The Primadonna Prize longlist has just been announced and we didn’t get through. Here’s the unsuccessful submission, they asked for 500 words on the subject of ‘Renewal’. It’s disappointing but there’s a competition with Jenny Brown Associates for authors over 50 so that’s where we’ll try next. Writing, searching for an agent and trying to get noticed continues.
The late June sun rose behind Herm and Sark as L’Esprit Sarnienne lay at
anchor by Sandrette Beacon, off St. Peter Port, awaiting the change of the tide to berth alongside St. Julien’s Landing. L’Esprit and the many other vessels that lay at anchor were passed by swift fishing smacks heading to the rich fishing grounds surrounding Guernsey and her neighbouring islands.
William Heath had slept little since leaving Southampton, nervous of his first sea journey and apprehensive of what awaited him at the end. His mother, a Guernsey woman, had spoken little of her birthplace so he had not expected that it would appear so large and industrious. Since a young and newly married Louisa had left the island, twenty-seven years previously, commerce, industry and the British garrison had grown and Guernsey was now a fashionable resort. St. Peter Port town had spread along the shore and clambered up the steep hillsides which were now crowned with fine houses and grand buildings.
Despite two decades of peace the British still had a large garrison stationed
on the island, guarding the town, harbour and anchorage from impressive fortifications above and a castle-covered islet offshore, whilst the coast bristled with defence towers, batteries and forts. Peace meant new wealth and development for the island, to the north of the town a myriad of buildings huddled beside the new military coast road with the foreshore lined by boatyards and shipwrights. Inland, new roads connected hamlets, churches, mills and farms in a way that William’s mother could not have imagined. Louisa had spoken so little of her family, even less than she did of Guernsey itself, the first William had heard of any remaining connection to Guernsey had been less than a month previously, through his mother’s London attorney, when he was informed that he was heir to a not insubstantial Guernsey property known as the Fief Denicher. So, with his mother dead and nothing to tie him to London, he considered this might give him the means to start afresh in a matter of his own choosing.
The launch carrying William from L’Esprit Sarnienne drew alongside St. Julien’s Landing, linked to the town quay by a boardwalk and causeway, where he was helped ashore and introduced to Daniel Robilliard, assistant to Advocate Eleazar de Mouilpied who was the guardian of the Denicher inheritance. As he watched his baggage taken away William was greeted as if her were a man of status, making him conscious he was, suddenly, someone of substance, as Daniel guided him to the coach and pair that would take them through St. Peter Port’s busy, narrow roads full of warehouses, foundries and thin, high houses to the advocate’s offices.
William took in the view down across the rooftops and harbour and towards L’Esprit Sarnienne, still at anchor in St. Peter Port’s busy roadsteads, then he turned his back as he heard a door open and smiled warmly as he shook Advocate de Mouilpied’s outstretched hand.
William Denicher 