ashgate. Under the Fig Tree is her first novel. Her next project will be a historical novel. Her principal area of writing to date has been the local village pantomime.
Dedication
To Ria and Jannis, with grateful thanks, for happy holidays at Megalos Mourtias in Greece. Also for my daughter-in-law, Jackie Simpson; my twin granddaughters, Jessica and Lauren, who saved me from the inconvenience of actually having to give birth to twin girls.
Copyright Information
Copyright © Sue Simpson (2019)
The right of Sue Simpson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781786933201 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781786933218 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781528947596 (E-Book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgements
The Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester, for gynaecological information. Jan Redick in Charlottsville, Virginia, for useful suggestions.
Chapter One
“To Every Action There Is an Equal and Opposite Reaction.”
Sir Isaac Newton’s Law of Motion
The parcel sat accusingly on the hall table. Not that Giles was even the least bit curious, thank goodness. Molly’s fingers were itching to open the parcel and see her first novel in print! Would Giles never go to work?
“More internet book shopping Molly?” Giles commented in an off-handed manner. You’ll be putting that great friend of yours, Theodore Webster, out of business, if you don’t buy your books from him anymore."
“Are you home for dinner tonight, Giles?” asked Molly as she did every day.
“I’m going to be late as its Wednesday; it’s the Faculty Board meeting. You know how the dean likes to go on.”
So do you all thought Molly rebelliously . At least I’ve got a whole day to wallow in my new book before I have to confess to Giles, dear patient Giles , about its existence she thought. She had loyally proof read his first book. The Development of the Paradigms of Physics . He even dedicated it to her, not that she was very clear what it was about. Still, it had got him a chair in Physics at an eminent South Coast university. It was about seven miles from their home in the village of Marwell. It was only a village, but there was always Winchester nearby if you wanted a major shop. Or you could go into Waltham, where Theodore Webster’s bookshop was. Giles was correct. As usual! She was buying more and more over the Internet these days but wasn’t everybody? She’d be the first to complain if the local shops closed down.
A similar problem had arisen last summer. Loyal as she was to Giles, the thought of attending yet another annual conference on physics, this time in Huddersfield, for her summer holiday was a bridge too far especially since her school friend from the village book club, Amanda Featherstone, (her husband Kenneth, was in the English Department at the university, at least Molly could understand his books) had invited her to spend two weeks with her in a friend’s house in Greece on the island of Liadromia.
“It’s a quick flight to Skiathos, then a quick escape on the hydrofoil to Liadromia. Not to Skopolos: it’s too Mamma Mia these days,” said Amanda, knowingly. “There’s even a Mamma Mia boat tour. You get to sing all the Abba songs! That’s why Kenneth wants me to go alone!”
“It’s not mandatory to sing is it?” Molly asked in horror.
“After three glasses of Metaxa you’ll be singing better than Piers Brosnan and that’s not hard,” Amanda replied.
After three glasses of Greek brandy on a boat , thought Molly, I would probably be throwing up for England rather than singing!
“After that, it’s just a taxi ride up in the old village to Marcia and Peter’s house,” Amanda continued.
Giles hadn’t been happy with her going to Greece. “You always come with me,” he complained, “you’d like Huddersfield dear, Harold Wilson who used to be our PM came from Huddersfield.”
“As quickly as possible,” Molly interjected.
“You’ll enjoy it,” Giles said as if trying to convince himself. She expected him to come back home singing ‘on Ilkley Moor Ba’ tat’ but didn’t tell him!
And so she was now on Liadromia lying on the beach beds under the olive trees (free if you eat in the taverna) on the best swimming beach on the island. It was under a fig tree in Molly’s case, on her beach bed at the end of the row that the concept of her book came to her. She had never appreciated how suggestive figs were. No wonder Adam and Eve had chosen fig leaves to cover themselves in the Garden of Eden. Moreover this proved it had been Eve’s idea unless Adam had been a contortionist. Molly had toyed with the idea of calling such a book Eve’s Secret or even Adam ’ad ’em , but not being in a position (literally) to know these intimate details of the progenitors of the Human race, she settled for Under the Fig Tree.
Slowly the book had grown over the winter while Giles edited his second edition of The Paradigms of Physics. This was for undergraduate use, of course. With her friend Theodore’s encouragement, advice and connections she had found an agent. Then she finally delivered the manuscript to the publishers and now the end product lay on the hall table. Suddenly the telephone rang shrilly – it was Theodore ringing from the village bookshop.
“Is that Molly Prendergast the author?” said the voice on the phone. “I’ve just got a parcel of copies of your book; I reckon we can do a big book display in the window and have a book signing. What do you think Molly? Few drinks, ‘local author makes good!’ Get the press in! Shall I go ahead and strike while the iron’s hot so to speak? Seize the bull by the horns!” This was the first time Molly had heard of a bull in a bookshop.
“Yes, I suppose so,” replied Molly not quite knowing what to say – she hadn’t even unwrapped the parcel yet! Cautiously – as her son Jaimie the typical teenager wasn’t even downstairs yet – she approached the parcel of books; yes it looked good. Under the Fig Tree by Molly Prendergast. There was even a photo on the back cover.
Nervously, she phoned Amanda.
“It’s come,” she announced, “and Theodore has been on the phone already about a book display in the village.”
“Doesn’t hang around does our Theodore!” pointed out Amanda somewhat obviously. “So what did you say?”
“He took me rather by surprise I’m afraid. I think I agreed to do it!” Molly replied
“What did Giles say, then?” pursued Amanda.
“He’d gone to work by then, of course. He doesn’t know anything about it yet. I dread to think what he’ll say when he sees my face all over the local bookshop. Perhaps he won’t go into the bookshop,” she said hopefully.
“He’s bound to, it’s next to the off-licence,” Molly pointed out, “and what will Jaimie say when he knows his mother writes those kind of books.”
“Has he seen them yet?” asked Amanda. “I would have thought he’d have been very proud of you!”
“Can I come over and have a look: I feel like its god-mother since I was there at the book’s conception.”
“Well, I wouldn’t be in this fix if it wasn’t for your encouragement on Liadromia,” claimed Molly
“Most people don’t need encouragement for a conception,” Amanda pointed out quite correctly.
We certainly hadn’t for Jaimie’s conception on honeymoon , Molly thought.
She and Giles had met as students, and by the time they had married Giles had his position at the university. In fact, her two weeks on Liadromia had been their first holiday apart in twenty years. Like the faithful wife she was, Molly had accompanied him to conferences in Northampton, Sheffield, and then one exotic time, even Penzance. But (no offence intended) Huddersfield was a conference too far, especially when the alternative was Greece. The choice between Huddersfield and Greece was a complete no-brainer!
Son Jaimie had by now picked up his own post-A levels plans for the summer, and